June 2016Vol. 17, No. 4Print issueSpotlight on Early Childhood Adversity

Last month, during National Foster Care Month, the White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Think of Us hosted the first White House Foster Care and Technology Hackathon. On May 26 and 27, leaders in the fields of foster care and child welfare, nonprofit organizations, and foster care families and alumni joined in a conversation with leaders from the technology sector to explore ways in which technology could be used to improve the foster care system and the lives of the children, youth, and families the system touches. Child welfare, legal, and technology experts; practitioners; policymakers; and foster care alumni teamed to "hack" current challenges facing the child welfare field by thinking about innovative solutions in response to the following questions:

• How might we prevent unplanned pregnancy among youth in foster care?
• How might we prevent homelessness among youth who have aged out of care?
• How might we create a legal framework for protecting the digital information of children and families in the child welfare system?
• How might we make essential documents constantly available to youth in one touch?
• How might we help pregnant and parenting mothers dealing with substance abuse?
• How might we ensure that we have an ample supply of the most capable, empathetic, resilient families as part of the foster family pipeline?
• How might we get more innovative technology into child welfare agencies?
• How might we empower youth in foster care and alumni with decision-making abilities?

To learn more about the hackathon—including information about the teams that came together to hack each question, indepth information about each challenge being discussed, the potential impact of a technology solution for the challenges, and opportunities Think of Us and the teams explored as possible solutions—visit the Think of Us website at http://thinkof-us.org/white-house-hackathon/.
 

The Children's Bureau website hosts information on child welfare programs, funding, monitoring, training and technical assistance, laws, statistics, research, Federal reporting, and much more.

Recent additions to the site include:

• Guide to Developing, Implementing, and Assessing an Innovation: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/guide-developing-implementing-assessing-innovation
• The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System Supplemental Proposed Rule - Overview: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/afcars-snprm-overview
• The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System Supplemental Proposed Rule - Overview Presentation: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/afcars-snprm-overview-presentation
• Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking - Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/afcars-snprm-faqs
• Michigan AFCARS Assessment Review, 2016: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/michigan-afcars-assessment-review
• PI-16-02 - Program Instruction (PI) to set forth the requirements for recipients of Community-Based Grants for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect awards for Federal fiscal year 2016, and provide guidance and instructions for the preparation and submission of the application: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/pi1602
• PI-16-03 - PI that provides guidance to States, territories, and insular areas on actions they are required to take to receive their allotments for FFY 2017 authorized under title IV-B, subparts 1 and 2, section 106 of CAPTA, Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP), and Education and Training Voucher (ETV) program: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/pi1603
• PI-16-04 - PI that provides guidance to Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and Tribal consortia on actions they are required to take in order to receive their allotments for FFY 2017 authorized under title IV-B, subparts 1 and/or 2, the CFCIP, and the ETV program: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/pi1604
• Grants to Address Trafficking within the Child Welfare Population, HHS-2016-ACF-ACYF-CA-1179 - A funding opportunity announcement (FOA) to solicit proposals for projects that will address human trafficking within the child welfare population: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/index.cfm?switch=foa&fon=HHS-2016-ACF-ACYF-CA-1179
• Quality Improvement Center on Child Welfare Involved Children and Families Experiencing Domestic Violence, HHS-2016-ACF-ACYF-CA-1184 - An FOA to establish one Quality Improvement Center targeted toward improving the safety, permanency and well-being for families that are pregnant and/or have young children, involved in the child welfare system, and experiencing domestic violence: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/index.cfm?switch=foa&fon=HHS-2016-ACF-ACYF-CA-1184
• FOA Modification: Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development, HHS-2016-ACF-ACYF-CT-1178 - This published FOA has been modified to clarify the expected funding for all budget periods: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/index.cfm?switch=foa&fon=HHS-2016-ACF-ACYF-CT-1178
• FOA Modification: Foster/Adoptive Parent Preparation, Training and Development Initiative, HHS-2016-ACF-ACYF-CO-1122 - This published FOA has been modified with a new closing date, July 11, 2016, as well as other modifications regarding language and other specifications: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/view/HHS-2016-ACF-ACYF-CO-1122

Visit the Children's Bureau website often to see what's new at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb.
 

Homeless youth or youth at risk of homelessness may have difficulty accessing services due to unstable housing or low-income situations. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provisions that aim to facilitate access to health and mental health-care coverage can likely put these services within their reach. However, youth may need guidance in assessing their eligibility for and accessing services.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a factsheet that spotlights health-care coverage for homeless youth and youth at risk of homelessness. The factsheet reviews eligibility criteria for Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and subsidized coverage and what services are covered. It includes links to resources for more information and highlights "Things to Know About Applying or Helping Someone Apply":

• For homeless youth, it may be easiest to apply on the phone or using a paper application in order to receive assistance.
• Individuals without a permanent address can use an assister's, trusted friend's, or service provider's address.
• Individuals can apply and be determined eligible at any time throughout the year.

