March 2011Vol. 12, No. 2Print issueSpotlight on Leadership in Child Welfare

The Winter 2011 issue of Permanency Planning Today, from the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections (NRCPFC), focuses on integrating meaningful family partnerships in child welfare practice. Articles look at ways to engage different populations of parents:

• "If I Knew Then What I Know Now" is the story shared by a child welfare worker who also has been a parent in the child welfare system. 
• "Engaging Non-Custodial Fathers" explores some of the feelings experienced by fathers and social workers.
• "Engaging Parents as Partners" describes the creation of a parent partnership program in California.
• "Insights on the Parent Advocate Initiative" follows a New York City program that supports and promotes parent advocates.
• "Extreme Recruitment," one approach to family finding and achieving permanency, is examined in an interview with the director of an adoption coalition in St. Louis.

This issue of Permanency Planning Today also includes an article on resources on the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.

Read and download the issue on the NRCPFC website:

www.nrcpfc.org/newsletter/ppt-winter-2011.pdf (5,464 KB)

For a number of years, researchers have reported—and many jurisdictions have struggled with—the overrepresentation of children from certain ethnic and racial groups in the child welfare system. Often, the causes of racial disproportionality have been discussed in terms of cultural competence and the cultural gap that frequently exists between child welfare workers and the families they serve.

A new issue brief from Child Welfare Information Gateway focuses on some promising practices from around the country that agencies and jurisdictions have implemented to respond to disproportionality. Addressing Racial Disproportionality in Child Welfare looks at the various decision points in the child welfare process where overrepresentation (or underrepresentation) of different racial or ethnic groups may occur and notes promising programs that address disproportionality at those decision points. The issue brief explores disproportionality in terms of:

• Prevalence
• Community development and prevention
• Reporting and screening
• Investigation and assessment
• Service provision
• Permanency for children in out-of-home care
• Across the stages of child welfare
• States' efforts
• Strategies and research

In spotlighting some promising practices for addressing disproportionality for specific groups, the issue brief notes that many of these strategies are the same ones that agencies can use to improve child welfare outcomes for all children.

Read or download the issue brief from the Information Gateway website:

www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/issue_briefs/racial_disproportionality/index.cfm

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 has launched several new and updated webs sections:
  • National Prevention Month:
    www.childwelfare.gov/preventing/preventionmonth
  • Ethical Issues in Adoption:
    www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/adopt_ethics
  • Child Welfare Practice Improvement:
    www.childwelfare.gov/management/practice_improvement
• The National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (FRIENDS) spotlights South Carolina evidence-based home visiting (EBHV) grantees in the December 2010 issue of the newsletter, EBVH Connector:
  www.supportingebhv.org/resources/newsletter
• The National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections (NRCFPC) has posted two documents about States' successful education and child welfare collaborations developed to meet requirements in the Fostering Connections Act:
  • Child Welfare/Education Collaborations (Highlights):
    www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/info_services/download/ChildWelfareandEducation2pgr.pdf (403 KB)
  • Child Welfare Education Collaborations (Full Review):
    www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/info_services/download/ChildWelfare_and_Education.pdf (284 KB)
• The National Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues (NRCLJI) has a redesigned website:
  www.abanet.org/child/rclji
• The Western and Pacific Child Welfare Implementation Center has posted eight videos from its August 2010 Alaska Child Welfare Disproportionality Reduction Project's Conference. Four of the videos describe Hawaii's child welfare reform experiences, including the State's implementation of differential response:
  http://westpac.fmhi.usf.edu/home/Pages/centralcouncil.aspx

The Children's Bureau T&TA Network has worked to provide a seamless array of services to States, Tribes, Territories, Tribal organizations, Tribal consortia, and grantees to promote continuous improvement in the delivery of child welfare services.

The mission of the Training and Technical Assistance Coordination Center (TTACC), operating under the guidance and direction of the Children's Bureau, is to coordinate the delivery of intensive, individualized, onsite T&TA services provided to States, Tribes, territories, and courts through the T&TA Network. This will allow for improved assessment and coordination of T&TA after Federal reviews and recommendations. One of the primary roles is to assist Children's Bureau staff as they monitor the delivery of onsite T&TA.

The Coordination Center engages both the customers (States, Tribes, territories, and courts) and members (Regional Offices, Children Bureau Central Office, National Resource Centers, and Implementation Centers) of the T&TA Network. It is housed at JBS International in North Bethesda, MD.

