About Placements
When a child is placed in an out-of-home setting, you record the details of the placement in Ohio SACWIS. The system manages placement records according to the placement episode.
A placement episode begins with the date of a child’s initial removal, when the child is taken into physical custody or placed under a formal voluntary agreement between the agency, the parents, and the placement provider. The child is assigned an agency legal status at the beginning of the custody episode. (See Record a Child's Legal Status.)
The placement episode ends when the child's placement record has been ended and you enter the date the child was discharged from placement. Discharge information cannot be recorded for a child who has an active legal status, so a change to the child's legal status is also necessary. (See Record a Child's Legal Status.)
Within this placement episode, a child may be placed with multiple providers in multiple substitute care settings. These changes may be due to actions initiated by the agency, the provider, the child, the parent, or the court. Each time the child's placement setting changes, you must end-date the previous placement and enter a new placement record with the new begin date.
A child may also be placed on leave during the placement episode, with the intent of returning the child to the substitute care setting. For example, the child may be with parents or relatives, at camp, in the hospital, in detention, and so on. The length of a leave may not exceed 30 days. During this time, the child's place in the substitute care setting is closed to other placements while the child is on leave.