An increase of methamphetamine use in Tribal communities has raised concerns about the safety and well-being of children in Tribal families. In response to these growing concerns, the Tribal Law and Policy Institute sponsored a survey of professionals in three western Tribal communities to assess their perceptions of methamphetamine use and the implications for child abuse in the communities in which they work. The specific purpose of the survey was to assess community perceptions and awareness of methamphetamine use and the impact on child maltreatment, permanency outcomes, and agency workloads.

The survey methodology, questions, and results are the subject of a new report, Perceptions of Methamphetamine Use in Three Western Tribal Communities: Implications for Child Abuse in Indian Country. Quantitative and qualitative results indicate:

• Greater awareness of methamphetamine use, production, and distribution
• Increases in the incidence of child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, and sexual assault
• Increases in the workload of law enforcement, social services, child protection, and other agencies in Tribal communities as a result of methamphetamine use
• Concern for the long-term impact on communities and their children

The authors also offer recommendations to promote agency collaboration and family reunification, and they suggest strategies for funding, programs, and research that could help combat the impact of methamphetamine on Tribal communities.

The full report, by Roe Bubar, Marc Winokur, and Winona Bartlemay, is available online:

www.tribal-institute.org/download/Final%20Meth%20Article%20for%20Printing%206-07.pdf (PDF - 816 KB)

A new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures provides a blueprint for legislatures' efforts to support and strengthen the State courts that handle child welfare cases. The report, Delivering on the Promise: Promoting Court Capacity to Improve Outcomes for Abused and Neglected Children, provides an overview of the court system and the types of hearings that must be held for a child welfare case. It describes the impact of Federal legislation that led to increased caseloads and shorter timelines for processing cases. Court reforms that have been mandated by the Court Improvement Program and the Child and Family Services Reviews are also discussed.

The report outlines the specific roles that State legislatures can assume in supporting the development of effective State court systems, including eliminating barriers to court/agency information sharing, developing ongoing strategies for measuring performance, and promoting collaboration among courts, child welfare agencies, Tribes, and other partners to improve outcomes.

Delivering on the Promise: Promoting Court Capacity to Improve Outcomes for Abused and Neglected Children can be found online:

www.ncsl.org/print/cyf/deliveringpromise.pdf (PDF- 639 KB)

Being inclusive and offering practical help to fathers may increase their participation in programs designed to help low-income noncustodial fathers become strong emotional and financial resources for their children. A report on projects funded through the Partners for Fragile Families (PFF) demonstration program looked at the effectiveness of these programs and lessons learned. Demonstration projects were sponsored from 2000 to 2003 at 13 sites in nine States by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. One focus of the project was to support partnerships between public agencies and community- and faith-based organizations.

The report, The Implementation of the Partners for Fragile Families Demonstration Projects, the first of several from the national evaluation of PFF, describes the design and implementation of the 13 projects. PFF targeted young fathers (age 16 to 25) who had not yet established paternity and did not yet have extensive involvement with the child support enforcement system.

All PFF projects featured a series of workshops on a range of subjects, including parenting, job readiness, child support, anger management, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and life skills. Other services provided to participants include case management, peer support, employment services, and parenting and relationship services. The report examines the challenges that many of the projects faced, including recruiting and retaining participants and defining the roles and responsibilities of the participating agencies.

Some recommendations from the report include the following:

• Give careful consideration to eligibility criteria when recruiting participants, because criteria that are too narrow may result in a small pool of participants.
• Identify organizations with experience in serving this population and provide appropriate staff training.
• Help fathers with visitation and legal representation issues in order to attract and retain participants.
• Partner with local health departments to help with recruitment and access to health services.
• Tailor services such as employment counseling to individual fathers.

The full report, prepared by the Urban Institute and written by Karin Martinson, John Trutko, Demetra Smith Nightingale, Pamela A. Holcomb, and Burt S. Barnow, is available online:

http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/PFF/imp/report.pdf (PDF - 517 KB)

Siblings who experience separation from their parents and from each other are at risk of losing their sense of kinship and continuity. Placing children with siblings when they enter foster care may help them maintain family connections and reduce the trauma caused by leaving their home. But keeping siblings connected can present challenges to the child welfare system. Both the benefits and the challenges of sibling connection are the topic of a recent white paper published by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.

