9 CAR § 40-201. Division mission, priorities, vision, practice model, powers, and duties

(a) Mission. (1) The mission of the Division of Children and Family Services is to keep children safe and help families. (2) The division will respectfully engage families and youth and use community-based services and supports to assist caregivers in successfully caring for their children. (3) We will focus on the safety, permanency, and well-being of all children and youth. (b) Vision. Every child deserves a safe, stable, and nurturing family every day. (c) Priorities. (1) Safely stabilize and preserve families. (2)(A) When that is not possible, safely care for children and quickly reunify children to their families of origin. (B) If children must be removed from the home, relative and fictive kin caregivers will be considered immediately and throughout the entire engagement with the family. (3) Safely support child permanency, well-being, and development of culturally safe, lifelong relationships, when reunification is not possible. (d) Practice model. (1)(A) Arkansas’s practice model, At One Table, represents the culmination of our collective vision that every child deserves a safe, stable, and nurturing family every day. (B) The At One Table practice model is based on the following core values: (i) Relationships with children, youth, and families are the foundation; (ii) Collaborative partnerships with resource families; (iii) Helping children and youth achieve their full potential and develop lifelong relationships; (iv) Shared responsibility with community partners; (v) A strong working relationship with the legal system; and (vi) A workplace culture characterized by reflection, appreciation, and ongoing learning. (C) The practice model illustrates how we work every day to translate our vision into the division’s practice with children and families by providing supervisors, managers, and field staff with concrete examples of the practices that best reflect our child welfare culture. (D) To view the complete practice model including its guiding principles, examples of agency practice, and key actions for staff of all levels, please see the At One Table practice model. (c) Powers and duties. The division performs the following functions and has the authority and responsibility to: (1) Coordinate communication between various components of the child welfare system; (2) Provide services to dependent-neglected children and their families; (3) Investigate reports of child maltreatment and assess the health, safety, and well-being of children during investigations; (4) Provide services, when appropriate, designed to allow maltreated children to safely remain in their homes; (5) Protect children when remaining in their home presents an immediate danger to their health, safety, or well-being; (6) Ensure placements support the goal of permanency for children when the division is responsible for the children’s placement and care; (7) Ensure the health, safety, and well-being for children when the division is responsible for the children’s placement and care; and (8) Promulgate rules necessary to administer these powers and duties.