An essential aspect of a teacher's job is to understand the effects of maltreatment and trauma on children and their impact on development; however, guidance around these issues is not always easy to find. A new handbook, Right on Course: How Trauma and Maltreatment Impact Children in the Classroom, and How You Can Help, can help teachers learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of maltreatment and trauma, understand the role of teachers in the child protection system, and craft classroom environments, activities, and experiences to maximize learning and facilitate the healing process.

Right on Course contains facts and statistics, real-life case studies, and question-and-answer segments. It is available for $35.00 from Civitas, a national, not-for-profit communication group benefiting children.

More information about Right on Course can be found at http://www.civitas.org/right_on_course.html.

Related Item

Read more about the Role of Teachers in Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect in the April 2002 issue of the Children's Bureau Express (http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov).

Open adoptions work well for most birth mothers who have participated in them, according to the most recent findings from a national longitudinal study. The researchers, Dr. Ruth McRoy of the University of Texas at Austin and Dr. Harold Grotevant of the University of Minnesota, say study findings suggest that while the level of openness should be decided on a case-by-case basis, adoption should be viewed as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event.

Other findings regarding birth mothers included:

• Birth mothers in direct, ongoing contact with the adoptive family report greater satisfaction with openness, lower levels of grief about the placement, and more satisfaction with their role in the adopted child's life.
• Many birth mothers in confidential adoptions were either actively seeking information or actively providing updated information later in their children's adoptions, in some cases as long as 21 years after the placement.
• Almost 40 percent of the birth mothers experienced a change in openness level from Wave 1 of the study (1987-1992) to Wave 2 (1995-2000). Of those, 58 percent had more openness and 42 percent had less openness.

The recent study is part of the larger Minnesota Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP), the only nationwide longitudinal study of its kind. Researchers have surveyed and interviewed adoptive families and birth mothers from 35 adoption agencies across the United States involved in adoptions with a range of confidentiality or openness. A total of 720 participants (169 birth mothers, 190 adoptive mothers, 190 adoptive fathers, and 171 children) have been interviewed over 13 years (from 1987 to 2000).

More information about the most recent findings regarding birth mothers can be found on the University of Texas website at: http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/02newsreleases/ nr_200210/nr_adoption021007.html.

For more information regarding the MTARP study, its conclusions, and the many publications resulting from this study, visit the MTARP website at: http://fsos.che.umn.edu/mtarp/default.html.

For more information on openness in adoption, read the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse fact sheet and bulletin, Open Adoption (http://naic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/f_openadopt.cfm and http://naic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/f_openadoptbulletin.cfm).

According to a recent Child Trends DataBank report, between 1970 and 1990 the annual infant homicide rate rose from 4.3 to 8.4 deaths per 100,000 children under age 1. By the year 2000, that rate had reached 9.1 deaths per 100,000 children. Infant homicide rates now rival those of teenagers (currently 9.6 deaths per 100,000).

Homicide is the leading cause of injury death among infants. Half of the infant homicides occur by the fourth month of life, and the risk of homicide is highest on the day of birth--usually occurring at the hands of the infant's mother.

Males are more likely than females to be killed during the first year of life: 10.3 per 100,000 for boys and 7.8 per 100,000 for girls. Non-Hispanic blacks are substantially more at risk of infant homicide than other races. In 2000, non-Hispanic blacks had an infant homicide rate of 25.6 deaths per 100,000 children, while non-Hispanic whites had a rate of only 6.0 per 100,000.

The DataBank report indicated that the circumstances surrounding the child's birth are key factors in infant homicide. For example, among homicides on the first day of life, 95 percent of the victims were not born in a hospital. Maternal risk factors also play an important role in infant homicide. Among them are:

• Second or subsequent infant born to an unmarried teenage mother.
• An initial prenatal visit after the 6th month of pregnancy or no prenatal care.
• A history of mental illness.
• 12 or fewer years of education.
• Premature birth.

The full report can be found on the Child Trends DataBank website at http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/indicators/72InfantHomicide.cfm.

For more information about infant mortality, contact:

National Fetal Infant Mortality Review (NFIMR)
Kathleen Buckley, MSN, CNM, Director
Email: kbuckley@acog.org
Website: http://www.acog.org/from_home/departments/dept_web.cfm?recno=10

Related Item

For more information about infant homicide, see the June 2001 issue of CBX for "CDC Analyzes Statistics on Infant Homicides."

On May 19-20, 2002, the Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support and the Florida-based Neighbor to Family Program co-sponsored the National Leadership Symposium on Siblings in Out-of-Home Care. Symposium participants discussed issues affecting brothers and sisters in foster, kinship, and adoptive placements. The gathering of foster care alumni, child welfare practitioners and policy makers, legal experts, resource families, and researchers discovered there is a lack of factual information regarding siblings in out-of-home care and that myths about siblings in placement still flourish.