Keeping Siblings Connected: A White Paper on Siblings in Foster Care and Adoptive Placements in New York State describes some of the challenges facing child welfare practitioners looking for permanent homes for siblings. These include limited physical space in adoptive homes, limited resources, siblings entering care at differing times, and lack of available foster and adoptive homes willing or able to accept siblings. These challenges are further exacerbated by the difficulty of placing siblings who are far apart in age.

To address some of these challenges, the white paper sets out a list of practice recommendations for successful sibling placement. These include:

• Recognize the right of siblings to be placed together.
• Increase training for caseworkers and supervisors on sibling placements.
• Recruit foster homes for sibling groups.
• Train foster/adoptive families on sibling issues.
• Enhance assessment procedures.
• Include youth in the decision to place siblings together.
• Consider older siblings as placement options.
• Monitor placement decisions for opportunities to place siblings together.

In cases where siblings are placed separately, the white paper includes a list of useful recommendations for successful sibling visits. These include:

• Recognize and reinforce throughout the agency the requirements for sibling visits.
• Increase training for caseworkers and supervisors on sibling contact.
• Include youth in planning and decisions about visits with siblings.
• Broaden the definition of visits beyond the minimum contact requirements.
• Never use visits as a method of discipline.
• Enhance the ability to visit older siblings.
• Coordinate the provision of services to the family.
• Facilitate visits with half-siblings, step-siblings, and adopted siblings.
• Facilitate visits with siblings who are not in placement.
• Enhance training of foster and adoptive parents about the importance of sibling contact.

The paper also addresses the issues of sibling placement and visitation as part of adoption policy.

www.ocfs.state.ny.us/main/reports/sibling%20white%20paper%20wes.pdf (PDF - 247 KB)

Programs that focus on engaging community residents may achieve better and more sustainable outcomes for children and families. That was one of the conclusions in a recent issue of the Casey Connects quarterly newsletter, which highlighted community engagement strategies used by Annie E. Casey Foundation's initiatives in neighborhoods across the country. Several promising strategies were described, including:

• Study and family circles
• Network organizing
• Community organizing and mobilization
• Resident leadership institutes
• Trusted advocates

The articles give real-life examples of these strategies in action and their impact on the communities they serve. By engaging trusted advocates in the neighborhood, programs can develop resident leaders who encourage other residents to address local challenges and strengthen social networks in the community. This "give-get model" of social networking means residents get a lot out of their community involvement but also give back, thereby creating a more durable positive change in the neighborhood. The programs found that residents who are engaged feel more invested in the outcomes and are even more willing to coordinate data collection for evaluation efforts.

Read more in the newsletter, available for download on the Annie E. Casey Foundation website:

www.aecf.org/upload/publicationfiles/Spring07_connects_Final.pdf (PDF - 985 KB)

Child Advocacy 360 News Network is a nonprofit service offering an online community for child advocates to share news, insights, and innovations in the field, with a particular focus on reducing child abuse and neglect. Some of the goals of the website are to increase citizens' participation in fighting child abuse and neglect in their own communities and to involve Generations X and Y in child advocacy by using web journalism. One section of the website—Who’s Doing What That Works—allows individuals to share information on successful community-based interventions that have resulted in qualitative and quantitative improvements in outcomes for children. Recent entries covered such stories as:

• A self-advocacy workshop that helped youth in foster care reach for their goals
• The importance of postadoption support and services for parents who adopt children with special needs
• Use of crisis nurseries in St. Louis to combat child neglect

Child Advocacy 360 also offers a free weekly e-newsletter that highlights child welfare news from hundreds of top industry sources and shares stories of the efforts of child advocates across the country.