TTACC carries out its coordination work principally through its four T&TA Coordination Specialists: Sonja Heard, Deb Martinez, Ann Carver, and Tamisha Peanort. Under the guidance of Project Director Melody Roe and Federal Project Officer Roshanda Shoulders, the Coordination Specialists have forged relationships with key players throughout the Network to carry out the coordination that's at the heart of the Children's Bureau's goals. For a map of TTACC coordination coverage, visit the TTACC Information Portal: www.ttaccportal.org

According to Ms. Roe, "I joined TTACC in August of 2010 because I believe that a coordinated, integrated approach to the delivery of TA services will result in better long-term outcomes for the States, Tribes, territories, and courts we serve. It's exciting and challenging to be a part of shaping the T&TA Network's future direction, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue working with the Regional Offices, our T&TA Network partners, and our Federal partners to improve the delivery of TA services."

Even as TTACC moves from establishing itself as a new player within the Network to becoming essential in carrying out the Children's Bureau's vision of a nationwide TA Network that works collaboratively to provide a seamless array of services that promote continuous improvement in child welfare, early success stories of coordination efforts have come in, including several States with particularly complex T&TA coordination challenges.

Please feel free to direct any questions you may have about the project to ttacc@jbsinternational.com.

 Contributed by John Cashman of TTACC

The National Resource Center for Child Protective Services (NRCCPS) recently launched a Citizen Review Panel (CRP) webpage to bring together resources and information on CRPs. Each State's CRP is responsible for examining the effectiveness of State and local child protection systems, evaluating the coordination of CPS with foster care and adoption, and reviewing child fatalities and near fatalities.

The CRP webpage offers materials for developing and maintaining a CRP, including guidelines and protocols, tips for using CRPs to improve CPS, and a PowerPoint on evaluating CRP impact. Links are included to other websites that offer CRP resources. Finally, Citizen Connections, the national CRP newsletter is also posted. Each issue includes updates from different State CRPs.

Visit the CRP webpage on the NRCCPS website:

http://nrccps.org/peer-networks/citizen-review-panels

The National Quality Improvement Center for Non-Resident Fathers and the Child Welfare System (QIC NRF) awarded subgrants in 2008 to projects in four States for fatherhood classes for nonresident fathers whose children have been removed from their homes. One of the four subgrants was awarded to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) Child Protection Services (CPS) Division to conduct a project in Tarrant County in partnership with several local organizations. Tarrant County includes the cities of Fort Worth and Arlington and is adjacent to Dallas County. The project has three main components:

• Identifying and locating potentially eligible fathers whose children are in foster care
• Providing curriculum-driven fatherhood classes
• Raising awareness among child welfare workers about the importance of father engagement

The fatherhood classes meet for 20 weeks and use a curriculum developed by the QIC NRF to support nonresident fathers in engaging their children. The curriculum covers topics such as navigating the child welfare system, supporting their children, the juvenile court system, and workforce issues.  Between August 2008 and March 2010, the Tarrant County subgrant held fatherhood classes for seven cohorts of fathers.

Project staff and participating fathers offered various observations about the project, including:

• Those who participated in the classes gained valuable support, although the small size of the classes negatively affected the implementation of the curriculum.
• The fathers noted that persistent phone calls were the best way to encourage their participation in a class.
• The males-only dynamic in the classes was very beneficial for the fathers.
• Common barriers to the fathers being able to attend the classes included transportation issues and conflicting work schedules, and common barriers to initially engaging the fathers included distrust of the child welfare system, personal issues (e.g., substance abuse, mental health problems), fear of the unknown, their fragile state (i.e., being overwhelmed by the situation), and paternity questions.

Project staff felt that the project made its biggest impact on the understanding and practice of CPS staff regarding engaging fathers. The subgrant conducted several trainings on this topic, including one for 350 workers from 19 counties. The majority of workers surveyed after the training indicated that they had increased their knowledge about the importance of father involvement and the barriers fathers face with the child welfare system. Other trainings focused on topics such as pulling historical paternal information from case files and locating fathers.

The subgrant ends on March 31, 2011, and the Tarrant County subgrant continues to work on ways to disseminate the information they collected and sustain various components of the project, such as family finding, support for fathers, the Fathers Advisory Council, and changes to the data collection system to make it focus more on paternal information.

For more information about the project, contact Karen Bird, Project Director: fatherhoodCTC@gmail.com.

