Specialist, Foster Care- Farmington

Job Summary

Overview and Responsibilities

• Conduct regular in-person visits with children in foster care, placement providers, parents, and family members to assess safety, well-being, service needs, and progress toward permanency goals.
• Build and maintain productive relationships with children, parents, caregivers, and extended family members to support family engagement and reunification efforts when appropriate.
• Facilitate and coordinate parent-child, sibling, and family visitation in accordance with individualized case plans to promote and maintain family connections.
• Lead Family Support Team (FST) and Permanency Planning Review Team (PPRT) meetings, ensuring timely service coordination, permanency planning, and ongoing evaluation of case progress.
• Complete comprehensive assessments of child and family functioning, including strengths, needs, protective factors, risks, and service requirements, and develop and implement appropriate case plans.
• Monitor foster care placements to ensure children's medical, educational, emotional, developmental, and social needs are being met.
• Identify safety concerns, assess risks, develop safety plans, and provide crisis intervention services as needed.
• Support children and families through transitions and permanency planning by providing guidance, skill building, and connection to community resources and services.
• Assist foster parents, kinship caregivers, and families in accessing services and supports that promote stable, nurturing environments for children.
• Conduct family-finding activities and engage extended family members as potential supports, placement resources, or permanency options.
• Advocate for children and families within educational, medical, behavioral health, legal, and community systems to ensure access to appropriate services.
• Attend and participate in school meetings, medical appointments, treatment team meetings, court hearings, and other case-related proceedings as needed.
• Prepare and maintain accurate, timely, and comprehensive case documentation, reports, court summaries, service plans, and records in compliance with agency, contractual, and regulatory requirements.
• Represent the agency in court proceedings by providing factual testimony, case updates, and follow-up on court orders and treatment recommendations.
• Coordinate and collaborate with community partners, service providers, government agencies, schools, healthcare providers, and court personnel to support service delivery and permanency outcomes.
• Maintain compliance with all applicable confidentiality, documentation, licensing, accreditation, and regulatory standards, including HIPAA and agency policies.
• Participate in team meetings, case reviews, training opportunities, agency initiatives, and recruitment efforts to support program goals and continuous improvement.
• Serve as an active member of the Foster Care Team, providing coverage and support for shared caseload responsibilities as needed.
• Respond professionally and timely to phone calls, emails, and other communications.
• Transport clients to appointments, activities, and services as required.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Knowledge and Experience Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited program of Social Work, Counseling or Psychology and two (2) years of related experience or a Master’s degree from an accredited program of Social Work, Counseling or Psychology. 
• Working knowledge of community resources.
• Understanding of juvenile court processes and Missouri child welfare laws and practices as well as federal child welfare laws including ICPC, ASFA, ICWA, MEPA and Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. 
• An understanding of family systems, the impact of abuse and neglect; substance abuse; mental illness; poverty; grief and loss; and trauma on children and their families.
• Successfully complete basic Child Welfare Practice Training.

Skills and Competencies Required

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, public groups and/or clients.
• Commitment to ensuring that every child is connected to a family.
• Effective team player
• Non-judgmental attitude.
• Excellent assessment skills.
• Ability to work with a culturally diverse population.
• Ability to develop effective treatment plans for families.
• Ability to advocate assertively for children and their families.
• Flexible schedule including availability on the evenings and weekends according to client’s needs.
• Independently arrange a weekly work schedule not to exceed 40 hours to accommodate clients’ and agency needs.
• Conflict resolution and crisis intervention.
• Ability to prioritize and organize needed tasks to be successful in the position.
• Ability to make independent decisions through application of common sense, data, and knowledge gained through training and education.
• Proven ability to utilize Microsoft office products (i.e. Outlook, Word, Excel, etc) and navigate various electronic databases.  Sufficient typing skills required.
• Strong ability to lead, organize and plan.
• Engage hostile, angry, non-compliant and mandated families who may not want the service

Resources for Which Accountable

None