April 2012Vol. 13, No. 3Print issueSpotlight on National Child Abuse Prevention Month

A column in the December 2011 and January 2012 issues of Prairie Fire, a Nebraska-based newspaper, featured the life's work of child welfare maven Grace Abbott and her legacy of social change. The column, "Sonny's Corner," focuses on justice and civil rights issues and explores the lives of heroes who made a difference in our society.

The December 2011 column highlights Abbott's work with the Immigrants' Protective League. Author Jane Renner Hood describes Abbott's family background, education, and early work.

Abbott's family had strong roots in Nebraska as well as in social reform. Her mother, Elizabeth, was a suffragette. Abbott's father, O.A., was an attorney and Nebraska's first Lt. Governor. Abbott and her sister Edith would later move to Chicago where, through Jane Addams' Hull House—a settlement house for immigrants—she began her work with the Immigrants' Protective League, fighting to provide immigrant families with the same rights and protection as other Americans. Among her immediate efforts was the regulation of banks that often treated immigrants unfairly.

Abbott recommended to the Bankers' Association that private banks should be regulated and all agents in the foreign exchange business be licensed and inspected. These recommendations laid the foundation for Illinois State legislation in 1917 that safeguarded money sent from immigrants in the U.S. to their families abroad.

Abbott later traveled to many of the immigrants' home countries to better understand the plight families faced when entering life in America. Upon her return, she was quoted as saying, "A great means of enriching our national life is lost if we give those who are coming from the various nations of Europe the impression that we desire to neglect all but the Anglo-Saxon element in our population."

The January 2012 column in Prairie Fire, also written by Hood, focused on Abbott's work with the Children's Bureau, with a particular focus on the 1916 Child Labor Law. The law prohibited child labor in mines for children under 16 and those under 14 in mills and factories. The law also banned children from working more than 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, or at night. Abbott worked on the law's implementation, establishing the rules and regulations, and evaluating which States were in compliance and which were not.

Hood also highlighted Abbott's influence in the passage of The Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921, the first major piece of Federal legislation aimed at improving maternal and infant health. That same year, Abbott became Children's Bureau Chief. She served under four presidents during her tenure with the Children's Bureau from 1921 to 1934.

The December 2011 issue of Prairie Fire is available here: 

http://www.prairiefirenewspaper.com/2011/12/sonnys-corner

The January 2012 issue of Prairie Fire is available here:

http://www.prairiefirenewspaper.com/2012/01/sonnys-corner  

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Chicago's Hull House, founded by Jane Addams in 1889, closed its doors in January 2012 after more than 120 years. Addams spearheaded the social reform movement on behalf of immigrants, children, and women. Abbott began her work to better the lives of immigrants and children at Hull House, along with her sister Edith.

For more information on Hull House, visit the Jane Addams Hull House Association website:

http://www.hullhouse.org/

This is the ninth and final article in our first Centennial Series. This series addressed some of the social issues, practices, and policies that laid the groundwork for the creation of the Children's Bureau in April 1912. A new series, CB Decade-by-Decade, will premiere in May and examine the highlights from each decade of the Children's Bureau's first 100 years.

At the turn of the last century, the concept of children as economic necessities began to wane and was replaced by the idea that children had a right to a happy, healthy, and safe childhood. This budding attitude, combined with Progressive Era campaigns for government intervention in the nation's social struggles, raised the need for a Federal agency charged with protecting the welfare of America's children. After 9 years and 11 congressional bills, the Children's Bureau was created. Its early efforts laid the foundation for much of the research, initiatives, and programs that continue today. 

There were two main issues that led to the Bureau's creation: infant mortality rates and child labor. According to the 1910 U.S. Census, there were an estimated 2.2 million children under 1 year of age (U.S. Census Bureau, 1910). That year, there also were approximately 300,000 infant deaths (Lathrop, 1914). A study in 1907 found that more than 500,000 children were employed in industrial jobs, including in coal mines, textile mills, iron and steel works, and furniture, lumber, and glass factories (Lindenmeyer, 1997). In the early 20th century, the Federal Government had no stake in nurturing the development or protecting the well-being of the nation's children. Such work was primarily conducted by religious and philanthropic entities, until activists encouraged government engagement.

As early as 1900, Florence Kelley, a member of the National Consumers League who regularly spoke on child labor issues, proposed in her lectures a Federal Commission on Children. In 1903, Lillian Wald, founder of New York City's Henry Street Settlement, suggested to Kelley that the government establish a Federal Children's Bureau. Kelley brought the recommendation to Edward Devine, a trustee of the newly formed National Child Labor Committee and through whom Wald was able to get the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt (Bradbury, 1962). While the President promised his support, congressional approval was necessary. That road was neither short nor smooth.