Access the full report on the Child Welfare Information Gateway website:

www.childwelfare.gov/management/funding/funding_sources/sitevisits/tarrantTX.cfm#page=summary

The National Quality Improvement Center for Non-Residential Fathers and the Child Welfare System is funded by the Children's Bureau. This article is part of a series highlighting successful Children's Bureau grant-funded projects around the country, emerging from Children's Bureau site visits.

Each spring, the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recruits reviewers and panel chairpersons for its grant programs, including those administered by the Children's Bureau. Grant reviewers convene to receive training and then review grant applications, spending 1 week reading, evaluating, discussing, and making recommendations on grant proposals. If you are interested in applying to be a grant reviewer or chairperson, find out more about the program here:

www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/grantreview/about.html

To apply, visit:

https://www.acfgo.com/public/sitePage.aspx?key=Home

Grant reviewers and chairpersons, including students, receive compensation for their time, as well as valuable experience in the Federal grant review process.

The Children's Bureau is currently forecasting seven FY 2011 discretionary grant funding opportunities.

Readers are advised to check the forecast site regularly, as these forecasts are subject to change.

As of early February, these seven FOAs were in the forecast:

• Child Welfare-Early Education Partnerships to Expand Protective Factors for Children with Child Welfare Involvement HHS-2011-ACF-ACYF-CO-0185
• Family Connection Grants: Using Family Group Decision-making to Build Protective Factors for Children and Families HHS-2011-ACF-ACYF-CF-0181
• Grants to Tribes, Tribal Organizations, and Migrant Programs for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention Programs HHS-2011-ACF-ACYF-CA-0147
• Infant Adoption Awareness Training Grants HHS-2011-ACF-ACYF-CG-0170
• Integrating Trauma-Informed and Trauma-Focused Practice in Child Protective Service (CPS) Delivery HHS-2011-ACF-ACYF-CA-0169
• Tribal Title IV-E Plan Development Grants HHS-2011-ACF-ACYF-CS-0174
• Improving Service Delivery to Youth in the Child Welfare System HHS-2011-ACF-ACYF-CW-0186

Information about planned FY 2011 FOAs is now available on the Department of Health and Human Services Grants Forecast website:

https://extranet.acf.hhs.gov/hhsgrantsforecast

To find the Children's Bureau's planned announcements, enter the title or Funding Opportunity Number (FON) in the search box. To see all of ACF's forecasted FOAs, select "Advanced Search," then select "Administration on Children and Families (ACF)."
 

In April 2010, the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Youth at Risk held a summit to discuss ways to leverage the Fostering Connections Act to improve outcomes for youth transitioning out of foster care to independence.  More than 100 child welfare professionals, judges, attorneys, advocates, and youth met to hear experts and to assemble in working groups to review the challenges and make concrete recommendations. The keynote speaker was Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, a leading sponsor of the original Fostering Connections Act legislation.

A report on the summit was recently released that describes the resulting recommendations. The report, Charting a Better Future for Transitioning Foster Youth, presents the 56 recommendations in terms of the eight working-group topics:

• Permanency for Older Youth
• Courts and the Legal Process 
• Housing and Placement
• Education and Employment
• Health and Mental Health
• Crossover Youth (youth involved with child welfare and delinquency)
• Youth Engagement and Youth Focused Systems
• State Implementation of the Fostering Connections Act

The report notes that the majority of recommendations followed three themes:

• Youth need to be involved in decisions that concern them.
• States implementing the Fostering Connections Act should make major changes in the ways that older youth in foster care are served.
• Data should be collected and used to document continuous improvement of child welfare and court services for older youth.

In addition to the recommendations, the report includes five extensive appendices that address the summit events, participants, speaker remarks, Fostering Connections resources, and relevant ABA policies.

Download the full report from the ABA website:

http://www.isc.idaho.gov/childprotection/PDFs/Chartering%20a%20Better%20Future%20for%20Transitioning%20Foster%20Youth.pdf (3.88 MB)
 

A recent issue of Casey Family Services' Voice magazine focuses on the importance of providing school stability for children and youth in foster care. Changing schools can set children back academically, cut them off from their friends and social group, and add more stress to children who are already experiencing stressful circumstances. Research shows that high school graduation rates for young people aging out of the foster care system are significantly lower than for youth in the general population, with school changes and other disruptions playing a major role.

