[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 45, Volume 4]
[Revised as of October 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 45CFR1355.25]

[Page 256-257]
 
                        TITLE 45--PUBLIC WELFARE
 
CHAPTER XIII--OFFICE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 
                           AND HUMAN SERVICES
 
PART 1355--GENERAL--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 1355.25  Principles of child and family services.

    The following principles, most often identified by practitioners and 
others as helping to assure effective services for children, youth, and 
families, should guide the States and Indian Tribes in developing, 
operating, and improving the continuum of child and family services.
    (a) The safety and well-being of children and of all family members 
is paramount. When safety can be assured, strengthening and preserving 
families is seen as the best way to promote the healthy development of 
children. One important way to keep children safe is to stop violence in 
the family including violence against their mothers.
    (b) Services are focused on the family as a whole; service providers 
work with families as partners in identifying and

[[Page 257]]

meeting individual and family needs; family strengths are identified, 
enhanced, respected, and mobilized to help families solve the problems 
which compromise their functioning and well-being.
    (c) Services promote the healthy development of children and youth, 
promote permanency for all children and help prepare youth emancipating 
from the foster care system for self-sufficiency and independent living.
    (d) Services may focus on prevention, protection, or other short or 
long-term interventions to meet the needs of the family and the best 
interests and need of the individual(s) who may be placed in out-of-home 
care.
    (e) Services are timely, flexible, coordinated, and accessible to 
families and individuals, principally delivered in the home or the 
community, and are delivered in a manner that is respectful of and 
builds on the strengths of the community and cultural groups.
    (f) Services are organized as a continuum, designed to achieve 
measurable outcomes, and are linked to a wide variety of supports and 
services which can be crucial to meeting families' and children's needs, 
for example, housing, substance abuse treatment, mental health, health, 
education, job training, child care, and informal support networks.
    (g) Most child and family services are community-based, involve 
community organizations, parents and residents in their design and 
delivery, and are accountable to the community and the client's needs.
    (h) Services are intensive enough and of sufficient duration to keep 
children safe and meet family needs. The actual level of intensity and 
length of time needed to ensure safety and assist the family may vary 
greatly between preventive (family support) and crisis intervention 
services (family preservation), based on the changing needs of children 
and families at various times in their lives. A family or an individual 
does not need to be in crisis in order to receive services.

[61 FR 58654, Nov. 18, 1996]