The first bill to create the Children's Bureau was introduced in 1906, however, it never reached a vote. In 1908, another bill was introduced and passed out of committee. Nevertheless, it reached the same fate as the original bill, never seeing a final vote (U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor, 1912). The turning point came in 1909 when the American Academy of Medicine (AAM) convened the first-ever infant mortality conference in New Haven, CT (Reynolds, 2007). That same year, President Roosevelt called for the first White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children and raised his support for the agency to new heights: 

"We have an Agricultural Department and we are spending $14 million or $15 million a year to tell the farmers, by the result of our research, how they ought to treat the soil and how they ought to treat the cattle and the horses, with a view of having good hogs and good cattle . . . it does not seem to be a long step or a stretch of logic to say we have the power to spend the money on a Bureau of Research to tell how we may develop good men and women" (Bradbury, 1962).

Over the course of 6 years, eight bills in the U.S. House and three bills in the U.S. Senate were introduced. Finally, a bill introduced in the 61st Congress by Senator William E. Borah passed the Senate on January 31, 1912, and the House on April 2 of the same year. President Taft signed it into law on April 9, creating the nation's—and the world's—first Federal agency whose exclusive focus was improving the lives of children and families. Its mission was to "investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people." Its immediate task was to research infant and maternal mortality, followed by orphanages, juvenile courts, dangerous occupations, diseases of children, employment, and State and territory legislation affecting children (U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor, 1912; Bradbury, 1962).

In the original bill, the Bureau was allocated an annual budget of $25,640 and permitted a staff of 15, including one Chief officer. Eight years before women won the right to vote in America, Julia Lathrop was appointed Chief of the Children's Bureau and became the first woman to head a Federal agency. Among her successes, she established new research efforts and led groundbreaking "baby saving" campaigns that helped to dramatically lower the nation's infant mortality rate.

One hundred years later, the Children's Bureau continues to work with States, Tribes, and territories to improve the overall health and well-being of our nation's children and families. With an annual budget of almost $8 billion, the Children's Bureau maintains its focus on rigorous research to inform practices that prevent child abuse and neglect, protect children when child abuse and neglect occur, and ensure every child has a permanent family or family connection.

References

Bradbury, D. (1962). Five decades of action for children, a history of the Children's Bureau. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health, Education, And Welfare. Social Security Administration. Children's Bureau. Retrieved from http://www.mchlibrary.info/history/chbu/2628.PDF (8 MB)

Lathrop, J. (1914a). First annual report of the Chief, Children's Bureau, to the Secretary of Labor, for the fiscal year ended June 1913. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://www.mchlibrary.info/history/chbu/21867-1st.PDF (1MB)

Lindenmeyer, K. (1997). A right to childhood: The U.S. Children's Bureau and child welfare, 1912-46. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Reynolds, H. (2007). Public health and midwifery. In L. Ament (Ed.), Professional issues in midwifery (pp. 54–55). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Retrieved from http://www.jblearning.com/samples/0763728365/Professional_Issues_in_Midwifery_Ch3.pdf  (1 MB)

U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor. (1912). Establishment of the Children's Bureau. Retrieved from http://www.mchlibrary.info/history/chbu/20364.pdf (842 KB)
 

The Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921 was the first major piece of Federal legislation focused on improving maternal and infant health. The law allocated nearly $1.2 million in Federal funds to States over 5 years for infant and maternal health care education. An article in Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services describes the role that Children's Bureau research and advocacy played in the passage of the act.

Children's Bureau (CB) efforts not only paved the way for the groundbreaking legislation but also changed the face of social science research. CB's first Chief, Julia Lathrop, adopted a cohort approach to studying infant mortality to try to identify the causes of the high rate of infant mortality. Prior to the studies conducted by CB in the early 1900s, infant deaths had merely been counted. Factors contributing to the death, particularly factors that could prevent infant deaths, had not been evaluated. Moreover, Lathrop insisted the data be aggregated, evaluated, and disseminated to vulnerable populations.

By 1921, CB had published and disseminated 46 documents ranging from pamphlets on proper infant and child care to full field study reports and cross-national comparisons. This approach to research and subsequent findings led Jeanette Rankin, the first female Member of Congress, to introduce a bill to address infant mortality. It was later reintroduced by Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas and Congressman Horace Towner of Iowa, receiving the moniker Sheppard-Towner.

The act was the first of its kind, providing direct Federal funds to States and, in essence, extending the work of CB to the States. Lathrop repeatedly testified at congressional hearings that CB's research and dissemination efforts simply were not enough. Federal action was necessary to help States lower the nation's infant mortality rate.

The Sheppard-Towner Act passed the U.S. Senate on July 22, 1921, and passed the U.S. House of Representatives that November. President Harding signed the act into law on November 21, 1921, authorizing the flow of nearly $1.2 million through CB to States for 5 years, expiring on June 30, 1927. The act included provisions for:

• Infant and maternal health care education
• Visiting nurses
• Child health centers
• Child health conferences
• Literature distribution

Following the implementation of the Sheppard-Towner Act:

• The U.S. infant mortality rate fell from 76 per 1,000 live births in 1921 to 65 per 1,000 in 1927.
• Nearly 145,000 health conferences provided health care to children and mothers.
• Approximately 3,000 centers for prenatal care were established.
• Nearly 20,000 infant and maternal care classes were conducted.

