About Pathway: Referrals and Intake Criteria
Referrals may be initiated with a telephone call to either the Intake Director, Wendy Tracy, or any member of the Intake Department. Please call 330-493-0083 or 1-800-838-7284 or send an email to intake@pathwaycfc.org. Thereafter the placement agency should send a pre-placement packet that includes the following:
- Social history of the child.
- Academic reports.
- Psychological/psychiatric evaluations, if available.
- Medical information for the child.
- Current case plan.
- Previous placement history and outcomes.
We attempt to match children with foster parents so that disruptions from placement are kept to an absolute minimum.
If the child has been accepted as an emergency placement, this information should be forwarded immediately thereafter.
Intake Criteria
Intake criteria should not be used to arbitrarily exclude children from Pathway programs. Rather then trying to fit youth into pre-determined program boxes, we ask ourselves, "What do we need to do in order to make this placement work?"
Below are listed minimum criteria for admission to Pathway programs:
- Children may be males or females, ages birth to 18 years.
- The child must be willing to accept placement in the program, including a willingness to accept the structure and rules of the particular foster family with whom he or she will live.
- Children with specific problem areas (chemical dependency, sex offending, etc.) must be willing to participate in an appropriate treatment program during their stay at Pathway.
- Placement of a child in a foster home should not conflict with appropriate family re-unification planning.
- Pathway will not accept children for whom an appropriate program plan (including, as individual situations indicate, education, employment, counseling, physical therapy, recreation, etc.) cannot be developed in the community.