Effective Date: 1-30-2026
4.7.11 FST Meeting Planning and Scheduling
It is the expectation that FST meetings occur in person to enhance engagement and meeting quality. When scheduling a FST meeting, first consideration should be given to the family and youth’s schedule with effort to be the least disruptive to work and school schedules as possible. The team is responsible for ensuring the youth is able to be present in person when attending.
FST meetings can occur at any location that accommodates the participants and allows for confidentiality to be maintained, including the parent home, and should be scheduled for a length of time to accommodate thorough coverage of the meeting agenda.
Children’s Division may accommodate, when possible, a request for virtual participation. Virtual participants should be asked to have their camera on unless that technology is not available to the participant or doing so would create a safety issue.
Contact Conflict
The team must hold separate meetings to accommodate family members who cannot participate together. Contact conflict is often due to court orders which prohibit contact between parents or between a parent and youth; when contact between individuals would impact an ongoing investigation; or the participation of an individual would negatively impact the youth’s safety or wellbeing.
When this occurs, the circumstances requiring separate meetings must be documented in the FST contact note in the electronic case record.
The worker may determine if the same or different FST-1’s are utilized for separate family meetings. Consideration should be given to the information documented and subsequently shared following the meeting via the FST Meeting Team Member Tasks and Recommendations: Team Member Copy (section 3) of the FST-1. The worker must determine if information should be redacted to protect a person’s confidential information, safety or well-being.