The article also explores the staunch opposition to the act, the failed attempts to extend the act for 2 years, and the act's implications on social work practice today.

"The Children's Bureau and Passage of the Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921: Early Social Work Macro Practice in Action," by Elizabeth Sammons Rodems, H. Luke Shaefer, and Marci Ybarra, is available on the Families in Society website:

http://www.familiesinsociety.org/ArticleArchive/2011/CB_FIS92-4_Rodems.pdf (212 KB)

 

To offer the most up-to-date tools and resources to the child welfare field, the National Resource Center for Child Protective Services (NRCCPS) recently announced the launch of its online Decision-Making Tools Library. All the items are from State Liaison Officers who currently use them in their child welfare agencies. So far, 18 States and the Virgin Islands have contributed.

Resources in this library are instruments, policies, and procedures that guide child welfare staff in gathering information to make decisions regarding a child's safety, measuring levels of risk and family functioning, assessing the strengths and needs of the child or family, and judging if a case is ready to be closed. The types of tools differ according to each State's child welfare system and represent various stages, from an initial hotline call through case closure. "Not all States use tools for all levels of decision-making," said Kathy Simms, consultant with NRCCPS, "so that is why the number of tools provided varies greatly from State to State."

Among the library's resources are assessments, safety plans, and guidelines for intake and investigation, for example:

• Maine's Pediatric Symptom Checklist
• Nebraska's Dependency Screening Tool
• North Carolina's Structured Intake Policy
• Ohio's Family Service Plan Review Instructions
• West Virginia's Protective Capacity Family Assessment

In addition, there are policies and procedures that cover topics such as educational neglect, homeschooling, and needs assessments for children.

The library will update and verify its contents every 6 months and add resources as more States and territories participate.

For more information on the library and how to contribute, contact Kathy Simms at kathy.simms@action4cp.org.

Visit the website here:

http://nrccps.org/information-dissemination/1249-2

The Children's Bureau's Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA) Network continues to produce resources that can help States and Tribes in their work with children and families. Some recent resources are listed below:

• Child Welfare Information Gateway posted two new publications:
  • Working With Kinship Caregivers
    http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/kinship.cfm
  • Supporting Reunification and Preventing Reentry Into Out-of-Home Care
    http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/issue_briefs/srpr.cfm
    
