Addendum to Attachment 2-C.docx

Attachment 2-C Addendum Arizona Baptist Children’s Services will not be open on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Independence Day. To maintain service availability and continue to meet contract requirements ABCS will use a combination of preparation, on-call staff, and holiday pay.

ABCS will utilize an on-call staff member to ensure that any new referrals received during an office closure are acknowledged within 24 hours and all initial contact for new referrals is made within 24 hours. All referrals are received in shared mailboxes. On any holiday ABCS is closed that is not a state recognized holiday, we understand we may still receive referrals. We will designate an individual in each county to monitor the inbox for referrals, acknowledge the receipt of the referral, and make all contract required initial contacts as necessary to meet all deadlines.

To ensure that all reporting requirements are met by the required deadline during office closures, ABCS administrative staff will monitor documents which have a due date that falls on the day of an office closure, including exhibits B and C. If the deadlines for these documents fall on a day the office will be closed, administrative staff will communicate with field staff the shortened deadline and will submit all documents prior to the holiday/office closure.

To ensure service continuity for children and clients, ABCS field staff will communicate any office closures three to four weeks in advance to both clients and each child’s caregiver. If regular visits are scheduled to occur on a day when the office is closed, field staff will offer an alternate schedule to the family to ensure they receive their visits. If all parties agree on the alternate schedule, the visit that was set to occur on the holiday will be rescheduled. If all parties do not agree on an alternate schedule, ABCS will offer the visit on the regularly scheduled day when possible, and staff will be provided with holiday pay or a floating holiday depending on what holiday the visit occurs. Throughout our years of experience with supervised visitation services, we have found that often it is difficult for an out-of-home caregiver to accommodate a visit on some holidays. In the past we have successfully been able to work with the families to find an alternate schedule that all parties can agree on. If an agreement on a holiday visitation schedule cannot be reached, ABCS staff will request assistance from DCS to help facilitate a plan for the impacted visit. ABCS will ensure that all services scheduled on holiday closures are completed, either by rescheduling or on the holiday when needed.