Georgia Family First FAQs

Provisions of Family First especially relevant to the legal community include:

• Prevention services available to support candidates for foster care and their parents or kin;
• Child placement option with a parent in residential family-based treatment;
• Extended timelines for federally supported reunification services;
• Kinship navigator programs;
• Model Licensing Standards for foster parents;
• Limitations on non-foster family home placements;
• Qualified Residential Treatment Program (QRTP) placement reviews and restrictions;
• Data tracking on juvenile justice system impact;
• State protocols to prevent inappropriate diagnoses of youth in care;
• Chafee Foster Care Independence Program improvements and extensions; and
  Interstate placement system compatibility.

Once Georgia’s Title IV-E Prevention Plan is approved, the Division will shift gears from planning and preparing for Family First to focusing on the phased implementation of Family First Act prevention services.
Because we are preparing for a phased implementation, the Division anticipates that both the geographic availability of prevention services and the array of services will grow over time.

Having Qualified Residential Treatment Programs (QRTPs) available will expand intensive residential treatment options.

QRTPs are intensive treatment settings that may be utilized for children who require residential mental health care.

They may be used as a step down placement from a more restrictive Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF) setting, or if the child does not meet the medical necessity criteria for a PRTF placement, but an assessment determines that a QRTP level of care is appropriate.

In order to be considered for any state’s IV-E Prevention Plan, services must be evidence-based practices reviewed by the federal Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse.

Other services may be funded using state or other federal dollars, but only services in the Clearinghouse and on Georgia’s IV-E  Prevention Plan are eligible for IV-E dollars under the Family First Act.

As of January 2021, Georgia will only consider services rated well-supported for potential inclusion in the state’s IV-E plan.

Visit the Title IV- E Prevention Services Clearinghouse to see if the program your agency offers is among those already evaluated. Only programs rated as well-supported treatments, supported practices and promising practices by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse are considered Evidence-based Practices under the Family First Act. However, as of May 2020 Georgia will only consider services rated well-supported for potential inclusion on the state's IV-E plan.

The Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse will continue to select additional programs and services for review on a rolling basis starting in summer 2019. Join the Clearinghouse’s email list to be notified of updates.
Inclusion of a service on the IV-E Clearinghouse does not necessarily mean that Georgia will seek reimbursement from Title IV-E to fund the service. The state will make a final determination of which services to include in its IV-E plan in 2021.

Children, their parents, or kinship care providers who are receiving DFCS Family Preservation services will be eligible for Title IV-E prevention services. Expectant and parenting youth who are in foster care are also eligible for prevention services. The categories of prevention services include in-home parenting skills training; mental health prevention and treatment services; and substance abuse prevention and treatment services.

The income of the person or family receiving services has no impact on eligibility.

Prevention services may only be provided if they are addressed in the child’s prevention plan.

In order to be eligible for IV-E funding, prevention services must be rated and approved by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse.

The Title IV- E Prevention Services Clearinghouse established by the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is evaluating which programs meet the Evidence-Based Practice criteria under Family First. The Clearinghouse lists the programs it has reviewed on its website here.

To be reimbursable under the Family First Act in Georgia, a service also has to be included in the state’s IV-E Plan  (PDF, 1.62 MB) . 

The five services included in Georgia’s plan are:

• Brief Strategic Family Therapy
• Functional Family Therapy
• Healthy Families America
• Multi-systemic Therapy
• Parents as Teachers

Resources

Title IV- E Prevention Services Clearinghouse website

Clearinghouse review/rating criteria

Clearinghouse email list for notification of updates

Kinship caregivers who are caring for children who are candidates for foster care are eligible for prevention services including in-home parenting skills training; mental health prevention and treatment services; and substance abuse prevention and treatment services.

The income of the person or family receiving services has no impact on eligibility.

As Georgia transitions to this new model, there are some steps you can take to prepare:

Review the programs that your agency offers to ensure they are considered Well-supported Treatments, Supported Practices or Promising Practices by the  Title IV- E Prevention Services Clearinghouse.

Review staff records to ensure staff members who will deliver the program(s) are trained and have received any necessary certifications.
Review your guidelines for child case plans to ensure case workers will be prepared to include prevention services and any necessary documentation in the case plan.

Georgia’s Title IV-E Prevention Plan  (PDF, 1.62 MB) is a plan that the state of Georgia must submit to the federal government in order to seek reimbursement for prevention services under the Family First Act.

The plan has two components- the narrative plan and the pre-print. The narrative plan describes how Georgia will implement prevention services under Family First. The pre-print  specifies the policies that support this work and meet the regulatory requirements.

The sections included in the narrative plan are:

• Eligibility and Candidacy Identification
• Title IV-E Prevention Services (Service Description and Oversight)
• Child Specific Prevention Plan
• Monitoring Child Safety
• Evaluation Strategy and Waiver Request
• Child Welfare Workforce Training and Support
• Prevention Caseloads
• Assurance on Prevention Program Reporting

Download Georgia's draft narrative Title IV-E Prevention Plan  (PDF, 1.62 MB)

In October 2019, the Prevention Services Clearinghouse issued a public call for programs to be considered for systemic review. Only programs reviewed and approved by the Clearinghouse are eligible for Family First Act funding. We worked with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and the Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health in the Health Policy Center at Georgia State University to develop a state response that was submitted Oct. 31, 2020.
The list of programs submitted was based on existing capacity in the state and feedback from providers. It is NOT a list of services Georgia will fund. We will select services that have already been reviewed and included on the Clearinghouse to include in our IV-E plan.

