A. The department shall coordinate and implement the provision of family support services. The public education department shall assist the department by identifying children in public schools who are at risk for the purpose of making family support services available to the families of those children. The department shall ensure the statewide quality of family support services by:

(1) providing standards and policies for family support services that are family-centered and that identify family strengths;

(2) monitoring the provision of family support services to ensure that the services satisfy standards established by the department;

(3) providing training for persons who provide family support services; and

(4) establishing a standardized intake process for the purpose of rapidly assessing the needs of a child and family referred for family support services.

B. A person who works in a family support services program shall:

(1) provide family support services in the family's home or any other natural setting;

(2) provide direct crisis intervention and therapeutic services, to be available twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week, as needed for each family;

(3) assist with the solution of practical problems that contribute to family stress, so as to affect improved parental performance and enhanced functioning of the family unit; and

(4) arrange for additional assistance, to the extent of available resources, for the family, including housing, child care, education and training, emergency cash grants, state and federally funded public assistance or any other basic support or social service appropriate for the family.

History: 1978 Comp., § 32A-17-4, enacted by Laws 1993, ch. 77, § 221; 2005, ch. 68, § 8.

The 2005 amendment, effective June 17, 2005, changed "family preservation services" to "family support services".