1. (a) Mission statement.

   1. (1) Our mission is to keep children safe and help families.
   2. (2) The Division of Children and Family Services will respectfully engage families and youth and use community-based services and supports to assist parents in successfully caring for their children.
   3. (3) We will focus on the safety, permanency, and well-being for all children and youth.

2. (b) Practice model.

   1. (1)

      1. (A) The Arkansas child welfare practice model describes all of our efforts to renew our work with families and aligns us more readily with our division’s mission.
      2. (B) It reflects our goals, our principles, our casework process, our daily interactions, and our decisions.
      3. (C) The practice model is the way our systems work together to serve children and families.

   2. (2)

      1. (A) Our practice model unites our casework process with an approach that values and supports families at every step of a family’s encounter with our system.
      2. (B) The goals of our practice model are to:

3. (i) Safely keep children with their families;

   1. (ii) Enhance well-being in all of our practice with families;

      1. (iii) Ensure foster care and other placements support goals of permanency;

         1. (iv) Use permanent placement with relatives or other adults, when reunification is not possible, who have a close relationship to the child or children (preferred permanency option);
         2. (v) Ensure adoptions, when that is the best permanency option, are timely, well-supported, and lifelong; and
         3. (vi) Ensure youth have access to an array of resources to help achieve successful transition to adulthood.

   2. (3)

      1. (A) Along with our goals, we support the practice model by looking for ways to incorporate the following principles into every encounter we have when working on behalf of families.

      2. (B) We believe:

         1. (i) Behavior, change, and the work of change is a part of our daily challenge;
         2. (ii) Safety for children is achieved through positive protective relationships with caring family and community members;
         3. (iii) Meaningful decisions require close family participation in decision-making;
         4. (iv) Strengths of families and supporting these strengths contribute to life-long permanent relationships for children;
         5. (v) Families’ success depends on community involvement and shared problem solving;
         6. (vi) Practice with families is interrelated at every step of the casework process;
         7. (vii) Sustainable success with families is the work of a team;
         8. (viii) The entire system must support frontline practice to achieve positive outcomes with families;
         9. (ix) Every staff position, role, and activity of the division shows continuous effort to build and maintain professionalism;
         10. (x) Skill-based training and consultation form the foundation for successful practice with families;
         11. (xi) Quality improvement and accountability guide all of our work; and
         12. (xii) How we do the work is as important as the work we do.
         13. (c) Powers and duties. The division performs the following functions and has the authority and responsibility to:
   3. (1) Coordinate communication between various components of the child welfare system;
   4. (2) Provide services to dependent-neglected children and their families;
   5. (3) Investigate reports of child maltreatment and assess the health, safety, and well-being of children during investigations;
   6. (4) Provide services, when appropriate, designed to allow maltreated children to safely remain in their homes;
   7. (5) Protect children when remaining in their home presents an immediate danger to their health, safety, or well-being;
   8. (6) Ensure placements support the goal of permanency for children when the division is responsible for the children’s placement and care;
   9. (7) Ensure the health, safety, and well-being for children when the division is responsible for the children’s placement and care; and
   10. (8) Promulgate rules necessary to administer these powers and duties.

Codification Notes: This section as promulgated prior to codification into the Code of Arkansas Rules provided as follows: "01/2013"