Outcomes from the symposium included recommendations in the following areas:

• Best Interests. It is essential to place children with siblings and maximize their ability to maintain all family and community connections. Agencies must do a better job of recruiting and supporting resource families who are willing, able, and prepared to care for sibling groups.
• Definition of "Sibling." The concept of "sibling" should be expanded to cover connections through blood, adoption, or affinity and should include both actual (legal) siblings or "fictive" siblings—adults with whom children have connections based not on blood, but on caring relationships.
• Siblings Who Are Separated. When siblings are separated, they should be given the opportunity to know who their siblings are and where they are living. Resource families should facilitate communication and visits between siblings.
• Safety, Permanency, and Well-Being. Keeping family groups together (providing that the safety of none of the children is compromised) is part of Permanency Outcome 2 of the Federal Child and Family Services Reviews—the continuity of family relationships and connections are preserved for children.

Symposium participants are committed to continuing the efforts to gather meaningful data, develop a clearer understanding of the issues, make recommendations for public policy changes, and lead a public will-building campaign to improve outcomes for siblings in out-of-home care.

Transcripts from the symposium, background information, and presentations are available on the Casey Family Programs website at www.casey.org/Resources/Archive/Publications/SiblingSymposium.htm.

In fiscal year 2000, 61 percent of children adopted from the child welfare system were adopted by nonrelative foster parents, according to Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) estimates. While undoubtedly positive for children, this statistic highlights the need for rigorous recruitment efforts if State child welfare systems are to refresh the pool of available resource families (foster and adoptive families willing to serve as permanent caregivers for children). A new paper published by the Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support highlights the unique recruitment and retention efforts of eight States and suggests promising approaches that may help other child welfare systems striving to meet this challenge.

Using case studies from Minnesota, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire, Alaska, Missouri, Utah, and New Jersey, the paper offers strategies for developing targeted recruitment messages, using performance-based contracting, implementing innovative recruitment initiatives, and improving retention. Efforts have paid off with positive outcomes for waiting children. For example:

• Through data-driven, community-specific recruitment efforts focused around specific children awaiting homes, Utah experienced a significant increase in the number of resource families.
• Hillsborough County, Kentucky instituted a policy requiring a personal visit or telephone call within 2 days of an inquiry by a prospective family. This improved the County's "response rate" (the number of interested families who followed through by attending an orientation) by nearly 15 percent.
• In Illinois, partnerships with corporations and with the faith community have met with success in increasing the pool of potential resource families. The corporate program resulted in the licensing of nearly 50 families in the first year, with 16 children adopted or waiting for finalization. The State's "One Church One Child" program exceeded its fiscal year 2001 goal to find and register 100 African American families seeking to become resource families.

The paper also offers more concrete lessons learned, such as:

• Recruitment messages must reflect the evolving role of the resource family as a support to the entire birth family, not just the child.
• Recruitment efforts are enhanced by strong relationships with high profile, influential community members.
• Structured partnerships with private nonprofit providers can strengthen efforts.
• Retention is recruitment--existing resource families must be supported.

The full paper and an executive summary are available on the Casey Family Programs website at http://www.casey.org/Resources/Archive/Publications/RecruitmentRetentionResourceFamilies.htm.

Related Items in this Issue

Read about a new publication to help resource families take advantage of significant tax benefits in "Federal Tax Benefits for Resource Families."

The Children's Defense Fund offers a series of guides designed specifically for grandparents as caregivers. Their most recent guide, The Grandparent's and Other Relative Caregiver's Guide to Child Care and Early Education Programs, provides the basics about child care programs including how to choose the right program and how to get help paying for it. Other guides in the series include Grandparents' Guide to Food and Nutrition Programs and Grandparents' Guide to Raising Children with Disabilities. The first copy of each guide is free and can be ordered by calling Della Hoffman at the Children's Defense Fund at 202-662-4568 or via email at: childwelfare@childrensdefense.org.

HHS has proposed new regulations to clarify the rights and requirements for religious organizations that use HHS funds in delivering human services. The proposed regulations, announced in December, build on earlier HHS efforts to help smaller faith- and community-based organizations access federal funds.

Some of the regulations specify:

• Faith-based organizations cannot be excluded from competition for federal funds simply because they are religious.
• Religious organizations that receive federal funds must serve all eligible participants, regardless of those persons' religious beliefs.
• Religious organizations that receive federal funds may continue to carry out their missions, including maintaining a religious environment and taking religion into account when making employment decisions.
• Religious organizations may not use direct program funds to support any inherently religious activities. These activities must be offered separately from the HHS-funded programs or services.

