The Foreign Service Journal, September 2016

52 SEPTEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL CFP is made up of a multidisciplinary team of child psycholo- gists, social workers and child psychiatrists with experience in both clinical and educational systems to closely replicate the functions performed by members of a Child Study Team in a U.S. public school. Prior to the creation of CFP, the programmatic functions of educational clearance recommendations and special needs funding and case management were performed by MED/MHS Employee Consultation Services clinical social workers; and men- tal health clearance consultations and medevac support were per- formed by MED/MHS clearance psychologists and psychiatrists. In 2013, a combination of factors contributed to the impe- tus for reimagining MHS structure for supporting children and families. These included resource concerns due to an increased emphasis on traditional Employee Assistance Programwork provided by ECS; a desire to streamline the clearance process for families; and a need to ensure consistent application of the SNEA- related Department of State Standard Regulations. Both MED and MHS leadership recognized the need to move toward a more uniform code of practice in supporting children and families. As with any new program, there have been growing pains. After a reasonable start-up period, an internal assessment was under- taken to gauge the progress of the office in standardizing SNEA case management and servicing the special needs client popula- tion. In that vein, a number of endeavors by CFP stakeholders— including MED, the Office of Allowances, the Office of Overseas Schools, the Family Liaison Office and others—have been under- way over the past year that are aimed at improving oversight, consistency and accountability of the educational allowance. The Office of Allowances has been particularly instrumental in efforts to draft an updated informational SNEA ALDAC cable, to clarify Department of State Standardized Regulations and shep- herd a number of other SNEA initiatives to assist all involved. Two Key Processes MED Clearances. The current MED clearance process for children and youth encompasses three domains: general medical, behavioral health and education. MED/MHS/CFP is responsible for providing clearance recommendations to the Office of MED Clearances for behavioral health and educational needs. When an employee submits a medical clearance update request for a child to the Office of MED Clearances, the office reviews the documen- tation for any behavioral health or educational needs and, where present, sends a request for a clearance consultation to MHS/CFP. MHS/CFP staff then perform a case review as part of the medi- cal clearance process and make a recommendation on what level of need a child has and to what extent the need or needs can be met overseas. Factors that are considered include the condition or disability, level and length of stability, the required treatment or intervention and whether adequate services can reasonably be accessed overseas, among other things. “Post Approvals” are considered when a child has been catego- rized as needing a “post-specific” clearance and the employee’s Human Resources career development officer (CDO) submits potential postings to MED for review. Factors that may speed up the clearance process include submission of up-to-date medi- cal and educational documentation, full disclosure of behavioral health and educational needs, and thorough research by parents into the adequacy of resources at posts of interest. Educational clearances for children may be performed by the CFP with tentative school acceptances received by parents in order to assist an employee in the bidding process. However, an official school acceptance is required for children with special needs before they may travel to post. If official school acceptance is not received, it is the employee’s responsibility to notify their CDO and MED Clearances immediately. Special Needs Education Allowance. Children. Education. Health care. Money. Individually, these topics often spark rich debate and emotion-laden discussion; in aggregate, the reac- tion can be incendiary. The Special Needs Education Allowance process pulls all of these together and has traditionally been the most confusing of the CFP responsibilities for parents, providers and post management. Notwithstanding these challenges, the State Department is committed to assisting employees in meeting the necessary expenses incurred when deployed overseas in providing adequate education for their school-age children. The education allowances are designed to assist in defray- ing those costs necessary to obtain educational services that are ordinarily provided free of charge by public schools in the United Both MED and MHS leadership recognized the need to move toward a more uniform code of practice in supporting children and families.