The articles in Voice explore the hurdles to educational stability and ways to address them. "School Stability Is Critical to Success of Youth in Care" looks at the potential impact of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 on school stability. Efforts in Pennsylvania, California, and Connecticut to implement measures that would ensure school stability are also reviewed. Short, real-life stories illustrate the impact of frequent school changes on the lives of youth in foster care. Other Voice articles include:

• "Goals and Recommendations of the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education"
• "Social Work Practices to Support School Stability"

Voice, Vol. 11(2), is available on the Casey Family Services website:

http://www.caseyfamilyservices.org/userfiles/voicemagazine/voice-2010-2011-winter.pdf (877 KB)

Related Items

The American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law maintains the Legal Center for Foster Care & Education, which serves as a national technical assistance resource and information clearinghouse on legal and policy matters affecting the education of children in the foster care system. Visit the webpage to find information about the Fostering Connections Act's impact on education for children in foster care and more:
http://www.americanbar.org/groups/child_law/projects_initiatives/legal_center_for_foster_care_education.html

The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement is offering two webinars, in March and April, on strategies to support school stability and continuity. Visit the website for more information: http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/helpkids/tele_detail.htm#031511

A recently published article looks at the relationship between child maltreatment and violent delinquency. In "Disentangling the Relationship Between Child Maltreatment and Violent Delinquency: Using a Nationally Representative Sample," researchers Ilhong Yun, Jeremy D. Ball, and Hyeyoung Lim used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescents to examine the relationship between child maltreatment and violent delinquency. The cases of 3,472 adolescents were analyzed for any relationship among child maltreatment and violent delinquency and for potential moderating effects of gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and religiosity.

Citing the limitations of prior research findings that relied largely on localized data samples, the authors contend that using a national data set provides a more reliable analysis of the relationship between different types of abuse and neglect and the incidence of violent delinquency. The authors conclude that physical abuse was not associated with future violent delinquency, whereas sexual abuse and neglect predicted violent delinquency significantly. Gender, SES, and religiosity had no moderating effects on these relationships.

The article was published in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. An abstract and ordering information for the article can be found on the publisher's website:

http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/26/1/88

Postadoption support services are vitally important to sustain and strengthen adoptive families. Adoptees with histories of abuse, neglect, or lengthy institutionalization may confront significant challenges throughout their childhood. Without ongoing assistance and support for the children and their parents, many of these adoptions are at risk of disruption or dissolution. A new report issued by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute reviews existing postadoption programs and identifies directions for the development of effective models of postadoption practices.

The report, Keeping the Promise: The Critical Need for Post-Adoption Services to Enable Children and Families to Succeed, explores the range of challenges faced by adoptive families, assesses the extent to which current policy and practice meet their needs, and illustrates the risk and protective factors shaping positive, as well as more negative, adjustments. Several chapters also address evidence-based and promising practices in postadoption, as well as the different types of postadoption services models currently in use.

According to author Susan Livingston Smith, while adopted children are at a greater risk of experiencing emotional or behavioral problems, the majority of adopted youth are functioning within the normal range, and well over 90 percent of parents are satisfied with their adoptions. Nevertheless, many families are not able to access essential services while raising children with past histories of abuse, neglect, or institutionalization. With that in mind, the report offers some recommendations for improving postadoption support:

• Build a national task force to implement strategies and legislative initiatives geared towards the development of postadoption services
• Establish private and Federal funding to secure a reliable financial base for postadoption services
• Provide educational opportunities and adoption-competent counseling programs
• Develop a comprehensive continuum of adoption services at local, county, and State levels

Keeping the Promise: The Critical Need for Post-Adoption Services to Enable Children and Families to Succeed is available on the Adoption Institute website:

www.adoptioninstitute.org/publications/2010_10_20_KeepingThePromise.pdf (1,003 KB)

Related Item

A new toolkit from the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC), Advocating for Post-Adoption Support: Tools to Promote Parent-Led and Child-Driven Services, highlights the benefits and cost-effectiveness of comprehensive postpermanency support programs. The toolkit is designed to help adoptive and guardianship parents, adoption professionals, community providers, legislators and others work toward establishing effective postpermanency support programs. Find the report on the NACAC's website:

www.nacac.org/postadopt/PostAdoptToolkit.pdf (1.34 MB)

The National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices has released a new report, The Transition to Adulthood: How States Can Support Older Youth in Foster Care, which provides effective strategies States can use to support older foster youth as they transition to adulthood.

