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Subject: Families First Family Focused Solutions

Policy 23.21 Date of Last Review: 11/30/2023 Effective Date: 07/01/2023 Date of Next Review: 11/30/2026 RDA: SW22 Page 4 of 6 a. Incidents or suspicion of physical and/or sexual abuse or neglect of a child must by law be reported to the appropriate authority. b. Incidents of direct threats of harm to self or others will be reported to the appropriate agency or persons. c. Information can be disclosed as a result of a court order or subpoena. d. Information can be disclosed to medical personnel in a medical emergency or to qualified personnel for research, audit, or program evaluation. 2. When discussing confidentiality during the initial assessment, the FFS counselor will present HS-3229 Family Focused Solutions Services Informed Consent for the customer to sign stating that he/she agrees with and understands these exceptions to the confidentiality policy. 3. FFS cannot be provided to a customer who will not sign the consent form. If the customer refuses to sign the consent form, the FFS counselor will notify the TANF Case Manager and/or Eligibility Counselor who made the initial FFS referral about this refusal. The TANF Case Manager and/or Eligibility Counselor will then remove FFS as a support service. Post-Assessment Feedback When the assessment has been completed, the FFS Counselor will provide the feedback information to the TANF Case Manager or Eligibility Counselor who will: 1. Review the feedback results. 2. Document the FFS assessment results in the case record. 3. Determine appropriate next steps as outlined in Family Focused Solutions Procedures. 4. Make the final decision on a need for an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation. FFS Activities and Job/Search Readiness 1. If a customer is participating in FFS activities, up to two (2) hours of FFS activities can be countable toward Job Search/Job Readiness hours as outlined in policy 23.13 Families First Work and/or Educational Activities. a. If the customer chooses to count FFS activity hours toward Job Search/Job Readiness hours and fails to participate in FFS, any non-compliance is subject to sanction. b. In order to receive support services, the customer must be engaged for at least one (1) hour of other work and/or educational activity in addition to the FFS activity. 2. If the customer is not participating in Job Search/Job Readiness or the Job Search/Job Readiness limitations have been exhausted, the FFS activity will only be treated as a support service.