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Children's Services

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The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) is committed to serving vulnerable populations every day and protecting individuals receiving services in a facility licensed by DHS. On March 30, we issued guidance for entities licensed by the following DHS program offices:

  1. Office of Developmental Programs (ODP)
  2. Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF)
  3. Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL)
  4. Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS)
  5. Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL)/Bureau of Human Services Licensing (BHSL)

In the March 30 guidance, we indicated that DHS will not be conducting any annual renewal inspections until Governor Wolf lifts the current Proclamation of Disaster Emergency for COVID-19 or until such other time set by DHS. However, licensing staff continued to investigate incidents and complaints.

Beginning May 28, DHS will resume annual renewal inspections in alignment with the Governor’s plan to re-open parts of the state. Information about the phases for re-opening can be found at the following link: https://www.governor.pa.gov/process-to-reopen-pennsylvania/.

All DHS program offices listed above will resume annual renewal inspections for counties that transition to the “green” phase. OCYF, OCDEL, ODP and OMHSAS will also start some annual renewal inspections for all counties that have transitioned to the “yellow” phase.

Licensing staff from all program offices will continue to investigate incidents and complaints statewide.
DHS is also considering conducting some annual renewal inspections remotely through virtual means.

More information about this will be forthcoming prior to any use of remote inspections. Please contact your Regional Program Office with any questions you may have.

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In view of the COVID-19 Pandemic and its impact on Chapter 3800 Residential Facilities, OCYF has temporarily suspended several regulatory standards. These standards include visitation policies, staff trainings, foster parent approvals, service delivery considerations, and group activities. See OCYF Guidance.

The regulatory suspensions set forth above will remain in place while the proclamation of disaster emergency remains in effect or such other time as OCYF directs.

For regulations that have not been suspended under the disaster emergency proclamation, agencies may still submit a waiver request to OCYF to seek temporary relief on a case-by-case basis. These requests may be submitted to the appropriate OCYF Regional Office or directly to the OCYF waiver resource account. In deciding whether to issue citations involving circumstances where a regulatory requirement that has not been suspended cannot be met due to COVID-19, OCYF will consider reasonable efforts made to meet the requirement when justification is clearly documented in the case record.

We recommend leaders review the guidance, and if you have any questions, please contact RCPA Children’s Director Jim Sharp.

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