Highlighted in the report are approaches that have shown success in five areas:

• Education: States can minimize a youth's school changes, work with administrators to track academic records, and connect students with mentors and other on-campus support for postsecondary education.
• Employment: Youth can be connected with career training by States forming partnerships with employers that may offer opportunities. It is also beneficial if States provide youth with lessons in money management.
• Housing: Partnerships between State and local housing authorities and community organizations can create affordable housing programs for youth in addition to providing support they need to live independently.
• Health Care: To help improve the health outcomes of transitioning youth, States can extend the eligibility of Medicaid beyond age 18 and develop a system to help youth track their medical histories.
• Relationships: Helping youth create stable relationships with caring adults, establishing legal guardianships, and connecting youth to family members when possible are ways States can help youth explore permanency options.

To access the full report, visit the NGA website:

http://www.nga.org/files/live/sites/NGA/files/pdf/1012FOSTERCARE.PDF (2.47 MB)

Growing and Sustaining Parent Engagement: A Toolkit for Parents and Community Partners is an easy to follow guide providing steps on creating and strengthening parent engagement. The toolkit focuses on developing and implementing three powerful strategies:

• A roadmap that can guide the community toward better parent engagement and that includes the values and decision-making principles of the organization
• A checklist that the organization can use to determine how well the organization is following its roadmap and the effectiveness of its parent engagement strategies
• A parent support network to allow groups to learn from and support each other

By using examples, activities, and questions provided in the toolkit, parents and community partners can work together to adapt these strategies for their unique environment.

The toolkit, prepared by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) and commissioned by First 5 LA (a Los Angeles child advocacy organization), is broken into five sections for quick navigation:

• Overview
• Background 
• Building and Sustaining Parent Engagement
• Achieving Success: Guide for Creating Your Own Strategies
• Toolkit Resources

Growing and Sustaining Parent Engagement: A Toolkit for Parents and Community Partners is available for download on the CSSP website:

www.cssp.org/publications/growingandsustainingparentengagementtoolkit.pdf (495 KB)

Casey Family Programs recently updated their Supporting Success framework, a tool to help higher education organizations develop and enhance services to improve outcomes for students from foster care. In addition to the stressors faced by most new students transitioning to a college environment, youth from foster care often have unique needs related to housing, food, transportation, health care, and financial aid. The framework helps colleges improve their existing student support services and develop new programs to address these needs so students can focus on their academic success. The authors of the framework provide guidance on the six elements necessary for program development:

• Designated leadership
• Internal and external champions
• Collaborations with community agencies
• Data-driven decision-making
• Staff peer support and professional development
• Sustainability planning

In addition, the authors describe six elements for providing direct student support:

• Year-round housing and other basic needs
• Financial aid
• Academic advising and career counseling
• Personal guidance, counseling, and supplemental support
• Opportunities for student community engagement and leadership
• Planned transitions to college, between colleges, and from college to employment

The framework discusses each element in detail and presents concrete action steps to address each element. Throughout the framework, the authors utilize case examples of promising programs from community colleges and universities in California, Connecticut, Michigan, and Texas.

John Emerson and Lee Bassett were the principal authors of Supporting Success: Improving Higher Education Outcomes for Students From Foster Care: A Framework for Program Enhancement (version 2.0). Download the full publication, a selected bibliography, and a program planning and improvement guide on the Casey Family Programs website:

www.casey.org/resources/publications/SupportingSuccess.htm

The National Project to Improve Representation for Parents Involved in the Child Welfare System aims to strengthen representation of parents and provide them a voice in the child welfare process. The project website details the project's work in the area of training and technical assistance, assessments, and relevant articles, including standards of practice. To help attorneys who represent parents in child welfare cases, the project maintains a listserv, offers specialized training, and holds an annual conference. 

The project is a collaboration between the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, Casey Family Programs, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Steering Committee for the National Parents' Counsel Organization.

Visit the webpage to learn more:

www.americanbar.org/groups/child_law/projects_initiatives/parentrepresentation.html

American Humane is offering a series of webinars on Family Group Decision Making (FGDM), a process in which a trained coordinator brings together the family group and the agency personnel to create and implement a plan to safeguard children.

The nine webinars, which began in February, are offered on a monthly basis through November.  Each is led by FGDM experts who talk about "how-tos" and promising practices. Continuing Education Units are available.

