IMPLEMENTATION SYSTEM: LOCAL PERMANENCY PLANNING SITES.

The commission shall develop an implementation system that initially consists of four or more local sites and that is designed to coordinate planning for a permanent living arrangement and relationship for a child with a family. In developing the system, the commission shall:

(1) include criteria to identify children who need permanency plans;

(2) require the establishment of a permanency plan for each child who resides outside the child's family or for whom care or protection is sought in an institution;

(3) include a process to determine the agency or entity responsible for developing and overseeing implementation of a child's permanency plan;

(4) identify, blend, and use funds from all available sources to provide customized services and programs to implement a child's permanency plan;

(5) clarify and expand the role of a local community resource coordination group in ensuring accountability for a child who resides in an institution or who is at risk of being placed in an institution;

(6) require reporting of each placement or potential placement of a child in an institution or other living arrangement outside of the child's home; and

(7) assign in each local permanency planning site area a single gatekeeper for all children in the area for whom placement in an institution through a state-funded program is sought with authority to ensure that:

(A) family members of each child are aware of:

(i) intensive services that could prevent placement of the child in an institution; and

(ii) available placement options; and

(B) permanency planning is initiated for each child.