• The National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center (AIA) will host the webinar "Creating an Effective Peer Model" with Paul Colson, Project Director, Peer Advanced Competency Training (PACT) Project at Columbia University, on April 3 at 1 p.m. (EST). The 90-minute session is $25 per person. To register, visit:
  http://aia.berkeley.edu/training/webinar/webinar_series_2012.php
• The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement (NCROI) posted a video on its website: "Bringing Partners and Solutions Together." The 3-minute clip describes how NRCOI helps State and Tribal child welfare agencies develop long-term approaches to collaboration.
  http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/helpkids/agency_collaboration.htm
• The National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) posted its latest (25-page) list of resources to support participants in the Leadership Academy for Middle Managers (LAMM). Thirty-three subjects are linked to groups of websites, reports, training materials, and more to help child welfare practitioners facilitate change in their agencies and practices.
  http://www.ncwwi.org/docs/LAMM_Change_Initiatives_Online_Resources_Seattle2012.pdf (898 KB).
• The National Quality Improvement Center on Non-Resident Fathers and the Child Welfare System (QIC NRF) website is now located on the American Humane Association website. Many of its resources have been consolidated into a web-based toolkit, a nine-step developmental model created with the participation of the National Fatherhood Initiative, American Humane, and the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law.
  http://www.americanhumane.org/children/programs/fatherhood-initiative/qic-fatherhood-toolkit
• The National Resource Center for Adoption (NRCA) published an addition to its Adoption Competency Curriculum trainer's guide, the module "Negotiating Title IV-E Adoption Assistance Agreements." The trainer's preparation manual includes title IV-E history, laws, and core components; a video for discussion; case scenarios; and more. There is a companion document with references and other resources.
  http://www.nrcadoption.org/wp-content/uploads/TG-Negotiating-Title-IV-E-AA-1-2012.pdf (1 MB)
  http://www.nrcadoption.org/wp-content/uploads/TG-Negotiating-Title-IV-E-AA-Reference-1-2012.pdf (795 KB)
  NRCA announced that it will accept attendance applications through April 15 for its Minority Adoption Leadership Development Institute (MALDI). MALDI's curriculum aims to enhance the skills of potential leaders of color selected from State, Tribal, county, and regional child welfare systems.
  http://www.nrcadoption.org/programs/maldi/home-2
• The National Resource Center for Child Protective Services (NRCCPS) published the Technical Assistance Report for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS). It describes NRCCPS's expansion of Oklahoma's original TA request and plans to build DHS's internal leadership and strengthen its practice model.
  http://nrccps.org/documents/2012/pdf/Site_Report_January_Oklahoma_01202012.pdf  (76 KB)
• The National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections (NRCPFC) now offers a web section with resources on reinstating parental rights, including links to articles and information on State statutes and an NRCPFC teleconference.
  http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/info_services/reinstatement-of-parental-rights.html
  NRCPFC also posted a webcast, "True Colors—Building Connections Between Youth in Care and Mentors." True Colors works within communities to ensure the needs of sexual and gender minority youth are recognized and met.
  http://www.nrcpfc.org/webcasts/25.html
• The National Resource Center for Recruitment and Retention of Foster and Adoptive Parents at AdoptUSKids (NRCRRFAP) launched a new e-newsletter for child welfare professionals: The Information Corner. Its inaugural issue in February highlighted an article on postadoption behavioral issues and a resource guide, Working With African-American Adoptive, Foster, and Kinship Families. The issue is posted here:
  http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=9ae7ad9fb1d4c4ee5541d67d3&id=e4309bc34e&e=14f0553d52
  Subscribe here:
  http://adoptuskids.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9ae7ad9fb1d4c4ee5541d67d3&id=9bab4b66b7
• The National Resource Center for Tribes (NRC4Tribes) presented "Methods and Findings From the 2010 National Tribal Child Welfare Technical Assistance Needs Assessment" at the 16th Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research. The abstract is posted here:
  http://sswr.confex.com/sswr/2012/webprogram/Paper17011.html
• The National Resource Center for Youth Development (NRCYD) published the February issue of Youth Port featuring articles about internship and grant review opportunities, independent living plan toolkits, links to social action organizations of interest to youth, and more.
  http://www.nrcyd.ou.edu/youth-port
• The National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health (the Center) will host a webinar on April 19 focused on the difference between advocacy and lobbying activities. "What's Advocacy, What's Lobbying, and What's Plain Old Educating Our Policymakers?" is scheduled for 1–2:30 p.m. (EST).
  http://gucchdtacenter.georgetown.edu/resources/2012calls.html
• The Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health (TA Partnership) will sponsor two national affinity group conference calls. The call on April 5 is for system of care project directors and principal investigators. The call for youth coordinators and youth engagement specialists will be held on April 26. Both will take place from 3 to 4 p.m. (EST).
  http://www.tapartnership.org/communityTA/events.php?page=2&id=&t=
  TA Partnership also will host a webinar, "A Youth Guide to Treatment and Treatment Planning: A Better Life," on April 11 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. (EST). Registration for this event will close April 10.
  http://events.tapartnership.org/register.php?eid=54
  TA Partnership also posted the February/March issue of its newsletter, which features links to articles on fatherhood involvement, raising children in same-sex couples, funding opportunities, events, and more.
  http://www.tapartnership.org/newsletter/archives/201202.php

When families come to the attention of child welfare systems for reports of child maltreatment that do not warrant investigation or formal assessment, they often can benefit from intervention services to prevent future reports. The process through which States point these families toward prevention services is the focus of a recent study conducted by the National Quality Improvement Center on Differential Response (QIC-DR).

Traditionally, differential response refers to an approach that allows child protective services (CPS) agencies to respond in more than one way to screened-in reports of child maltreatment. This study, however, focused on State responses to screened-out reports, which refer to those families who do not warrant CPS intervention but may benefit from other preventive services. 

In April 2011, 102 State public child welfare administrators and Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) agency contacts were sent an email with a link to and information about the survey. Both CBCAP State leads and State leaders from child welfare systems were surveyed. A total of 49 respondents (48 percent) completed the survey, 13 respondents (13 percent) deferred to the information provided by the other respondent from their State, and 40 contacts (39 percent) did not respond. The QIC-DR was able to gather information from all but seven States.

The survey report provides descriptive summaries of State approaches, contact information for some States, and, where possible, resources regarding their response systems for screened-out reports. The discussion portion of the report strongly focuses on States without formal response systems to screened-out reports as well as information about States implementing new response systems.

Nine States have statewide, formal response systems to screened-out reports, and five States have jurisdictions with formal response systems. Twenty of the 26 States indicated interest in implementing a preventive or early intervention response pathway to screened-out reports. Lisa Merkel-Holguin, Principal Investigator of the QIC-DR, said the increasing interest is expected. "Many States are reorganizing their CPS systems to have a differential response approach. I'm not surprised to see a growing interest by a number of CPS systems looking at screened-out reports because some research shows there to be less variability than anticipated between low- to moderate-risk families that are screened in versus those that are screened out. In addition, these systems desire to serve vulnerable families before additional reports may occur."

Lauren Morley, Manager, Training and Prevention at the American Humane Association, said State approaches vary. "What some States refer to as differential response looks different from practice in other States that refer to their systemic practice using the same terminology. For example, some States are doing excellent work in the way of front-end prevention and early intervention for those families who come to the attention of the system but aren’t screened in for a formal CPS response, and those States are calling that response to screened-out reports a differential response. Through this study, we were able to better understand what these formal responses look like and to more clearly discern what preventive efforts exist in States both with and without a differential response CPS system."

