This letter transmits the Child Protective Services (CPS) Worker Manual and Comprehensive Assessment and Planning Model - Interim Solution (CAPMIS) Field Guides which have been developed for implementation of CAPMIS.

The worker manual is designed to help supervisors and caseworkers understand the process of assessing the family. This manual is divided into four sections: the Screening Decision Manual; the CAPMIS Policy Manual; the Safety Assessment Field Guide; and the Family Assessment Field Guide. The Screening Decision Manual is designed to assist in establishing screening criteria and guidelines for gathering and documenting referral information and making screening decisions. The Policy Manual assists the supervisor and caseworker in understanding the conceptual framework of CAPMIS. This manual is sectioned by assessment tool and includes policies, procedures, associated definitions, and instructions on the assessment and documentation process for each CAPMIS tool. The Field Guide sections of the manual include suggested questions to elicit information during the interview process and case examples to assist in the assessment of safety and risk.

The worker manual and field guides will not be available in hardcopy from the ODJFS warehouse. They can be obtained on line at: http://www.emanuals.jfs.ohio.gov. To receive notice of updates to this manual, as well as other ODJFS manuals, manual holders may subscribe to an e-mail notification list. By subscribing to this e-mail notification list, manual holders will be sent an e-mail notice containing a list of what was issued during that week. All manual holders many subscribe to the e-mail notification list by sending an e-mail with the word: subscribe in lower case letters in the subject line to: handbook_update_subscriptions@odjfs.state.oh.us.

If you have questions regarding this change, please contact the Office for Children and Families Help Desk at (866) 886-3537 (Option 4) or via e-mail at help-desk-ocf@odjfs.state.oh.us.

INSTRUCTIONS:

The following chart depicts what materials are to be removed from the manual and what materials are to be inserted.