The new regulations affect several HHS programs, including Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and the Community Services Block Grant. HHS is accepting comments on the proposed regulations through February 18, 2003. To read and submit comments regarding the TANF proposed regulations, visit the ACF website at www.acf.hhs.gov/hypernews/topics21.htm (Editor's note: this link is no longer available). The proposed regulations for the Community Services Block Grant are available for review and comment on the ACF website at www.acf.hhs.gov/hypernews/topics22.htm (Editor's note: this link is no longer available).

Related Item

Read "HHS Awards $30 Million from the Compassion Capital Fund" from the November 2002 issue of the Children's Bureau Express.

The Drug-Free Communities Support Program announced the availability of 150 grants (of up to $100,000 each) to support community coalitions working to prevent and reduce substance abuse among youth. The purpose of the grants is to:

• Reduce substance abuse among youth.
• Help community coalitions strengthen collaboration.
• Enhance intergovernmental collaboration, cooperation, and coordination.
• Enable communities to conduct data-driven, research-based prevention planning.
• Provide technical assistance, guidance, and financial support to communities.

To be eligible, coalitions must have been working together on youth substance abuse reduction for at least 6 months prior to submitting an application. Applications are due March 11, 2003; applicants must register by February 25. Funding announcements will be made by September 30, 2003. A series of regional workshops will be held in February to explain the application process.

Information about the grant program and application materials can be found on the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention website at http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/grants/current.html#021231. (Editor's note: this link is no longer available.)

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the grant program at http://drugfreecommunities.samhsa.gov/history/dffaqs.html.

Resource families (e.g., foster parents, adoptive parents, and kinship caregivers) are often unaware of federal tax laws that can make a big difference in their tax returns--sometimes as much as several thousand dollars. The Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support has published a tax year 2002 guide to help these families identify the tax benefits to which they are entitled.

The 19-page booklet is available online. Agencies are free to edit (by adding State tax information, for example), reproduce, and distribute copies to resource families and staff. Sample newsletter articles and check stuffers are also available. Similar guides are available for tax years 2001 and 2000. If resource families discover tax benefits they missed in prior years, they have up to 3 years to file an amended return.

Information on tax benefits can be found on the Casey Family Programs website, at http://www.casey.org/cnc/support_retention/federal_tax_benefits.htm. (This link is no longer available.)

The North American Council on Adoptable Children has released a one-page fact sheet on the adoption tax credit, worth up to $10,000 for parents who finalized the adoption of a child during tax year 2002. Download a copy of the fact sheet from their Website: www.nacac.org/pub_taxcredit.html.

Two new training packages from the Child Welfare Institute (CWI) are designed to help foster parents work more effectively with agencies to accomplish critical outcomes. Partnering for Safety and Permanence and Shared Parenting both focus on knowledge and skills needed by foster parents to help agencies address Child and Family Services Reviews outcomes related to safety, well-being, and timely permanence for children and youth who have been abused or neglected.

Developed in consultation with the National Foster Parent Association Board of Directors, and built upon CWI's experience with Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting (MAPP) programs, these training packages utilize realistic case examples to help new foster parents develop specific strategies, techniques, and plans to meet the challenges of foster parenting today.

Partnering for Safety and Permanence (PS) is designed to be used for foster parent selection and preparation. It focuses on building foster parents' abilities to meet the developmental, well-being, and safety needs of children and youth; to share parenting with a child's family; to support concurrent planning; and to meet their own family's needs in ways that ensure a child's safety and well-being. PS includes family and individual assessment and development tools to be used during nine meetings that comprise the 8-day training program. The package consists of a Leader's Guide, Participant Handbook, five companion videos, and an optional PowerPoint presentation. A Trainer's Guide is also available.

The Shared Parenting In-service Training Series is designed for use with PS or other foster parent/adoptive parent preparation programs. Its objective is to help foster parents create positive alignments and healthy boundaries with the parents of children in their care. Consisting of 19 modules or units which can be purchased individually or as a group, the Series addresses work with specific populations, such as adolescents or children whose parents are mentally ill, as well as techniques around critical issues, such as control issues in shared parenting or helping children manage anger or fear. Each module includes a Leader's Guide; diskettes containing the curriculum, handouts, and overheads; and the rights to modify or adapt all material to fit your agency's procedures and policies.

For more information about these training programs, visit the CWI site at http://www.gocwi.org/view_714733.html#practice or contact:

Child Welfare Institute
Thomas Morton (770) 935-8484, ext. 205 or tomorton@gocwi.org
Cathy Welsh (770) 935-8484, ext. 203 or cwelsh@gocwi.org

For information on other training programs, visit the Child Welfare Training Resources (CWTR) Online Network at http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/profess/workforce/index.cfm.