www.childadvocacy360.com

Results from the first round of Federal Child and Family Services Reviews have noted the importance of home visiting in achieving good outcomes for children and families involved with child welfare. A new book titled Home-Visiting Strategies: A Case-Management Guide for Caregivers provides focused, hands-on information for home visitors and their supervisors and administrators on case management processes carried out by the home visitor. The practices described in the book can be applied to a range of home-visiting cases, such as family support, child welfare, mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, and more. The book guides the reader through the key steps in providing home-visiting services, including:

• Engagement
• Assessment
• Plan development
• Plan implementation
• Termination

A case example is used to illustrate the practical application of each of these case management activities, and suggestions are given for handling common issues that arise at each step of the process. Chapters of interest to administrators and supervisors also address theory, research, conceptual frameworks, and advice for setting up documentation systems and managing quality and data collection.

Home-Visiting Strategies: A Case-Management Guide for Caregivers

was written by Terry Eisenberg Carrilio.

A Self-Assessment and Planning Guide: Developing a Comprehensive Financing Plan is the first in a series of technical assistance tools to result from a 5-year study on financing systems of care. Conducted by the Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health (RTC) at the University of South Florida and its partners, including the National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health at Georgetown University, the study examines cross-agency financing strategies that communities can use to build integrated systems of care for children with serious emotional disturbances and their families. The study uses a participatory research approach, gathering data from 10 case study sites.

During the first year of the study, researchers surveyed financing experts, State and county administrators, Tribal representatives, and others to develop a list of critical financing strategies. The results became the basis of A Self-Assessment and Planning Guide. The guide addresses seven areas to help sites develop strategic financing plans:

• Identification of current spending and utilization patterns
• Realignment of funding streams and structures
• Financing of appropriate services and supports
• Financing to support family and youth partnerships
• Financing to improve cultural competence and reduce racial disproportionality in care
• Financing to improve the workforce for behavioral health services
• Financing for accountability

The complete guide, by Mary I. Armstrong et al., is available on the RTC website:

http://rtckids.fmhi.usf.edu/rtcpubs/hctrking/pubs/AssessPlanGuide2006/AssessPlanGuideWeb.pdf,/a> (PDF - 1,100 KB)

The Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) Office within the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs was created as part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. The SMART website features proposed guidelines that reflect minimum national standards for States, territories, and Indian Tribes as they implement their sex offender registration and notification policies. The Attorney General also announced $25 million in assistance for communities to implement these proposed guidelines and take other steps to guard against sex offenders.

Visit the website to see the proposed guidelines and to find out more about SMART, including links to registration for sex offenders, relevant legislation, resources, and more.

www.ojp.usdoj.gov/smart/index.htm

The American Bar Association (ABA) Youth at Risk Initiative is the theme of the July 2007 issue of Family Court Review. The initiative focuses on how attorneys and the legal system can better help teenagers whose family or behavioral problems place them at a significantly higher risk of involvement with the courts. These teenagers may come to the court's attention through the child welfare or juvenile justice system.

The articles in this special issue address the following topics:

• Juvenile status offenders
• Youth aging out of the foster care system
• Girls, particularly girls of color, involved with the juvenile justice system
• Abused and neglected adolescents
• Youth placed in unregulated treatment facilities

Several articles discuss the findings and policy recommendations of the ABA in such areas as licensing, regulation, and monitoring of residential facilities serving at-risk youth; enhanced support for foster and homeless youth and juvenile status offenders; and improving laws and policies related to youth exiting the foster care system.

This special issue was edited by Howard Davidson, director of the ABA Center on Children and the Law, and the co-director, with Mabel McKinney-Browning, of the ABA Youth at Risk Initiative. It can be accessed online:

www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/fcre/45/3

As part of its ongoing response to concerns about irregular adoption practices in Guatemala, the U.S. Embassy there has expanded its DNA testing requirements. The Embassy already requires one DNA match between a prospective adoptive child and the birth parent at the time of relinquishment. Under the new requirement, a child adopted by U.S. citizens will now undergo a second DNA test to verify that the adopted child for whom an immigrant visa is being requested is the same child matched at the beginning of the adoption process with the birth parent.

