Jessica Gary

• Built solid and trusting rapport with children and families, fostering trust and communication to meet case needs.
• Documented data and completed accurate updates to case records.
• Interviewed individuals and families to assess needs and provide informational resources.
• Collaborated with community program leaders and advocates to make resources accessible to those in need.
• Completed home welfare checks to align with state and program guidelines.
• Reported child abuse in accordance with legal standards of mandatory reporters.

Children placed outside of their home regions are assigned a courtesy supervision caseworker located in the region in which they are placed. The Local Permanency Specialist will be responsible for:

• Visit/make contact with the child and caregiver at the placement within 15 days of assignment
• Enter a face to face contact in child’s IMPACT SUB stage within 24 hours or within seven days of contact, no later than the last day of the month or in some situations before the 5 day of the new month to
ensure state office counts the monthly face to face contact
• Participate in and document Treatment Plan Reviews, Transition Plans, ARD meetings, Circle of Support, Permanency Roundtables, medical appointments, and any other child meetings whenever possible
• Notify the primary caseworker of any changes affecting the child or the child’s placement
• Attend court hearings to include regional court hearings, juvenile detention hearings, child support cases, citizenship hearings
• Act as the designated medical consenter as needed for medical or other surgical procedures
• Participate in psychiatric medication reviews when children & youth are placed in Residential Treatment & GRO facilities, document in Impact as well as send related documentation to the primary worker
• Assist with coordination of parent child or sibling visitation
• Assist with child placement transitions/placements
• Assist with the referral process for Child Safe requests
• Assist with the referral process for Developmental Intellectual Disability assessments
• Complete abuse hotline referrals when a child makes an outcry regarding treatment or care in their placements
• Collect and prepare children’s belongings for return to the child or their caseworker
• Assist other regions with last minute emergency needs
• Assist State Office with Child Safety Checks and other related tasks as requested
• Ensure that Kinship families have been referred to the Kinship program for support services when they have not been referred by the region of placement
• Referring and transporting, aging out youth to the local PAL youth center for intake services

• Assist with temporary supervision of children medically hospitalized until hospital sitting services are coordinated
• Transport youth on outings such as shopping or lunch for birthdays and goal achievements
• Attend child and youth school or extra-curricular activities to support child’s interests
• Assist with child without placement supervision and tasks as needed

Essential Job Functions:
Attends work on a regular and predictable schedule in accordance with agency leave policy and performs other duties as assigned
Knowledge Skills Abilities:
*Knowledge of agency policies and procedures
*Skills in effective verbal and written communication
*Skills in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships
*Good organizational skills/time management
*Ability to operate a personal computer and use of IMPACT
*Ability to travel as well travel long distances by vehicle & airplane as needed
*Flexibility in schedule to accommodate for late evening contacts
*Appreciates team efforts and support to complete tasks as a group when necessary

Essential Job Functions:
• Receives cases from investigators after children are removed from their homes, placed in CPS conservatorship, and placed in care outside their homes.
• Determines each child’s needs and ensuring that appropriate referrals for testing, evaluations, records, or further assessments are made. Ensures all services are focused on achieving positive permanency.
• Working with children, families, and communities to plan for a child's permanency.
• Identifying potential permanency resources for the child through ongoing contact with parents, family members, and other individuals the child and family identify as important to them.
• Searching for potential kinship providers throughout the case. Completing home studies of a child's family members or family friends (kinship providers) who might care for the child.
• Meets with the parents to assess risk and safety issues, identify behavior changes necessary to achieve child safety, referring parents to appropriate services to address the identified needs to move towards positive permanency. Discusses with parents their progress towards making changes to behaviors that pose dangers to their child(ren).
• Meets with children, parents, family friends, or foster homes in public as well as in their own homes.
• Collaborates with a Placement Team, including Kinship staff, for placements, as needed.
• Participates in meetings and conferences at times and places convenient for the family members as well as everyone involved in the case.
• Visits children monthly to assess the child’s feeling of safety in their current home, to plan for permanency, and to discuss their needs, wishes, and progress while in care
• Attends and participates in court hearings about the child and family. This includes contacting the parties in the case before hearings, preparing court reports, and testifying in court on the child’s needs, the family’s progress, and the department’s efforts to achieve permanency for the child.
• Keeps the child’s, parents, caregivers, court-appointed attorney and guardian ad litem(s) informed about the child’s circumstances and significant events.
• Works with the department's attorney to prepare for contested-court hearings and trials.
• Works with kinship caregivers and foster parents to ensure that they have what they need to care for the child or youth placed with them i.e., keeping them informed about developments in the case, returning phone calls, and in some areas of the state being available 24 hours a day / 7 days a week at certain times.
• Transitions children home during reunification services and provides support to the family until the legal case is closed.
• Supervises adoptive placements until the adoption is final or until the case is transferred to an adoption caseworker.
• Using effective time-management skills to make sure all key tasks are done.
• Documents case records by completing forms, narratives, and reports to form a written record for each client.
• Develops and maintains effective working relationships between Child Protective Services staff and law enforcement officials, judicial officials, legal resources, medical professionals, and other community resources.
• Performs other duties as assigned and required to maintain unit operations.
• Promotes and demonstrates appropriate respect for cultural diversity among coworkers, clients, and all work-related contacts.
• Attends work regularly in accordance with agency leave policy.

Knowledge Skills Abilities:
• Knowledge of child development
• Knowledge of family dynamics
• Skill in effective verbal and written communication.
• Skill in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships.
• Skill in problem solving techniques
• Ability to operate a personal computer.
• Ability to travel and attend child and family visits as well as other work related appointments and meetings after 5pm.
• Ability to be on call on a rotating basis and work irregular hours.
• Ability to work in an emotion-filled environment and which may require conducting home visits in isolated or high crime areas and may involve exposure to substandard and unsanitary living conditions.

