Iowa Code 237.18 – Duties of state board
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The state board shall:
1. Review the activities and actions of local boards and the court appointed special advocate program.
Terms Used In Iowa Code 237.18
- Administrator: means the administrator of that division of the department designated by the director of human services to administer this chapter or the administrator's designee. See Iowa Code 237.1
- Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
- Child: means child as defined in section 234. See Iowa Code 237.1
- Court: shall mean and include any court upon which jurisdiction has been conferred to determine the liability of persons for the support of dependents. See Iowa Code 252A.2
- Department: means the department of human services. See Iowa Code 237.1
- Donor: The person who makes a gift.
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
- Individual: means an individual person or a married couple who provides child foster care in a single-family home environment and which does not meet the definition of an agency in subsection 2. See Iowa Code 237.1
- state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the said district and territories. See Iowa Code 4.1
2. Adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A to:
a. Establish a recordkeeping system for the files of local boards including individual case reviews.
b. Accumulate data and develop an annual report regarding children served by the state board. The report shall include:
(1) Data regarding the total number of days of foster care provided and the characteristics of the children receiving foster care.
(2) The number of placements of children in foster care.
c. Evaluate the data collected by local boards and court appointed special advocates, and disseminate the data to the governor, the department, child-placing agencies, and the state court administrator for dissemination to the supreme court and the chief judge of each judicial district.
d. Establish mandatory training programs for members of the state board. Training shall focus on, but not be limited to, the following:
(1) The duties of the state board.
(2) The duties of local boards.
(3) The duties of court appointed special advocates.
(4) Applicable child welfare laws and practices that influence the work of local boards and court appointed special advocates.
e. Establish a mandatory training program and procedures for local boards consistent with the provisions of section 237.20.
f. Establish procedures and protocols for administering the court appointed special advocate program in accordance with subsection 6.
3. Assign the cases of children receiving foster care to the appropriate local boards.
4. Employ appropriate staff in accordance with available funding.
5. Maintain an evaluation program regarding citizen foster care review programming. The evaluation program shall be designed to evaluate the effectiveness of citizen reviews in improving case permanency planning and meeting case permanency planning goals, identify the amount of time children spend in foster care placements, and identify problem issues in the foster care system. The state board shall submit an annual evaluation report to the governor and the general assembly.
6. Administer the court appointed special advocate program, including but not limited to performance of all of the following:
a. Establish standards for the program, including but not limited to standards for selection and screening of volunteers, preservice training, continuing education, and assignment and supervision of volunteers. Identifying information concerning a court appointed special advocate, other than the advocate’s name, shall not be considered to be a public record under chapter 22.
b. Implement the court appointed special advocate program as deemed necessary to effectuate its purpose including but not limited to employing court appointed special advocate program staff as available funding provides.
c. Promote adherence to the national guidelines for state and local court appointed special advocate programs.
d. Issue an annual report of the court appointed special advocate program for submission to the general assembly, the governor, and the supreme court.
7. Receive gifts, grants, or donations made for any of the purposes of the state board’s programs and disburse and administer the funds received in accordance with the terms of the donor and under the direction of program staff. The funds received shall be used according to any restrictions attached to the funds and any unrestricted funds shall be retained and applied to the applicable program budget for the next succeeding fiscal year.
8. Make recommendations to the general assembly, the department, child-placing agencies, the governor, and the state court administrator for dissemination to the supreme court and the chief judge of each judicial district. The recommendations shall include but are not limited to identification of systemic problems in the foster care and the juvenile justice systems, specific proposals for improvements that assist the systems in being more cost-effective and better able to protect the best interests of children, and necessary changes relating to the data collected and the annual report made under subsection 2, paragraph “b”.