For more information on adoption requirements from Guatemala, visit the State Department website:

http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_info.php

The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) is an ongoing long-term study funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that conducts research on representative samples of children involved with the child welfare system. The focus is on child well-being, development, and outcomes.

Child Protection: Using Research to Improve Policy and Practice is the first book published on the NSCAW study. Recently released, the book details how the study is conducted and includes chapters by national child welfare experts on the implications and insights that NSCAW provides on the problems of children and their families, services and interventions for families, and child outcomes. Chapters cover such topics as:

• Identifying maltreated children with developmental delays
• Improvement of parent training
• Systems integration and access to mental health care
• Predictors of reunification
• Predictors of rereports

These chapters provide some lessons learned for child welfare workers and policymakers, and they also suggest new alternatives for future programs that will protect at-risk children and provide them with security and support.

To purchase Child Protection: Using Research to Improve Policy and Practice, by Ron Haskins, Fred Wulczyn, and Mary Bruce Webb (editors), visit the Brookings Institution Press website:

www.brookings.edu/press/books/childprotection.htm

Upcoming national conferences on adoption and child welfare through December 2007 include:

October 2007

• 2007 National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children
  October 10–12, Kansas City, MO
  http://www.nationaldec.org/Conference/conference07.htm#2007Conf (link no longer available)
• 19th Annual ATTACh Conference
  Association for Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children
  October 10–13, Providence, RI
  http://www.attach.org/2007conference.htm (link no longer available)
• 2007 Alliance for Children & Families National Conference
  October 17–19, Anaheim, CA
  http://www.alliance1.org/Conferences/National2007/natl-conf.html(link no longer available)

November 2007

• 2007 Conference on Differential Response
  American Humane Association
  November 14–16, Long Beach, CA
  http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pc_initiatives_differential(link no longer available)
• National Training Institute
  ZERO TO THREE
  November 30–December 2, Orlando, FL
  http://www.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=prof_nti(link no longer available)

December 2007

• Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health 19th Annual Conference
  December 7–9, Washington, DC
  http://www.ffcmh.org/conference.htm(link no longer available)
• 2007 National Adoption and Foster Care Training Conference
  Shared Beliefs, Shared Values: Achieving Excellence in Adoption and Foster Care
  Child Welfare League of America
  December 10–12, New Orleans, LA
  http://www.cwla.org/conferences/conferences.htm(link no longer available)

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

www.childwelfare.gov/calendar/index.cfm

The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, scheduled to be implemented in early 2008, carries training requirements for both prospective adoptive parents and adoption agency workers. A number of organizations are preparing training classes and materials to meet these requirements. At least two currently offer online training:

The National Council for Adoption has developed an interactive online training program, "The Intercountry Adoption Journey." Topics covered include an overview of the Hague Convention and its requirements, the intercountry adoption and referral process, general characteristics and needs of internationally adopted children, multiculturalism within the adoptive family, and the importance of postadoption and postplacement services and reports. This program provides prospective adoptive parents with 8 of the 10 required hours of Hague-mandated training, while agency staff receive continuing education credits.

www.hagueadoption.org/

Adoption Learning Partners offers several online courses that meet Hague training requirements for parents. These include "Adopting the Older Child," "With Eyes Wide Open: A Preparation Guide to International Adoption," and "The Journey of Attachment." A new course, "Medical Issues in International Adoption," is scheduled to launch in September.

www.adoptionlearningpartners.org/courses/HagueTraining.cfm

In the summer of 2006, the Georgetown University National Training Institutes presented a series of forums that focused on systems of care service delivery approaches for specific populations. All of the approaches were family driven, youth guided, and individualized, and they all represented evidence-based or promising practices for achieving positive outcomes with children and their families. Summaries of those forums are now available. Populations addressed include:

• Urban communities
• Native American communities
• African-American children and their families
• Hispanic children and their families
• Asian and Pacific Islander children and their families
• Youth in kinship care
• Youth from military families

Each summary is 6-12 pages and includes information on issues and challenges for each topic, as well as effective strategies for local systems of care. Access the summaries through the website of the National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health:

http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/programs/ta_center/TrainingInstitutes/SpecialForums/