Foster Care Case Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Overview

StepStone Family & Youth Services provides trauma informed, youth centered services to children and families involved in foster care. The Foster Care Case Manager plays a vital role in supporting youth and foster families through service coordination, advocacy, and individualized support that promotes safety, stability, permanency, and positive outcomes.

We are seeking a compassionate and dedicated Foster Care Case Manager who is passionate about supporting children and families through trauma informed, strengths based, and family centered practices. This role is ideal for a professional who understands the impact of trauma, loss, and disrupted family systems and is committed to helping youth and families build resilience and long term success.

The Foster Care Case Manager works closely with foster families, biological families, treatment teams, schools, community providers, and referral sources to support placement stability, emotional wellbeing, and coordinated care for youth in foster care. Through ongoing communication, advocacy, and service planning, this position helps ensure youth and families receive responsive and supportive services tailored to their unique needs.

The ideal candidate is organized, adaptable, empathetic, and committed to delivering high quality services while maintaining professionalism, compliance, and a trauma informed approach throughout all aspects of service delivery.

Responsibilities

The Foster Care Case Manager works under the supervision of the Program Manager. They are responsible for the delivery of case management services, individual and family counseling and training and supervision of foster families. The Foster Care Case Manager assists the Program Manager in developing individual treatment plans for troubled children and their families. They maintain weekly contact with the foster families, children, and bio-families and monitors the progress of the child and family throughout the placement. They assist with training, home studies, and evaluation of foster parents. The Foster Care Case Manager uses standardized tools to measure social and emotional progress and outcomes and prepares written treatment plans and progress reports.

PERSONAL WORK RELATIONSHIP: The Foster Care Case Manager makes decisions regarding the placement and treatment of neglected, abused, disturbed, and medically complex children. He or she will have good verbal and writing skills. They will be capable of working with children, parents, foster parents, client agencies and the courts. The Foster Care Case Manager will be creative, pragmatic, assertive, and know when to act independently and when to seek the advice of others.

EXAMPLES OF DUTIES. The position includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Reviews referrals and matches children with appropriate foster families.
• Places children in state licensed or state certified foster homes.
• Obtains all state and agency required documentation for child in care.
• Provides weekly documented contact and at bi-weekly visits to child and foster home.
• Visits each assigned child at least once each month away from the foster home.
• Prepares a treatment plan for the child within 21 days of placement and quarterly thereafter.
• Prepares monthly progress reports for assigned children.
• Provides Independent Living training and monthly ILP progress reports for assigned clients.
• Provides reunification services to the biological families when required by treatment plan.
• Coordinates visitation of children with biological parents, siblings, and relatives.
• Provides supervised visits with parents, siblings, and relative when required by court.
• Acts as liaison person with placing agencies, schools, and other community agencies.
• Attends court hearings and review hearings.
• Attends staff meetings and treatment planning meetings as required.
• Completes interviews, training and home studies on prospective foster parents as needed.
• Attends conferences and seminars as required for annual training requirement.
• Conducts/participates in two or more foster parent support group meetings each year.
• Maintains flexible working hours and works weekends or holidays as needed.

Qualifications

The Foster Care Case Manager has a bachelor’s degree in social work, sociology, psychology, counseling, or related human services field and two years’ experience working with children and families. A bachelor’s degree in social work, sociology, psychology, counseling, or related human services field and five years’ experience with a placing agency working with troubled children and families may be consider in lieu of a graduate degree.