In September 2013, the QIC-DR will release, in partnership with its three research and demonstration sites, final outcomes, cost, and implementation studies. Merkel-Holguin said States might be waiting to see what those results show and how that evidence can inform practice and systems changes.

The authors suggest that further study is needed to develop best practices for serving these vulnerable families. Morley said, "There's not going to be just one model. It's more about what components we can study and learning about how to develop the most effective system with areas where flexibility at the community and State levels will be essential."

Formal Public Child Welfare Responses to Screened-Out Reports of Alleged Maltreatment, by Lauren Morley and Caren Kaplan, is available on the QIC-DR website:

http://www.differentialresponseqic.org/assets/docs/issue-3_10-31-11.pdf (314 KB) 

Special thanks to Lauren Morley, Manager, Prevention and Training at the American Humane Association, and Lisa Merkel-Holguin, Director, System and Practice Advancements in Child Welfare at the American Humane Association and Principal Investigator of the QIC-DR,  for providing the information for this article. 

Related Item

CBX featured an article on the QIC-DR in February 2011 issue, "Innovations in Differential Response Across States," and the February 2010 Spotlight section was focused on differential response.
 

The correlation between frequent foster care placement changes and the use of crisis mental health services is explored in a recent journal article. Researchers Kya Fawley-King and Lonnie Snowden examined the use of these services, including psychiatric hospitalization, by more than 19,000 children during their first 90 days of foster care between October 1998 and March 2011. The study sought to confirm the results of earlier research that suggested that the need for mental health care services leads to changes in placement, and frequent changes in placement may create the need for mental health treatment. The research is important because these negative outcomes are highly prevalent among children in foster care.

Results confirmed the bidirectional relationship. Children who use crisis mental health services tend to be older and are more likely to have received mental health treatment prior to entering foster care. Also, preexisting mental health issues may be triggered by placement changes. Children who experience a  placement change are more likely to need treatment, including psychiatric hospitalization, than children who remain with current caregivers.

The authors suggest that a factor in placement instability for these children is that many foster parents are unprepared to deal with the children's behavior and could benefit from training on coping with foster children with mental health challenges. Other strategies to promote placement stability include improved outpatient mental health care services, including services that are designed specifically for children in foster care such as the Fostering Individualized Assistance Program or New York City's the Foster Care Initiative.

The article concludes with suggestions for future research. "Relationship Between Placement Change During Foster Care and Utilization of Emergency Mental Health Services" was published in the November 2011 issue of Children and Youth Services Review, 34, 348–353, and is available on the ScienceDirect website:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740911004142

A recent study revealed that while most Hawaiians believe child abuse and neglect is a serious issue, many are unsure how to identify the signs of abuse. Additionally, a majority of residents said that knowing they could report child abuse and neglect anonymously increased the likelihood they would do so.

The Hawaii Children's Trust Fund and the Joyful Heart Foundation conducted the study to gauge citizens' perceptions and understanding of and level of concern about child abuse and neglect. Between June 28 and July 20, 2010, more than 700 residents from every Hawaiian county and a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds were surveyed via telephone. To ensure a representative sample, 20 percent of the final sample were residents without landlines.

The survey revealed that:

• Nearly 40 percent of residents know someone who was abused or neglected.
• About 9 percent of citizens have personally experienced abuse or neglect.
• Nearly 65 percent of residents said it was "difficult" or "somewhat difficult" to spot the signs of abuse.
• While 75 percent said they would talk to someone if they suspected a child they did not know was being abused, only 11 percent would talk to a social service agency and 5 percent would talk to child welfare services. Most residents would talk to their own family and friends.  
• Nearly 90 percent of residents said knowing they could report suspected child abuse or neglect anonymously made them more likely to report it.

These results laid the foundation for a public awareness campaign to raise understanding about the signs of abuse, reporting suspected abuse, tips for strengthening families, and more. Hinged on the study's findings that residents are more likely to speak to friends, family members, and colleagues if they suspect a child is being abused, the One Strong Ohana campaign aims to inspire open conversation about abuse and neglect. The campaign forms community partnerships to educate residents about appropriate responses to suspected child abuse or neglect. Its website features a number of resources for parents and caregivers, community members, and service providers.

The study, Perceptions of Child Abuse and Neglect in Hawaii, is available on the Joyful Heart Foundation's website:

http://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org/Perceptions%20of%20Child%20Abuse%20and%20Neglect%20in%20Hawaii.pdf (2 MB)

More information on the One Strong Ohana campaign is available on the Hawaii Children's Trust Fund website:

http://www.hawaiichildrenstrustfund.org/content/resource-community

The experiences of two States, Missouri and Minnesota, in implementing differential response systems are presented in a new publication, Lessons From the Beginning of Differential Response: Why It Works and When It Doesn't. A system of differential response provides for alternatives to the traditional investigation that generally follows a report of suspected child abuse or neglect. The alternative response, in cases that do not involve criminal behavior or imminent danger to a child, is to conduct a family assessment.

