Strengthening Director's Approval Process Technical Guide
Strengthening Director's Approval Processes to Reduce Residential Entries and Sustain Community Placements for Children in Out-Of Home Care
While residential programs remain an important part of a child welfare system’s service array, there is growing consensus that children should be placed in these settings only when other alternatives are not possible. Many specialized treatment and support services can be provided to children while continuing to live in family-based settings where there is robust evidence that children experience better outcomes, especially when living with relatives. As part of a broader suite of strategies to better meet the needs of these children and further reduce the use of residential programs, many jurisdictions are establishing director’s approval processes or “prior authorization” requirements for entry to residential programs.
Our technical guide “Strengthening Director's Approval Processes to Reduce Residential Entries and Sustain Community Placements for Children in Out-Of-Home Care” outlines the approach Michigan used to augment its existing prior authorization policy by strengthening its “toolkit” of services and resources to support alternatives to residential programs and designing a practical framework for objectively triaging potential residential referral cases to identify opportunities to divert children from entering residential programs.