# Strategy Guide — Scenario 131: "Three Files, One Family"

*Game documentation for a fictional simulation in "The First 90 Days" (Tactic Watch). The family, the case, and every choice below are fictional. This guide is general information about how the scenario is built — it is not legal advice for any real case.*

## (1) The win

**Best ending: "Ending — Every Clock Answered."**

This is a **partial** win, labeled so in the guide because honesty is the house rule: every clock is answered, the appeal is expunged, both children come home — after fifteen months in care. No route in this scenario returns the months; the best route ensures no month was lost to a missed date, a copied error, or a blended packet. That is the best possible outcome the situation allows, and the guide says so.

## (2) The route

Verified by walking the scenario graph from the start node (see the verification note at the end). Key decision points, in order — node title, winning choice, and what it changes:

1. **Three Envelopes** — *Build the master calendar first: every clock, every date, one page* Sets **calendarSet**.
2. **The Envelopes, Opened in Order** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
3. **What a Calendar Cannot Do** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
4. **Ms. Urrutia Draws the Board** — *Do the paper version: dated, copied, filed* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
5. **The Appeal, Filed in Week One** — *Mail it with the stamped copy filed, and note the Bureau's clocks on the calendar: evidence, hearing, decision* Cash −$10; Sets **appealFiled**.
6. **Two Placements, Two Logs** — *Keep one sibling-visit log for both children, signed by both resource families* Sets **siblingLog**.
7. **Two Sundays** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
8. **The Log's Second Signature** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
9. **Both Records, Requested** — *Sign both written requests; file both stamped copies in the master folder* Cash −$10; Sets **recordsRequested**.
10. **What the Two Files Say** — *File the date correction in both children's files, entry order attached* Cash −$5; Sets **dateCorrected**.
11. **Reading Teo's File First** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
12. **Reading Irati's File** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
13. **The Appeal's Evidence** — *Build the appeal exhibit set around the nurse's note and the dated photos* Cash −$5; Sets **evidenceReceived**.
14. **The School's Letter** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
15. **The Photographs, Dated** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
16. **Two Service Plans, One Mother** — *Write the referral-gap letter once and file it in both children's cases* Cash −$5; Sets **gapDocumented**.
17. **The Spring Reviews** — *Do the paper version: dated, copied, filed* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
18. **The Reviews Before the Hearing** — *Do the paper version: dated, copied, filed* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
19. **The Transcript's Quiet Pages** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
20. **Waiting, Documented** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
21. **Expunged, and What It Doesn't Do** — *File the expungement order in both dependency files, with a cover page noting the date* Sets **expungementFiled**.
22. **Aunt Selene's Application** — *Support the study with the sibling log and a written request that both files note it* Cash −$5; Sets **kinAsked**.
23. **The Study and the Services** — *Assemble the exception packets child by child: Teo's and Irati's, each with its own dates* Cash −$10; Sets **packetBuilt**.
24. **The Winter of Two Bedtimes** — *Do the paper version: dated, copied, filed* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
25. **The Study's References** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
26. **The Home Visit** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
27. **Both Files Note the Study** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
28. **The Winter Push** — *Do the paper version: dated, copied, filed* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
29. **The Review Where the Dates Are Said** — *Ask both courts to write it: exceptions documented, trial return to begin, goal unchanged in both files* This choice is flag-gated: it is only available with **recordsRequested** + **appealFiled** + **packetBuilt** + **dateCorrected**.
30. **The January Paper, Assembled** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.
31. **The Trial's First Weeks** — *Carry the page to its file* Cash −$5; Sets **paperTrail**.

Supporting choices along the same walk — every "paper version" choice (dated, copied, filed), every written request, and every dated letter — add the documentation the packet is later assembled from. The full walked path is printed in the verification note.

## (3) Why this wins — the law as it is supposed to work

- **Per-child arithmetic.** ASFA's filing duty counts each child's months in care (42 U.S.C. § 675(5)(E)): Teo, entered November 3, 2025 → fifteen months Wednesday, February 3, 2027; Irati, entered November 21, 2025 → Sunday, February 21, 2027. The scenario's planted trap — her file's copied November 12 entry date — is worth nine days and is curable only by a written correction filed in both cases.
- **Sequencing is doctrine.** The appeal is the only perishable item on the board: notified December 16, 2025, the 90-day window (23 Pa.C.S. § 6341(a)(2)) closed Monday, March 16, 2026. It is filed on day 9, before the marathon's middle can eat the calendar.
- **The appeal's machinery, reused at capstone weight:** evidence including the exculpatory under § 6341(c.2)(4); the agency's burden by substantial evidence under (c.2)(5); the decision inside (c.3)'s 45 days. The expungement order is then carried — physically, by the parent — into both dependency files.
- **Exceptions are documented per child:** relative care (Selene's approved study) and the case-plan compelling reason, written into each plan (42 U.S.C. § 675(5)(E)). Mirrors for both cases: § 3130.44(d) requests, redactions under (f); counsel as cartographer (42 Pa.C.S. § 6337).

## (4) The traps

1. **Building one blended family packet at "Assemble the Exception Packets"** — the statute counts children, not families — blended arithmetic blurs exactly the dates each exception stands on.
2. **Mentioning Cosette's wrong entry date at a review instead of filing the correction** — mentions are minuted; corrections are filed. Nine days of a child's clock ride on the difference — and the win's gate requires **dateCorrected**.
3. **Filing the appeal after the January review 'settles your thinking'** — the window closes March 16 whether or not your thinking is settled; the late branch is the road to **The Clock That Got Away**.
4. **Letting the agency's January statement stand without asking for orders in both rooms** — statements evaporate in two courtrooms at once; the route settles for **Home in Stages**.

## (5) What no strategy controls

Two judges, a hearing officer, a kinship study queue, a housing waitlist, and a loose bicycle rail. The route controls sequence, accuracy, and paper — the three things a three-file case most reliably loses.

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*Verification: this route was walked programmatically against `scenario-131.json` — each named choice was followed from the start node in order; every flag-gated choice's requirements were satisfied by flags set earlier on the walk; the walk terminates at the ending node titled "Ending — Every Clock Answered" after visiting 34 nodes, with $50 of the $200 starting cash remaining. Walked path: Three Envelopes → The Envelopes, Opened in Order → What a Calendar Cannot Do → Ms. Urrutia Draws the Board → The Appeal, Filed in Week One → Two Placements, Two Logs → Two Sundays → The Log's Second Signature → Both Records, Requested → What the Two Files Say → Reading Teo's File First → Reading Irati's File → The Appeal's Evidence → The School's Letter → The Photographs, Dated → Two Service Plans, One Mother → The Spring Reviews → The Reviews Before the Hearing → The Bureau Hearing → The Transcript's Quiet Pages → Waiting, Documented → Expunged, and What It Doesn't Do → Aunt Selene's Application → The Study and the Services → The Winter of Two Bedtimes → The Study's References → The Home Visit → Both Files Note the Study → The Winter Push → The Review Where the Dates Are Said → The January Paper, Assembled → The Trial's First Weeks → February, Twice → Ending — Every Clock Answered.*