In this monograph, author Gary Siegel describes the family assessment process and the challenges that each State encountered in implementing differential response. The assessment differs from an investigation in its focus and purpose in that there is less emphasis on confirming the report of maltreatment and more on determining the needs of the family. Missouri's legislation required that the same funding mechanisms remain in place with no increases. Collaboration between child protective services (CPS) and existing community support systems was vital. Minnesota's challenges were different and involved jurisdictional issues. Minnesota's county-administered CPS system required consent from and collaboration with participating counties to ensure successful implementation.

Evaluations  of pilot programs in both States showed generally positive outcomes. Families in particular preferred the assessment approach as it provided them with the means to improve their situations in a nonthreatening, nonadversarial way. In Missouri in particular, the analysis showed that families most helped were those who lived in poverty—the family assessment approach led to an increase in the provision of basic services to the families that would have received little or no attention from workers in the traditional approach.

Overall, findings from the evaluations of these pilot programs indicate that the core features of differential response—increased services and positive family engagement—had positive effects and led to improved outcomes for families and children.

Lessons From the Beginning of Differential Response: Why It Works and When It Doesn't was published by the Institute of Applied Research of St. Louis, MO, and is available on its website:

http://www.iarstl.org/papers/DRLessons.pdf (490 KB)
 

A 2011 special issue of American Humane's Protecting Children is dedicated to father engagement and features a variety of articles addressing issues facing nonresident fathers involved with the child welfare system. Practitioners and researchers share lessons learned from the National Quality Improvement Center on Non-Resident Fathers (QIC-NRF), a Children's Bureau-funded project geared toward determining the impact of increased nonresident father engagement on the safety, permanency, and well-being of their children involved in the child welfare system.

The article "Fathers' Voices in the Child Welfare System: Not About Us Without Us," by Ron J. Clark and Greg Cox, explores strides taken by the QIC-NRF to include the voices of fathers when building intervention programs aimed at fathers. Conceptually simple, the author notes that nonresident fathers are often viewed as apathetic to the needs of their children involved in the child welfare system rather than as individuals dealing with their own challenges. The QIC-NRF established the National Fathers Advisory Council (NFAC) to foster a culture shift and move away from the punitive-only approach to serving fathers, change perceptions, and incorporate fathers' voices in developing support services. The group met six times during the 5-year grant period, and Local Fathers Advisory Councils were later formed near demonstration sites.

The issue also includes a spotlight on Colorado's Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Initiative (PRF), which funded 63 faith- and community-based organizations over 5 years to provide direct services to fathers—serving approximately 5,000 fathers. The PRF program also facilitated fatherhood training. While each site operated under core requirements, they were permitted flexibility to meet the needs of local, diverse populations. The article highlights the program's core collaborative elements, public awareness campaign efforts that raised program visibility, strategies to involve caseworkers such as the online fatherhood engagement portal, and participant success stories.

Other articles highlight promising child welfare casework and legal and judicial best practices.

The special issue of Protecting Children, 26(2),"Bringing Back the Dads: Changing Practice's in Child Welfare Systems," is available on the American Humane website:

http://www.americanhumane.org/assets/pdfs/children/fatherhood/pc262.pdf (1.47 MB)

Related Item

In 2011, CBX featured a number of articles about site visits to the QIC-NRF demonstration sites. Check them out:

• "Site Visit: Engaging Fathers Project in Indiana," September/October 2011
• "Site Visit: Nonresident Fathers in the El Paso, CO, Child Welfare System," July/August 2011
• "Site Visit: Engaging Nonresident Fathers in Texas," March 2011
• "Site Visit: Fathers Engagement Project in Washington," February 2011
   

In July of 2010, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) and The Annie E. Casey Foundation held a symposium to discuss a series of papers assessing current research on racial disparities in child welfare. The symposium was an initiative of the Alliance for Racial Equality, whose goal is to improve outcomes for children and families of color served by the child welfare system while simultaneously addressing those disparities.

The symposium was structured with the goal of garnering input from individuals with broad, and sometimes differing, perspectives. The resulting compendium of papers includes "A Research Synthesis on Child Welfare Disproportionality and Disparities," as well as a series of response papers reflecting on that synthesis. The synthesis updates research from Robert Hill's 2006 Research Synthesis in Child Welfare: An Update and identifies significant updates and gaps in research regarding the role of race and ethnicity in child welfare.

The third portion of the compendium is titled "Racial Equity in Child Welfare: Key Themes, Findings and Perspectives" and was developed after the symposium. It serves as a summary of information presented and discussed at the symposium, examines new research and data published since then, provides an analysis of the areas where the research is the clearest as well as where findings remain inconclusive, and points to places where further research is most urgently needed.