• Built solid and trusting rapport with children and families, fostering trust and communication to meet case needs.
• Completed home welfare checks to align with state and program guidelines.
• Reported child abuse in accordance with legal standards of mandatory reporters.
• Planned, promoted and managed parent workshops on assisting children in attaining academic success.
• Organized activities for birth parents and in-home support counselors.
• Quickly learned new skills and applied them to daily tasks, improving efficiency and productivity.
• Carried out day-day-day duties accurately and efficiently.
• Demonstrated respect, friendliness and willingness to help wherever needed.
• Worked flexible hours; night, weekend, and holiday shifts.
• Documented data and completed accurate updates to case records.
• Interviewed individuals and families to assess needs and provide informational resources.
• Collaborated with community program leaders and advocates to make resources accessible to those in need.

A Texas Works Advisor III performs complex technical, administrative, and management work for a direct delivery unit. Completes unit reports, special narrative or statistical reports, and responds to complex high profile client complaints. Serves as a lead worker responsible for mentoring and training of new staff, which includes providing direction, support, and feedback. Serves as the acting supervisor in the unit supervisor's absence. Performs case reviews to determine validity and accuracy of eligibility determinations made by other staff. Initiates, monitors, and manages service improvement projects and reports on activities. Interviews clients, verifies financial and other information, and determines/re-determines eligibility for SNAP (Food Stamps), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid and/or Medicaid for the Elderly and People with Disabilities (MEPD) programs. Completes formal reports and narratives for management. Provides general information and assistance to clients regarding programs and application process. Reviews suspected fraud cases and makes referrals to investigators. The position requires detailed oriented individuals with ability to apply complex policies and procedures.

Essential Job Functions:
• Provide efficient customer service when interacting with internal and external customers.
• Assists in interpreting policy, training new workers, completing unit reports, resolving and responding to customer complaints.
• Reviews case records to determine compliance with policies and procedures to identify trends and for corrective action.
• Assists in support unit activities including case reading, troubleshooting, second level reviews, and On the Job Training assignments.
• Assists in developing standards or procedures for assigned area.
• Interview applicants and recipients in person or by inbound or outbound telephone calls to obtain pertinent financial and personal information to determine eligibility for public assistance programs.
• Evaluate data from various electronic and other sources to enter information into a computer-based eligibility system.
• Meet agency performance standards for case processing and benefit authorization.
• Process work in accordance with state and federal regulations and established procedures, guidelines and timeframes.
• Attend work on a regular and predictable schedule in accordance with agency leave policy.
• Perform other duties as assigned, including acting in the supervisor’s absence.

• Knowledge Skills Abilities:
  
• Knowledge of eligibility programs, requirements, and policies in regards to SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare and TANF.
  
• Knowledge of Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPPA) and Tax Sensitive information regulations.
  
• Knowledge of interviewing techniques to obtain personal information, make inquiries, and resolve conflicting statements.
  
• Ability to monitor, review and analyze data and reports.
  
• Skill in handling and resolving complex case issues.
  
• Skill in interpreting and applying agency, state, and federal rules, regulations, policies, and procedures.
  
• Skill in the use of automated data systems.
  
• Skill in providing good customer service.
  
• Skill in effective verbal and written communication.
  
• Ability to screen applications, verify eligibility criteria, and determine case dispositions.
  
• Ability to interpret and apply agency, state, and federal rules, regulations, policy, and procedures.
  
• Ability to develop and establish effective working relationships.
  
• Ability to evaluate performance issues.
  
• Ability to identify problems and evaluate alternatives.
  
• Ability to work occasional overtime, as required by management, outside of normal hours of operation, which may include weekends when called upon.
  
• Ability to work in a highly stressful and fast paced environment, under constant pressure to meet required deadlines.

Perform routine eligibility determinations for social services programs including SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, and TANF. Work involves reviewing eligibility files, interviewing clients, documenting client information, determining benefits, verifying case data, and explaining program benefits and requirements.

Examples of work performed:

• Obtain, verify, and calculate income and resources to determine client financial eligibility for social services programs such as SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare and TANF.
  
• Process, monitor, review, and communicate case status and changes to clients, their families, or authorized representatives.
  
• Interview clients, their families, or authorized representatives to gather information in determining benefit eligibility.
  
• Certify program eligibility, compute benefit levels, and determine the length of eligibility.
  
• Conduct reviews to determine or verify new and continued program eligibility.
  
• Explain program benefits, requirements, rights of appeal, and fair hearings to clients, their families, or authorized representatives.
  
• Calculate and process changes to client benefits such as overpayments, adjustments, or restoration of benefits.
  
• Document case records to maintain accurate and confidential client records.
  
• Read, understand, apply and explain detailed regulations and policies.
  
• Perform basic arithmetic functions.
  
• Manage time efficiently by establishing priorities in accordance to importance of deadlines.
  
• Establish and maintain effective work relationships with others.
  
• Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing.
  
• Operate computers to perform data entry and basic office software use such as Microsoft Word, Outlook and Excel.
  
  

The Extended School Day (ESD) program is sponsored by the Lewisville ISD Campus Support Services Department. ESD is an enrichment-based program designed to capitalize on the interests and developmental needs of the child while providing opportunities for successful experiences in a less structured atmosphere than the regular school day. Extended School Day operates between the hours of 3:00 pm - 6:30 pm.

The Extended School Day Program is open to all children in Kindergarten through Grade 5 who attend an elementary school in the Lewisville ISD. Enrollment is limited to 70 students at most sites.

ESD Campus Leaders and aides supervise the program. Campus Leaders plan and conduct activities, including time for play, study, and creative and social growth through the use of music, the arts, books, sports, and more! Nutritious snacks are provided.