The schedule for the remainder of the series includes a variety of FGDM topics:

• Why Engage a Family in an FGDM Process? — March 23
• Private Family Time: The Gift and the Challenge — April 27
• Focus on Follow-Up — May 26
• Staffing Your FGDM Program for Success: Recruitment, Retention, and Staff Development — July 27
• FGDM: A Family-Led "Settlement Conference" for Dependency Courts — August 30
• How Does FGDM Fit With First Nation and Native American Communities? — September 29
• The Power of Voice: Family Group Conferencing and Family Violence — October 26
• Engaging Youth in the FGDM Process: What to Consider — November 29

For more information or to register, visit the American Humane website:

www.americanhumane.org/children/professional-resources/conferences-webinars/fgdm-webinar-series.html

 

The National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center (NCCIC) recently unveiled its redesigned website, which features improved navigation and an enhanced guided search function. Users may navigate the website in a number of ways. The menu bar at the top of the page provides a comprehensive list of topics and subtopics when scrolled over. Users also may use the detailed sitemap at the bottom of the page and the Quick Search and Advanced Search located at the top of each page to navigate the website. When conducting a keyword search, advanced search, or a library search, users may narrow down search results using specific criteria such as State, Topic, Year, Author, Keyword, Language, and Publication or Content Type.

In addition, a number of popular resources, including Office of Child Care and NCCIC news, National and State Quick Facts, the Early Childhood Professional Development Systems Toolkit, resources related to emergency preparedness, and those available in Spanish are highlighted on the home page. Users also may wish to share the NCCIC website and resources via the social networking websites Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

NCCIC is a service of the Office of Child Care. To view the redesigned website, visit:

http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov

Every State has statutes providing for the termination of parental rights by a court. Once parental rights have been terminated, the child is legally free to be placed for adoption.

A new factsheet from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) provides an overview of laws in nine States that allow for the reinstatement of parental rights following termination of parental rights. If a permanent placement has not been achieved within a specific timeframe, a petition may be filed with the court requesting reinstatement of the parent’s rights. If the court determines that the parent is now able to provide a safe home for the child, the request may be granted.

The factsheet, Reinstatement of Parental Rights, includes States' information on when a petition for reinstatement may be filed, who may file a petition, and the specific findings required for a court to grant reinstatement of parental rights.

The factsheet is available on the on the NCSL website:

www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=21770

Related Item

Child Welfare Information Gateway offers Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights, which includes State statutes on termination as well as reinstatement of parental rights:

www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/groundtermin.cfm

Nine short videos on the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) website demonstrate best practices for caseworker visits with children and youth in foster care. The videos focus on the changing needs of children at different ages and in different settings. They include:

• Caseworker Visits: Overview
• Visits With Infants and Toddlers
• Visiting Elementary-Age Children
• Visits With Children Ages 10-12
• Visiting Youth Placed in Group Homes or Residential Facilities
• Preparing Foster Children for Visits With Birth Parents
• Caseworker Visits: Quality Visits
• Caseworker Visits: Building Stable Placements
• Caseworker Visits: Supporting Older Youth Transitioning to Independence

To access the videos online, visit the Minnesota DHS website (scroll down to "Training Videos"):

www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcplg?IdcService=GET_DYNAMIC_CONVERSION&dID=135706

Upcoming national conferences on child welfare and adoption through June 2011 include:

April 2011

• 29th Annual "Protecting Our Children" National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
  Honoring Our Traditions: Sustaining Our Families
  National Indian Child Welfare Association
  April 17–20, Anchorage, AK
• NABSW 43rd Annual National Conference
  Beyond the Rhetoric: A Call for Social Action
  National Association of Black Social Workers
  April 19–22, New Orleans, LA
  http://www.nabsw.org/MServer/Events.aspx?eventID=1168&calendarDate=19042011

May 2011

• Pathways to Adulthood 2011
  National Independent Living/Transitional Living Conference
  The University of Oklahoma OUTREACH National Resource Center for Youth Services
  May 4–6, Denver, CO
  http://www.nrcys.ou.edu/conferences.shtml
• Black Administrators in Child Welfare, Inc., National Conference
  The Power of Change: Reducing Disproportionality
  May 15–17, Philadelphia, PA
• Tenth Annual National Citizen Review Panel Conference
  A Force for Change
  May 18–20, Charleston, SC

June 2011

• One Child, Many Hands: A Multidisciplinary Conference on Child Welfare
  The Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice & Research
  June 8–10, Philadelphia, PA
  http://www.sp2.upenn.edu/onechild
• 2011 Conference on Family Group Decision Making and Other Family Engagement Approaches
  American Humane Association
  June 8–11, Henderson, NV

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