(a) If a child cannot be placed with a relative or other person with whom the child has a long-standing and significant relationship, DFPS will seek to place the child in a foster or adoptive home that can meet the child's needs. If DFPS is unable to locate a foster or adoptive home that can provide safe and appropriate care to the child, DFPS may place the child in any of the settings described in §700.1307 of this title (relating to In what kinds of settings may a child in DFPS conservatorship be placed?), when:
  (1) the child needs treatment services or additional programmatic services, other than child care services, that are not available or cannot be provided to the child in a foster home;
  (2) the child is placed with a sibling or parent who needs the services described in paragraph (1) of this subsection, and placement of the child with the sibling or parent in a general residential operation is deemed to be in the child's best interest;
  (3) the child is placed temporarily in a general residential operation because of the proximity of the placement to the child's home or school of origin, and such placement is deemed to be in the child's best interest;
  (4) there is no foster home immediately available for the child to be placed; or
  (5) the placement is ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction.
(b) A child receiving emergency care services from a general residential operation may not remain in such operation beyond the maximum lengths of stay set forth in the following chart unless the child's caseworker obtains supervisory approval to extend the placement and documents the reasons for extending the placement in the child's case record:
Attached Graphic
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision in this section, unless ordered by a court to do so, DFPS does not place a child in:
  (1) a general residential operation that the Child Care Licensing Department of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission has placed on probation unless the placement is approved by the Associate Commissioner or Deputy Associate Commissioner for Child Protective Services, the Deputy Commissioner for DFPS, or the Commissioner for DFPS; or
  (2) a foster home whose verification has been placed on inactive status by the child-placing agency that verifies the home.
(d) For youth who are placed in a residential treatment center the caseworker, as appropriate, includes in the Child's Plan of Service, transition plan goals that assist in preventing the youth from aging out of foster care from a residential treatment center. The goals must be:
  (1) consistent with the youth's best interest and special needs;
  (2) in the transition plan in the Child's Plan of Service by the youth's 17th birthday, or at the time the youth is placed in the residential treatment center when the youth's placement occurs after the youth's 17th birthday; and
  (3) discussed and evaluated with the youth each month.

Source Note: The provisions of this §700.1311 adopted to be effective August 1, 2012, 37 TexReg 5632; amended to be effective November 4, 2020, 45 TexReg 7718; amended to be effective August 10, 2022, 47 TexReg 4688