Disparities and Disproportionality in Child Welfare: Analysis of the Research can be found on the CSSP website:

http://www.cssp.org/publications/child-welfare/alliance/Disparities-and-Disproportionality-in-Child-Welfare_An-Analysis-of-the-Research-December-2011.pdf (3 MB)

The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) published a new two-part guide, Pregnant and Parenting Youth in Foster Care, to offer suggestions in the areas of both policy and practice. Part one, A Guide to Service Implementation, offers a set of policy recommendations for administrators and practitioners who work closely with pregnant and parenting youth in foster care. National experts were consulted when drafting this list of recommendations, and findings were taken from a yearlong project that examined what is currently working in States and Tribes. The recommendations align with goals of keeping pregnant and parenting youth and their children healthy, successful in school, and safe in their communities.

Part one is divided into five sections:

• State Infrastructure for Service Delivery, Financing, Monitoring, and Accountability
• Legal Rights, Placement and Permanency
• Physical, Socio-Emotional Health and Well-Being
• Education and Self-Sufficiency
• Engagement of Fathers

Part two, A Guide on Effective Programs, Curricula and Other Resources, is geared toward jurisdictions working to help pregnant and parenting youth in foster care. This guide includes resources based on evidence-based programs, surveys, and phone interviews with those knowledgeable about existing supports for this vulnerable population. The guide includes more general resources for pregnant or parenting youth that may be applied to the foster care population.

Part two is composed of three sections:

• Parenting Supports
• Developmental Supports for Children and Parents, including Health Care and Trauma-Informed Supports
• Preparation for Adulthood, including Education and Housing

Both guides are available on the CSSP website:

Pregnant and Parenting Youth in Foster Care: Part I: A Guide to Service Implementation

http://www.cssp.org/publications/child-welfare/child-welfare-misc/Pregnant-and-Parenting-Youth-Service-Recommendations.pdf (415 KB)

Pregnant and Parenting Youth in Foster Care: Part II: A Guide on Effective Programs, Curricula and Other Resources

http://www.cssp.org/publications/child-welfare/child-welfare-misc/Pregnant-and-Parenting-Youth-Resource-Guide.pdf (406 KB)

A new guide is available to provide foster parents and child welfare professionals with practical information, parenting tips, and fresh strategies to better understand and respond to the needs of children and youth in foster care. Edited by Kim Phagan-Hansel, The Foster Parenting Toolbox is the result of a collaborative effort that taps into the experiences, words of wisdom, and problem-solving skills of foster parents, birth parents, caseworkers, former foster youth, and child welfare advocates. The 464-page book covers topics such as how to become a foster parent, working with biological families, and dealing with issues of grief and loss, and it offers advice and recommendations on nurturing positive foster parent/child relationships, successfully managing difficult behaviors, and seeking appropriate services.

Developed as an extension of State trainings, the book focuses on the most common foster care issues and concerns. Chapters highlight critical areas of foster parenting, including:

• Collaborations
• Caregiver transitions
• Birth family relations
• Addressing trauma
• Issues related to anger, grief, attachment disruption
• Using discipline
• Support services
• Allegations of abuse
• Family reunification/adoption

The Foster Parenting Toolbox can be purchased on the EMK Press website:

http://www.emkpress.com/fosterparenting.html  

Download a free article from the book, "The Jigsaw Puzzle Child," by Eileen Mayers Pasztor:

http://www.emkpress.com/the%20jigsawpuzzle%20child.pdf  (3 MB)

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network published Birth Parents With Trauma Histories and the Child Welfare System: A Guide for Resource Parents. This short factsheet describes how trauma experienced by birth parents can affect children's lives and how resource parents (foster, adoptive, or kinship) can support both the birth parent and the entire family.

The guide is broken into three sections:

• What resource parents should know about the effects of trauma on birth parents
• How resource parents can work together with birth parents
• How resource parents can protect themselves from secondary traumatic stress

Each section includes a list of bulleted tips. This factsheet's conversational tone makes the information accessible and easy to understand, especially for resource parents who may not have any formal child welfare training.

Birth Parents With Trauma Histories and the Child Welfare System: A Guide for Resource Parents is available on the National Child Traumatic Stress Network website:

http://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/assets/pdfs/birth_parents_trauma_resource_parent_final.pdf (308 KB)

This factsheet is part of a series of factsheets about parent trauma in the child welfare system. The series includes guides for child welfare staff, birth parents, and judges and attorneys and are available on the National Child Traumatic Stress Network website:

http://www.nctsnet.org/resources/topics/child-welfare-system
 

Wisconsin's Department of Children and Families' (DCF) Division of Safety and Permanence issued a memo outlining the State's policies and procedures for child welfare professionals using the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool. CANS is a standardized assessment resource for evaluating the needs of children and youth in care and the ability of caregivers to meet those needs.

The tool assesses the child or youth's trauma history and its impact, physical and mental health, behavioral and emotional needs, school performance, risk behaviors, and more. Caregivers' strengths and needs are evaluated pertaining to factors such as problem solving, empathy, social resources, physical health, and others. The initial assessment must be conducted within the first 30 days of placement, and follow-up assessments should be conducted after 6 months.

