Specifications include, but are not limited to: The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI): The Department envisions a holistic Foster Care system that supports children and families through offering best practice Resource Family support strategies coupled with a competent clinical service array. This includes ensuring children and families have access to a strong pool of resource families, collectively capable of and willing to care for children with a wide variety of needs. Stability of placements of children with these families is critical and disruptions of placements with these families will be minimized. The Department is issuing this RFI to seek input on strategies and approaches to developing a Foster Care system which supports its vision described above. The Department is seeking information on strategies regarding Rightsizing Foster Care in Rhode Island. By way of background, in 2020 the Department enga ged in the strategic effort Rightsizing Foster Care. Rightsizing Foster Care ensures that children are cared for in the most appropriate setting based on their needs: at home, by a relative of fictive kinship caregiver, a non-kinship foster family, or in rare cases, a congregate care or hospital setting. Strategic key efforts in 2020 included: 1. Contract Renegotiations with all ten (10) private Foster Care Agencies 2. Rate and service equity for all foster families 3. Comprehensive Kinship Support Programming 4. Launch of online foster care application/licensing 5. Collaborative Be an Anchor (Recruitment and Retention) campaign 6. Value and inclusion of Family Voice 7. System-wide retention strategies