The list includes:

• Applied Behavior Analysis
• Assertive Community Treatment
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy
• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing Therapy)
• High Fidelity Wrap Around
• Moral Reconation Therapy
• Multidimensional Family Therapy
• Peer Support for individuals with mental illness and/or substance abuse
• Recovery Oriented Cognitive Therapy
• Thinking for a Change (T4C)
• Trauma Recovery Empowerment Model (TREM)
• Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Cannabis users and other Substance users
• MST-Psych
• Seeking Safety
• Family Centered Treatment'
• Exchange Parent Aide
• Trust-Based Relational Intervention
• Safe Families for Children
• 24/7 Dad
• Together Facing the Challenge

These EBPs are not currently available through DFCS’ service array.  All families being served by DFCS will continue to receive the most appropriate services that are a part of our existing service array while EBPs are being implemented.

The state made a final determination of which services to include in its IV-E plan  (PDF, 1.62 MB) in 2021.

The Family First Act Prevention Services Workgroup met six times in spring 2021 to form recommendations for an aligned Family First Act preventive services array. The workgroup’s recommendations were reviewed by the multi-agency Leadership Advisory Council, the DFCS Family First Steering Committee and the DFCS Director before the Director ultimately approved the services to be included in Georgia’s  IV-E plan. The draft narrative plan was submitted to the federal Children’s Bureau in fall 2021.

The five services included in Georgia’s plan are:

• Brief Strategic Family Therapy
• Functional Family Therapy
• Healthy Families America
• Multi-systemic Therapy
• Parents as Teachers

Current contracts for services will not be affected.

The bidding and contracting process is guided by state procurement rules and will not change because of the Family First Act.

The Family First Act governance structure has been designed to intentionally include a broad range of voices and perspectives, both inside and outside the Division.

 In 2021, various Family First workgroups in that governing structure began work on the pieces of Georgia' Title IV-E Prevention Plan.  (PDF, 1.62 MB) The workgroups are informed by tools such as a data analysis on the target population of children and youth who will be candidates for prevention services and their families and a statewide survey of providers regarding the current landscape of evidence-based practices.

Workgroups include:

• Candidacy: Meetings concluded. (See: Who is considered a “candidate for foster care”?)
• Practice & Policy Alignment: Currently meeting and working to align Family First Act requirements with policy and necessary SHINES updates to operationalize those requirements.
• Readiness: Currently meeting and working to provide practice and training support to the field in preparation for implementation.
• Prevention Services: Meetings concluded June 2021. Click here to view meeting materials and presentations.
• Data and Continuous Quality Improvement: Currently meeting and working to incorporate FFPSA evaluation and monitoring requirements into current CQI process.

Some workgroups such as Candidacy include members from both inside and outside the Division, while others such as Practice & Policy Alignment are comprised of Division staff completing the internal work that is necessary for successful implementation of the Family First Act.

Members of the workgroups tap additional subject matter experts inside and outside the Division as needed, and seek community input on topics like prevention services, which entails a series of meetings to gain ideas and perspective from providers, Division field staff and youth and families with lived experience. The Division is being supported in these efforts by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, who have deep expertise in child well-being and strategic planning and implementation.

The IV-E Prevention Plan was written by members of the Family First Act team and the Family First Act workgroups with support from Chapin Hall, with input and guidance from the multi-agency Leadership Advisory Council and the DFCS Family First Steering Committee and approved by the DFCS Director. The draft narrative plan was submitted to the federal Children’s Bureau in fall 2021.

The Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse maintains a list of currently reviewed and approved services. Services under review are listed in the Clearinghouse's FAQS.

Services must also be included in the state's IV-E plan  (PDF, 1.62 MB) to be eligible for reimbursement.

The five services included in Georgia’s plan are:

• Brief Strategic Family Therapy
• Functional Family Therapy
• Healthy Families America
• Multi-systemic Therapy
• Parents as Teachers

We encourage providers to learn more about the EBPs that will be offered under Family First to determine if they are a good fit for your agency. Being trained or certified in an EBP may allow you to bid on future procurement opportunities, but is not a guarantee of a contract with the agency. As the Division establishes the overall need for services in the state, there may be opportunities for training supported by the agency to fill critical gaps.

Current contracts with the agency are not impacted by Family First. 

The Family First Act offers two ways to fund post-reunification services.

• First, the Family First Act removed the time limit associated with Promoting Safe and Stable Families services, and they are now available for up to 15 months post reunification.
• Second, a child who has exited foster care may be considered a candidate for foster care if they are at risk of reentry without the provision of services, and would therefore be eligible for IV-E funded prevention services.

All EBPs will be procured through formal bidding processes. These opportunities are announced on DHS/DFCS and/or DOAS websites when available.