Title 51, Title 51. Public Welfare

If a county children services board appointed under section 5153.03 of the Revised Code is a public children services agency for a county, the board may appoint an advisory committee on children services. If an entity specified in division (B) or (C) of section 5153.02 of the Rev…

The county children services board may enter into a written contract with the board's executive director specifying terms and conditions of the executive director's employment. The executive director shall not be in the classified civil service. The period of the contract shall n…

Each public children services agency shall designate an executive officer known as the "executive director," who shall not be in the classified civil service. The superintendent of the children's home, the county director of job and family services, or other individual may serve …

The executive director shall administer the work of the public children services agency, subject to the rules of the agency. With the approval of the agency, the executive director shall appoint all other employees except the superintendent of any institution maintained by the ag…

(A)(1) The executive director of a public children services agency shall request the superintendent of the bureau of criminal identification and investigation to conduct a criminal records check with respect to any applicant who has applied to the agency for employment as a perso…

(A) A public children services agency may hire as a caseworker only the following: (1) A person who has a bachelor's degree in human services-related studies; (2) A person who has a bachelor's degree in any field and has been employed for at least two years in a human services-re…

(A)(1) As used in this section, "applicant" has the same meaning as in section 5153.111 of the Revised Code, and includes an intern applicant or a volunteer applicant. (2) "Intern applicant" means a trainee seeking practical educational and career experience who is under consider…

All employees of the public children services agency shall be in the classified civil service. The agency may establish compensation rates and vacation benefits for any of its employees. Insofar as practicable, all employees holding positions in the classified service, whose duti…

(A) The board of county commissioners and the county children services board may agree to permit any employee of the department of children and youth also to perform duties for the county children services board, or to permit any employee of the county children services board als…

Each PCSA caseworker hired after January 1, 2007, shall complete in-service training during the first year of the caseworker's continuous employment as a PCSA caseworker, except that the executive director of the public children services agency may waive the training requirement …

Each PCSA caseworker supervisor shall complete in-service training during the first year of the supervisor's continuous employment as a PCSA caseworker supervisor. The training shall include courses in screening reports of child abuse, neglect, or dependency. After a PCSA casewor…

(A)(1) The director of children and youth shall adopt rules as necessary to implement the training requirements of sections 5153.122 and 5153.123 of the Revised Code. (2) Not later than nine months after September 30, 2021, the director shall adopt rules in accordance with Chapte…

Each PCSA caseworker supervisor shall work with each PCSA caseworker the supervisor supervises to determine the caseworker's training needs in accordance with, and ensure the caseworker's compliance with, the training requirements of section 5153.122 of the Revised Code. Once eve…

The executive director of each public children services agency or a person designated by the executive director shall work with each PCSA caseworker supervisor employed by the agency to determine the supervisor's training needs in accordance with, and ensure the supervisor's comp…

The executive director of each public children services agency or a person designated by the executive director shall collect and maintain the data from individual training needs assessments completed under sections 5153.125 and 5153.126 of the Revised Code for each PCSA casework…

Except as otherwise provided in section 3.061 of the Revised Code, before entering upon official duties, the executive director shall give a bond to the county in such sum as is fixed by the public children services agency, with sufficient surety, conditioned upon the faithful pe…

A public children services agency may procure a policy or policies of insurance insuring employees of the agency, volunteers, foster caregivers associated with the agency, and, if a county children services board is the public children services agency, board members against liabi…

The executive director shall prepare and submit an annual report to the public children services agency at the end of each calendar year and shall file copies of such report with the department of children and youth, the board of county commissioners, and the juvenile court. The …

The powers and duties enumerated in sections 5153.16 to 5153.19 of the Revised Code, with respect to the care of children, needing or likely to need public care or services, shall be vested in a single agency of county government, namely, a county department of job and family ser…

(A) Except as provided in section 2151.422 of the Revised Code, in accordance with rules adopted under section 5153.166 of the Revised Code, and on behalf of children in the county whom the public children services agency considers to be in need of public care or protective servi…

(A) As used in this section, "qualified nonrelative" means a nonrelative adult whom a child or the current custodial caretaker of a child identifies as having a familiar and longstanding relationship or bond with the child or the child's family that will ensure the child's social…

Pursuant to an agreement entered into under division (A)(10) of section 5153.16 of the Revised Code respecting the operation, acquisition, or maintenance of a children's home, training school, or other institution for the care of children maintained by a municipal corporation or …

(A) As used in this section: (1) "Adoptive parent" means, as the context requires, a prospective adoptive parent or an adoptive parent. (2) "Relative" has the same meaning as in section 5180.42 of the Revised Code. (B)(1) Before a child's adoption is finalized, a public children …

