Key Principle 6: Rate Items Within a 30-Day Window

The 30-day Window focuses on knowing how the individual, and family are doing now—not how they used to be doing. In other words, we are not measuring whether it occurred in the last 30 days but whether it mattered in the previous 30 days. Therefore, things that happened in the past that have a functional impact today can be rated as actionable based on this concept.

Please note that when contemplating whether the 30-day Window fails to capture an individual’s true level of actionable need or risk, consider if it is due to masking. Masking occurs when a service currently in place is covering a need. For example, a child/youth with a known history of delinquent behavior may not have committed any new acts during the last 30 days because they are in a residential program with 24-hour supervision. This would not be an example of expanding the 30-day window Principle, but rather, an example of Principle 3: Rate the Individual, not the Individual in Support Services. For more information, see the tip sheet: “Key Principle 3: Ratings Describe the Individual not the individual in Support Services”.

The following examples include the items, the ratings, and a sample of how that rating and the reasons behind it might be documented.