5101:2-48-06. Assessor roles and responsibilities for foster care and adoption

(A) A public children services agency (PCSA), private child placing agency (PCPA), private noncustodial agency (PNA) or court that engages in the provision of foster care or adoption services shall employ or have under contract assessors who are responsible for, but not limited to, performing the following duties:

(1) Works with parents, guardians or persons having custody of a child who express the intent to surrender their child for adoption.

(2) Works with people seeking to adopt or provide foster care for a child, including but not limited to the following duties :

(a) Completing home study assessments for foster care and adoptive applicants.

(b) Completing adoption amendments and updates.

(c) Completing foster care recertifications.

(d) Completing prefinalization adoption assessments.

(3) Works with the child in the permanent custody of an agency to prepare the child for adoption.

(4) Initiates and/or supervises the foster care or adoptive placement.

(5) Completes the JFS 01616 "Social and Medical History" (rev. 6/2009) which shall be filed with the court.

(6) Completes the JFS 01673 "Assessment for Child Placement" (rev. 6/2011).

(7) Completes the JFS 01385 "Assessment for Child Placement Update" (rev. 12/2006).

(8) Completes the JFS 01692 "Application for Adoption of a Foster Child" (rev. 6/2009).

(9) Completes the JFS 01530 "Multiple Children/Large Family Assessment" (12/2006).

(10) Completes the JFS 01699 "ODJFS Prefinalization Adoption Assessment Form" (rev. 12/2006).

(11) Completes the JFS 01673-A "Child Characteristics Checklist For Foster Care and/or Adoption" (12/2006).

(12) Completes the JFS 01698 "Step-Parent Adoption Homestudy" (10/2006).

(B) To avoid a conflict of interest, or the appearance of a conflict of interest, an assessor shall not complete any of the documents or services listed in paragraph (A) of this rule for any of the following persons:

(1) Him or her self.

(2) Any person who is a relative of the assessor.

(3) Any agency employee for whom the assessor has any supervisory responsibility.

(4) Any agency employee who has any supervisory responsibility for the assessor.

(C) The PCSA, PCPA, PNA, or court shall ensure that employees or persons under contract with the agency to perform assessor duties comply with the requirements in the assessor definition contained in rule 5101: 2-1-01 of the Administrative Code and section 3107.014 of the Revised Code.

(D) The PCSA, PCPA, PNA, or court shall ensure a student hired to perform assessor duties meets all requirements of an assessor in rule 5101: 2-1-01 of the Administrative Code and section 3107.014 of the Revised Code. The student shall be supervised by a professional counselor, social worker, marriage and family therapist or psychologist who has completed tier two assessor training and continues to comply with all requirements outlined in this rule and rule 5101: 2-1-01 of the Administrative Code and section 3107.014 of the Revised Code.

(E) The PCSA, PCPA, PNA, or court shall ensure the assessor completes or has completed all the prescribed Ohio department of job and family services (ODJFS) tier one assessor training sessions within one year of the start date of the tier one assessor training. An employee or contractor can only conduct assessor duties after he or she begins tier one training. If the employee or contractor is performing assessor duties prior to completion of the required training, the agency shall ensure that the employee or contractor is supervised by an assessor who has completed tier two assessor training and any applicable ongoing training required by this rule. An assessor who fails to complete the tier one training within one year of the start date of the tier one assessor training is not authorized to perform any assessor duties until the tier one assessor training has been completed.

(F) The PCSA, PCPA, PNA, or court shall ensure the assessor completes or has completed the prescribed ODJFS tier two assessor training within three years of the completion date of tier one assessor training. A person who has not completed all of the tier one assessor training is not eligible to begin tier two assessor training.

(1) An assessor who did not complete the required tier two assessor training within the three years of the completion date of tier one assessor training is not authorized to perform assessor duties until tier two assessor training requirements are properly met. An extension of no more than one year may be granted by the director of the PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court due to justifiable organizational circumstances which impede the ability of the assessor to attend offered training. The extension shall be documented on a signed JFS 01680 "Verification of Adoption Assessor Qualifications" (rev. 5/2007).

(2) An assessor who did not complete the tier two assessor training within the required time periods of this rule shall immediately cease performing the duties of an assessor until the person has completed the tier two assessor training.

(3) An assessor who did not complete the tier two training requirements of paragraph (F)(1) of this rule, shall repeat the tier two assessor training in its entirety. Tier two training shall be completed within one year of the start date of the tier two assessor training. A person who fails to complete tier two assessor training within one year shall repeat the entire training process beginning with tier one.

(G) The PCSA, PCPA, PNA, or court shall ensure the assessor completes or completed six hours of ongoing training on adoption or foster care related issues, within two years of the completion date of tier two assessor training, to renew their assessor status. Completion of an additional six accredited training hours is required within each subsequent two year period from the completion date of the previous six hours of ongoing training. Assessors who fail to complete the training within any two year period must immediately cease performing the duties of an assessor until the six accredited training hours required have been completed.

(H) The PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court shall document the assessor's compliance with this rule by completing the JFS 01680 and having it signed by the assessor and the PCSA, PCPA, PNA director, designee or court. This document shall be kept in the agency personnel records with a copy provided to the assessor and a copy shall be sent to the ODJFS adoption services section. An assessor shall be able to produce a copy of the JFS 01680 upon request. The assessor shall notify ODJFS within ten business days when any of the following occur.

(1) The assessor completes any level of training required by this rule.

(2) The assessor terminates his employment or contract with a PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court.

(3) The assessor begins employment or enters into a contract with a new PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court.

(4) The assessor is no longer employed with the PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court but plans to continue to complete the six hour training requirement. The assessor shall, within ten business days of completing the six hour training requirement, submit the updated JFS 01680 to the ODJFS adoption services section.

(5) The assessor is not able to conduct assessor duties due to non-compliance with the training requirements outlined in this rule.

(I) The PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court that employs or has a contract with the assessor shall notify ODJFS via the JFS 01680 within ten business days when as assessor terminates his or her employment or contract with the agency or court.

(J) A person who is no longer employed by or under contract with a PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court to perform assessor duties may continue completing the additional six accredited training hours every two years or any other required assessor training to maintain assessor status. However, an individual who is not employed by or in contract with a PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court shall not perform assessor duties. Upon resuming employment or contract with a PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court to perform assessor duties, the assessor may immediately perform assessor duties as long as the six hour training or other training requirement was met in accordance with this rule while the person was not employed or contracting with the PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court.

(K) A person who is no longer employed with the PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court to perform assessor duties and who did not elect to continue to complete the assessor training hours to maintain their assessor status shall resume the assessor duties only after complying with all of the following:

(1) Be in an active employment or contract status with a PCSA, PCPA, PNA or court to perform assessor duties.

(2) Complete twelve hours "Assessor Refresher" training as prescribed by ODJFS.

(3) The cycle of having an additional ongoing six accrediting training hours required every two years begins with the completion of the twelve hour "Assessor Refresher" training.

Effective: 10/01/2014
Five Year Review (FYR) Dates: 07/09/2014 and 10/01/2019
Promulgated Under: 119.03
Statutory Authority: 3107.014, 3107.015, 5103.03
Rule Amplifies: 3107.014, 3107.015
Prior Effective Dates: 7/1/90, 9/1/94, 12/15/95 (Emer.), 3/1/96, 9/18/96, 12/31/96 (Emer.), 3/31/97, 2/13/98 (Emer.), 5/14/98, 2/15/02, 9/1/03, 12/11/06, 5/15/09