If a family is encountering an emergency that could lead, or has led, to removal of a child from the family's home pursuant to Chapter 2151. of the Revised Code, the public children services agency shall determine whether the child could remain safely with, or be safely returned …

In addition to other rules specifically authorized by the Revised Code, the director of children and youth may adopt rules governing public children services agencies' performance of their family services duties, including the family services duties that public children services …

(A) Each public children services agency shall prepare and keep written records of all of the following: (1) Investigations of families, children, and foster homes; (2) The care, training, and treatment afforded to children; (3) Such other records as are required by the departmen…

(A) On receipt by a public children services agency of a request for the release of information about a child under eighteen years of age who was a resident of the county served by the agency at the time of death and whose death may have been caused by abuse, neglect, or other cr…

(A) Notwithstanding sections 2151.421, 3701.243, 5153.17, and any other section of the Revised Code pertaining to confidentiality and unless precluded by section 5153.173 of the Revised Code, the director shall disclose the following information concerning a deceased child in acc…

The director shall not disclose any information pursuant to section 5153.172 of the Revised Code if a judge of the common pleas court of the county the deceased child resided in at the time of death determines, on motion of the public children services agency, that disclosing the…

(A) Notwithstanding division (I)(1) of section 2151.421, section 5153.17, and any other section of the Revised Code pertaining to confidentiality, when a public children services agency has determined that child abuse or neglect occurred and that abuse or neglect involves a perso…

As used in this section, "license" has the same meaning as in section 3319.31 of the Revised Code.(A) Notwithstanding division (I)(1) of section 2151.421, section 5153.17, or any other section of the Revised Code pertaining to confidentiality, the director of a public children se…

(A) The public children services agency shall have the capacity possessed by natural persons to institute proceedings in any court.(B) When appointed by the probate court exercising jurisdiction in adoption proceedings, the executive director may act as next friend of any child a…

The public children services agency shall, before entering into any agreement obligating the agency with respect to the care of any child, determine the ability of the child, parent, guardian, or other person to pay for the cost of such care, having due regard for other dependent…

(A)(1) Except as provided in division (B) of this section, the cost of care furnished by the public children services agency or the board of county commissioners to any child having a legal residence in another county shall be charged to the county of legal residence. No expense …

The board of county commissioners may establish a children's home upon the recommendation of the public children services agency and subject to certification by the department of children and youth under section 5103.03 of the Revised Code and the requirements of sections 5103.05…

If there is no children's home in the county or if the facilities for institutional care are inadequate, the public children services agency may, subject to the approval of the department of children and youth and the board of county commissioners, enter into an agreement with th…

The superintendent of the county children's home shall control, manage, operate, and have general charge of such home, subject to the rules, standards, and orders of the public children services agency.

The children to be admitted for care in a county children's home, the period during which such children shall be cared for therein, and the removal and transfer of children therefrom shall be determined by the executive secretary, subject to the agreement, surrender, or commitmen…

The superintendent of the county children's home may provide and carry on, in connection with a children's home, such industrial, agricultural, and other pursuits for the children in such home as are deemed expedient by the public children services agency. Any products of such pu…

At the request of the superintendent of the county children's home, the public children services agency may issue orders upon the county auditor for the payment to such superintendent of a sum, not exceeding two hundred dollars at any one time, to be designated the fund for the p…

A public children services agency operating a children's home or other institution is subject to sections 5103.03 and 5103.04 of the Revised Code respecting certification by the department of children and youth. Last updated April 14, 2025 at 12:46 PM

Boards of township trustees, the superintendent of any county home, and other officers and employees of any county, municipal corporation, or other political subdivisions of the state shall make a report to the public children services agency respecting any child in the county co…

The board of county commissioners of any county having a county children's home, may, upon the recommendation of the public children services agency and with the approval of the department of children and youth, abandon the use of such home and proceed to sell or lease the site, …

The public children services agency may accept and receive bequests, donations, and gifts of funds or property, real or personal, for child care and services. The facilities or services to be established or maintained through any such gift shall be subject to the approval of the …

All personal property, records, files, and other documents and papers belonging to or in the possession of any agency or institution, the powers and duties of which are transferred by this chapter to the public children services agency, the proceeds of all tax levies in process o…

Any corporation, organized under the laws of this state for the purpose of establishing, conducting, and maintaining a child welfare institution or agency, which is unable, for any reason, to conduct and maintain such institution or agency, and which has not, for a period of thre…