Training for Wisconsin child welfare workers is located on the Wisconsin Professional Development System’s website under Caseworker Trainings:

http://wcwpds.wisc.edu/Default.aspx

Assessing the Strengths and Needs of Children Placed in Out-of-Home Care Through the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Tool is available on the Wisconsin DCF website:

http://dcf.wisconsin.gov/memos/num_memos/DSP/2012/2012-01attach.pdf (39 KB)
 

The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 requires States to make a "reasonable effort" to place siblings together in foster care, kinship care, or adoption placements. If placing siblings together is not possible, States must make a reasonable effort to ensure siblings visit together at least monthly, unless the placement or visit puts a child in danger.

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which has been tracking State legislation related to the act, published summaries of States' progress toward fulfilling the sibling placement provision. The summaries quote language from States' bills.

In July 2009, the Administration on Children, Youth and Families issued a program instruction encouraging child welfare agencies to establish protocols to assist caseworkers in sibling placements. During the 2009, 2010, and 2011 State legislative sessions, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota (two bills), Missouri (two bills), Nebraska, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, and Washington submitted or passed bills related to these mandatory provisions.

Prior to the enactment of Fostering Connections, some States—Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Washington—submitted legislation to ensure the consideration of sibling placement and visitation for siblings in the child welfare system.

The State legislation summaries are available on the NCSL website:

http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/human-services/fostering-connections-act-sibling-placement.aspx

Additional resources referenced on the NCSL website include the information packet, Sibling Placement: The Importance of the Sibling Relationship for Children in Foster Care, published by the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections:

http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/downloads/information_packets/Sibling_Placement.pdf (121 KB)
 

Upcoming national conferences on child welfare and adoption through July 2012 include:

May 2012

• 19th Annual Foster Care Conference
  Daniel Memorial Institute
  May 05-11, Orlando, FL
  http://www.danielkids.org/page.aspx?pid=443
• Colorado Summit on Children, Youth, and Families
  Colorado Department of Human Services
  May 23-25, Keystone, CO
  http://www.cdhsconf.com/conf_schedule_main.htm

June 2012

• Association of Family and Conciliation Courts 49th Annual Conference
  Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC)
  June 06-09, Chicago, IL
  http://www.afccnet.org
• 14th Annual International Fatherhood Conference
  Partnerships and Collaboration: Expanding Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Family Program Connections
  National Partnership for Community Leadership
  June 12-15, Fort Lauderdale, FL
  http://www.npclstrongfamilies.com/Fatherhood_Conference.html
• 2012 National Foster Parent Association National Education Conference
  National Foster Parent Association
  June 15-18, Chicago, IL
  http://www.nfpainc.org/conference2012
• 2012 National Pathways to Adulthood
  Convening on Youth in Transition
  National Resource Center for Youth Development
  June 26-29, New Orleans, LA
  http://www.nrcyd.ou.edu/np12

July 2012

• 2012 Training Institutes
  The National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health
  at Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development
  July 25-29, Orlando, FL
  http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/training/88504.html
• 26th Annual Conference on Treatment Foster Care
  Foster Family-Based Treatment Association
  July 22-25, Atlanta, GA
  http://www.ffta.org/conference
• 38th Annual NACAC Conference
  Celebrating Families: Valuable Lessons from Children, Parents, and Professionals
  North American Council on Adoptable Children
  July 26-28, Crystal City, VA
  http://www.nacac.org/conference/conference.html

Further details about national and regional child welfare and adoption conferences can be found through the Conference Calendar Search feature on the Child Welfare Information Gateway website:

http://www.childwelfare.gov/calendar/index.cfm


 

The Maternal Child Health (MCH) Navigator learning portal is now available for child welfare professionals at the State and community levels interested in advancing their MCH skills. Developed by the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the MCH Navigator aims to increase access to free or low-cost web-based training materials.

Through the portal, professionals can assess their training needs and connect to appropriate training resources. The Navigator system is being continually developed and, while the current focus is on State-level MCH professionals, future enhancements will address the professional development needs for family advocates, health agency workers, and more.

The MCH Navigator portal is available here:

http://navigator.mchtraining.net

The MCH Navigator web tour is available at:

http://navigator.mchtraining.net/#tour

A short video presentation is also available at:

http://navigator.mchtraining.net/wp-content/blogs.dir/5/files/PPT_Navigator

The National Family Preservation Network (NFPN) offers several trainings for child welfare professionals to help them in engaging fathers.

• The Basic Fatherhood Training Curriculum is focused on working with noncustodial fathers but can be applied to other father-child relationships.
• Two self-contained training packages (one basic and one advanced) were modeled on The Basic Fatherhood Training Curriculum to help practitioners develop the skills for engaging fathers and to learn best practices. The advanced curricula was developed for those working with fathers who are resistant to engaging with their child or children.
• The basic and advanced training packages were converted into three online courses worth three continuing education units upon completion.

In addition to the training options, NFPN produced a handbook for child welfare professionals developing father-involvement programs, the Complete Guide to Father Involvement.

Find all the fatherhood materials on NFPN's website:

http://www.nfpn.org/father-involvement1.html