# Strategy Guide — Scenario 47: The First Night

**The win, named exactly as in the scenario data: "Ending — Home by Thursday."**

The best outcome: at the shelter care hearing, within 72 hours of the emergency placement, care is continued but Ines is placed with her aunt Yolanda that night, kinship approval to be completed on a court-set date, with the mother's written childcare plan governing.

**Graph-walked winning route (verified programmatically against `scenario-47.json`; every step is a legal choice, every gate satisfied by flags accumulated on the route):**

`start → the_checklist → named_in_writing → the_decision → the_call → the_bag → morning → what_judge_needs → sister_calls → the_plan → records_ask → hearing_day → hearing_outcome → end_kin`

Final cash on the walked route: $134 of $140.

The decisive choices: (1) at the door, name the aunt **in writing on the worker's form, with her phone number** (`auntNamedEarly`); (2) the aunt calls the agency herself the next morning and opens her home to the walk-through (`sisterEngaged`); (3) a written childcare plan with named backups and the manager's shift letter; (4) the written record request under 55 Pa. Code § 3130.44(d) — set on the winning route, as in every scenario in this batch.

**Verified law used (v1 set):** shelter care hearing within 72 hours (42 Pa.C.S. § 6332; 23 Pa.C.S. § 6315(d)) — the story's placement is Monday night, March 9, 2026, and the hearing is Thursday, March 12, 2026, inside the clock; counsel (42 Pa.C.S. § 6337; § 6332(a)); record release (55 Pa. Code § 3130.44(d)).

**Traps traced to endings:**

- Naming the aunt aloud only (`named_outloud`, then letting it stand) leaves the file with "may be available" — no number, nobody tasked. Combined with a day lost to "thinking," the route lands at **"Ending — Named Too Late (partial)"**: placement with the aunt revisited in ten days. The aunt, her house, and her willingness are identical in both endings; only the paper differs.
- The partial ending is honestly labeled partial and is recoverable — the study is open and the date is set. The scenario's doctrine: the 72-hour clock protects the *hearing*, not the *placement*. The placement is protected by what the file holds when the hearing happens.

**What no strategy controls:** the judge (the same papers could keep Ines in the foster home until the aunt's approval completes); what the aunt's clearances might surface; and the underlying fact — a child was alone, and no route in this scenario pretends otherwise. The strategy buys the kinship question being *asked* on Thursday, not a guaranteed answer.