(1) You may use a respite provider as defined in WAC 388-148-1600 to watch your foster child when you are away from home.

(2) You may also use a friend or relative as a substitute care provider for foster children when you are away from home without arranging for a background check. Substitute care provided on an occasional basis for less than seventy-two hours will be at your own expense. You may use a substitute care provider only when you have no reason to suspect that he or she would be a risk to children and has no founded child abuse or neglect history or criminal history that would disqualify him or her from caring for children. You must also:

(a) Be familiar and comfortable with the substitute care provider who will be caring for the child;

(b) Meet the substitute care provider and review the expectations regarding supervision and discipline of the foster children;

(c) Provide the substitute care provider any special care instructions; and

(d) Tell the substitute care provider how to contact you in case of an emergency.

(3) If care by the substitute care provider is a regular arrangement, you must have written approval from the child's DSHS worker. The substitute care provider must provide evidence of a cleared Washington state patrol background check and meet additional requirements for members of the household as defined in WAC 388-148-1320 (2) and (4).

(4) Based on the special needs of a child, the DSHS worker may require the substitute care provider to have additional skills or training.

(5) Teenagers, age sixteen and seventeen, who meet all requirements stated in this section, may supervise no more than three foster children.

(6) Foster children may provide short-term babysitting for children not in foster care. Sexually aggressive and physically assaultive youth may not babysit children.