{"id":31530,"date":"2018-05-23T19:19:45","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T19:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caseyfamilyv2.wpengine.com\/border-agreements\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T17:10:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:10:56","slug":"acuerdos-fronterizos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/es\/border-agreements\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00bfC\u00f3mo puede un acuerdo fronterizo eficaz favorecer la colocaci\u00f3n oportuna con familiares?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n

Summary<\/h3>\n

This brief highlights a successful instance of interstate kinship placement and the positive impact of streamlined child welfare policies \u2014 along with a breakdown of key roles and responsibilities of jurisdictions involved in a border agreement.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n

<\/p>\n

The difficult decision to remove Joey1<\/sup><\/a> from his birth mother was made in the late morning. His maternal grandmother, with whom he had a close relationship, lived across the Alabama border, just six miles away from Joey\u2019s home in Georgia. She immediately agreed to care for Joey until his mother could safely care for him again. Within an hour of the removal decision, Joey\u2019s Georgia caseworker had reached out to the Alabama child abuse hotline and requested that a caseworker visit his grandmother to complete a safety study so that the placement could be quickly approved. By dinnertime, Joey was settled in his grandmother\u2019s home, a place he felt comfortable and safe. Given the proximity, he also was able to remain in the same school, another source of stability and personal connection. Eventually, Joey formally entered out-of-home care, but he was able to remain with his grandmother the entire time thanks to policies in place between Georgia and Alabama. As a result, he did not suffer the trauma associated with uncertainty that children experience when they are placed in foster care with strangers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n
\n\n \n

This wasn\u2019t always the case<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

<\/p>\n

Just a few years ago, children in Alabama or Georgia who had a relative living only a few miles across the border had to wait multiple months to be placed with them while the child protection agencies adhered to the requirements of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC). ICPC was established in 1960 and enacted in all states out of a need to clarify and regulate procedures to ensure the safe placement of children across state lines. While the protections are critical for safety and consistency, they were enacted without an accompanying system for efficiently and securely transferring required data across state lines. Without these electronic business processes, the placement of children across state lines has been fraught by major delays, requiring significant coordination between local and statewide offices across both states in order to transfer information and grant approvals. As a result, these placements can routinely take months or even longer to be finalized. This amount of time can feel like a lifetime to a child, who may be moving from one stranger\u2019s home to the next while waiting to be placed with the relative.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n
\n\n \n

A new approach was needed<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

<\/p>\n

In 2010, Judge Thomas Britt Hammond of Georgia\u2019s Juvenile Court noticed a large number of children were placed in foster care with strangers when there was a relative willing to take them in just miles across the border. He decided to do something about it. Judge Hammond surveyed judges across Georgia and an idea emerged to create a border agreement between Georgia and Alabama border counties to allow non-custodial children to be provisionally placed with relatives during the time of the investigation or assessment. The final border agreement that was created specifies:<\/p>\n