Nassau County Department of Social Services

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SERVICES TO CHILDREN AND FAMILIES PREVENTIVE, FOSTER CARE, AND ADOPTION SERVICES

1. PREVENTIVE SERVICES

a. Preventive Services – Unit 311 – 516 - 227-8344
Preventive Services – Unit 213 – 516 - 227-8400
Concrete services (i.e.: day care, homemaking, budgeting, advocacy, etc.), casework counseling and referral services are provided to eligible families by contracted agencies in order to avert placements of children outside their homes, enhance family functioning and/or expedite reunification of children in care with their biological families. Eligible families include those at some risk of foster care and pregnant and/or parenting adolescents.

b. PINS Diversion Program – Unit 321 – 516 - 227-8406 Information and Intake – 516 – 227-8404 Services are provided to families in crisis, through contract agencies, whose children might be experiencing truancy, gang involvement, running away from home and substance abuse issues in order to prevent/avert the filing of a Pins Petition and placement

2. BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES

Behavioral Health Services – Unit 219 – 516 - 227-7805 The goal of this unit is to insure the safety of children and prevent any further deterioration within the family system. The unit provides short term crisis intervention to other units that are working with families who are facing mental health, substance abuse and domestic violence issues. The unit collaborates with different agencies in the county to coordinate services to work with families that are identified by their caseworkers to be in crisis. One of the unit caseworkers is responsible for arranging and offering casework services to ensure timely family meetings when children are first placed into foster care.

3. FOSTER CARE SERVICES

a. Foster and Adoptive Resource Development - Unit 215 – 516 -227-8291 and Homefinding – Unit 214 – 516 - 227-8284. These units recruit, train, study, approve/certify, develop, retain, and re-approve/re-certify foster and adoptive families. To inquire about becoming a foster and/or adoptive parent, please call 516 – 227-8284.

b. Foster Care - Unit 217 – 516 - 227-8300 Unit 221 – 516 - 227-7774 Unit 222 – 516 - 227-7808 Unit 223 – 516 - 227-8411 Unit 224 – 516 - 227-8337 Unit 225 – 516 – 227-8346 Direct and/or referral services are extended to place into foster care children referred by Preventive Services, Child Protective Services, the Department’s Information, Resources and Referral Unit, or the Courts. These units work intensively with the children and their foster parents to stabilize the placements, to assure that all of the children’s needs are being met, and to establish productive birth-parent/child visits. These units also extend immediate concrete, casework counseling and referral services directly to birth parents in an attempt to reunite them as soon as possible with their children and to lessen the time the children spend in foster care. Those children and families not reunited quickly, despite intensive efforts, receive continued concrete, casework counseling, and referral services as long as extended foster care is necessary. Ultimately, these units effect the safe reunification of children with their birth families, free for adoption children who cannot be safely returned to their birth families, or refer older teens for Independent Living services where neither reunification nor adoption are possible. These older teens are provided with opportunities to develop independent living skills with emphasis on education and/or vocation and to establish permanent family connections.

c. PINS Placement (Persons In Need of Supervision) - Unit 310 – 516 - 227-8331. This unit coordinates contracted agencies’ foster home, group home, and residential treatment center services for court placed PINS youngsters who require residential services and/or therapeutic foster care due to their higher levels of needs and/or asocial behaviors.

d. Review and Support – Unit 218 – 516 - 227-8419 This unit determines eligibility for cases and periodically reviews case documents to insure compliance with laws, regulations and mandates. Staff also coordinates Service Plan Review and Permanency Planning Review conferences and monitor youngsters placed for diagnostic evaluations. This unit manages and oversees all audits and reviews of Children & Family Services cases and coordinates NYSOCFS Connections system for Nassau County.

e. Institutional Liaison – Unit 212 – 516 – 227-8394 This Unit acts as liaison to contact agencies that provide placement services to Nassau County foster children, making referrals and visiting the facilities to insure appropriate care is provided to Nassau County children. The unit monitors contract compliance, reviews contracts for accuracy, facilitates new contracts when needed, and records and tracks any reports of institutional abuse involving Nassau County foster children. The unit also monitors Nassau County children, in NYSOCFS custody, who were placed in group homes and residential treatment centers as Juvenile Delinquents

4. ADOPTION SERVICES

a. Adoption - Unit 211/216 – 516 – 227-8271 Casework counseling, referral, and concrete services are provided directly to children freed for adoption and their foster and/or adoptive families until adoptions are legalized. This unit effects adoption subsidies where appropriate and prepares the documentation required for the legalization process. Direct and referral services are provided to match children with adoptive families in cases where the foster family is not adopting, to maintain the Prospective Adoptive Parent’s Registry, to register freed children with the NYSAS Adoption Registry and with Children Awaiting Parents (CAP) Book, to administer the Subsidized Adoption Program, to respond to the Adoption Information Registry and to handle post-legalization issues.

b. Adoption Subsidy – Unit 216 – 516 227-8273 Direct and referral services are provided to match children with adoptive families in cases where the foster family is not adopting, to maintain the Prospective Adoptive Parent’s Registry; to register freed children with the NYSAS Adoption Registry and with Children Awaiting Parents (CAP) Book, to administer the Subsidized Adoption Program, to respond to the Adoption Information Registry and to handle post-legalization issues.

5. COURT LIAISON

Unit 323 – 516 571-9306

This Unit is comprised of caseworkers which represent our field service workers (Child Protective Services, Children’s Services and Adult Protective Services) in family court proceedings. These caseworkers provide updated information to the judges regarding the families which are brought to the court’s attention. The families are involved with the court system due to neglect, abuse, placement with children in foster care, custody and family offense petitions.

6. CASEWORKER TRAINING

Unit 130 – 516 – 227-8277

Comprised of new caseworkers who are learning to investigate allegations of child abuse and neglect. The unit supervisors provide support and guidance to new caseworkers while coordinating a wide range of professional experiences in order to develop well-rounded casework staff.

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PREVENTIVE SERVICES

Behavioral Health Services