Also included is a chart detailing Medicaid and CHIP income eligibility as a percentage of the Federal poverty level by State. To access the factsheet Health Coverage for Homeless and At-Risk Youth, visit https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/198441/HomelessHealth.pdf (207 KB).
 

By Mimi Laver, Director, Legal Education, American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law

The spring of 2016 is a special time for families and the professionals who support them. During the month of May, we recognized National Foster Care Month with the wonderful theme of "Honoring, Uniting, and Celebrating Families." June is National Reunification Month. While we hope that every day is one in which the child welfare system demonstrates how it values families and their strengths, shining a national spotlight on parents for these two months reminds us where our priorities should be all year long.

According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, reunification is, by far, the permanency option achieved by the most children in the child welfare system. Research has shown that children who are raised by their families have the best long-term outcomes¹; therefore, we have a true motivation to return children home as quickly as it is safe to do so. For many families, this is not an easy process. However, when a child is returned home, it is cause for celebration.

National Reunification Month began in 2010 as a single day—June 19 (during Father's Day weekend). It started as a collaboration among a number of national organizations, including the American Bar Association's (ABA's) Center on Children and the Law, Casey Family Programs, National Association of Counsel for Children, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the National Center of State Courts, the Foster Care Coalition, Rise magazine, and Judge Connie Cohen from Iowa. These partners joined together to let States know that reunification is important and worthy of celebration. In 2012, the initiative's leaders decided to focus on June as Reunification Month.

Since 2010 the following guiding principles have remained central:

• Reunification with family is the preferred outcome for children who must be removed from their homes and placed in foster care. 
• For most children in foster care, reunification with their family is their best option for a permanent and loving home.
• Every year, thousands of children are successfully reunified with their families. 
• All children need the care, love, security, and stability of family unity—including parents, siblings, grandparents, and other extended family members—to provide a solid foundation for personal growth, development, and maturity.
• Reunification takes work, commitment, and investment of time and resources by parents, family members, social workers, foster parents, service providers, attorneys, courts, and the community.

One of the special aspects of the month was the 2012 addition of honoring Reunification Heroes from around the country. These heroes are parents, lawyers, and case workers who have gone above and beyond in the reunification process. They were nominated by peers, interviewed by ABA staff, and highlighted on the Reunification Month website (http://ambar.org/nrm) as well as on the ABA's Parent Attorney listserv. In 2015, we had a record 11 heroes honored, and the ABA hopes to top last year by honoring many more Reunification Heroes. Nominations for 2016 honorees are now closed, and we look forward to sharing the 2016 Reunification Heroes' stories via articles that will be published during June at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/child_law/what_we_do/projects/nrd/heroes.html.

Another important part of Reunification Month is the State and local events that will happen in June. At least 25 States have conducted at least one event over the last few years, and most of these States have held multiple events. The celebrations ranged from picnics honoring families, to rallies on the steps of State capitols, to substantive forums. For example, each year New Jersey picks an important topic like housing and visitation, creates a video about the topic, and holds a forum for stakeholders during June. Similarly, the Family Defense Center in Chicago has hosted a celebration for the past 5 years in which parents who were involved in the child welfare system share their stories and discuss ways to improve the experience for families. To see a description of past events and to register your celebration, see the Reunification Month website.

Reunification Month, at its core, is about ensuring a focus on keeping children with their families. While we highlight this initiative during June, children and families rely on us all to focus on reunification throughout the year.

 

¹ Doyle, J. J., Jr. (2007). Child protection and child outcomes: Measuring the effects of foster care. American Economic Review, 97(5), 1583–1610. doi: 10.1257/aer.97.5.1583
 

The Justice Department's Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is soliciting applications for its new Grants to Tribal Governments to Exercise Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction Program (Tribal Jurisdiction Program). Authorized in the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, the program aims to encourage the effective partnership of Tribal criminal justice system and victim service providers to ensure victims are safe and offenders are held accountable. Program funds can be used to accomplish the following:

• Strengthen Tribal criminal justice systems to assist Indian Tribes in exercising "special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction" (SDVCJ)
• Provide indigent criminal defendants with the effective assistance of licensed defense counsel, at no cost to the defendant, in criminal proceedings in which a participating Tribe prosecutes a crime of domestic violence or dating violence or a criminal violation of a protection order
• Ensure that, in criminal proceedings in which a participating Tribe exercises SDVCJ, jurors are summoned, selected, and instructed in a manner consistent with all applicable requirements
• Accord victims of domestic violence, dating violence, and violations of protection orders rights that are similar to the rights of a crime victim described in the Federal Crime Victims' Rights Act, consistent with Tribal law and custom

OVW anticipates making 36-month awards in the range of $300,000 to $450,000. Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. (E.T.) on June 20, 2016. 
To view this solicitation, as well as other OVW solicitations, visit http://www.justice.gov/ovw/open-solicitations.
 

Given finite Federal resources and the importance of accountability, there has been increasing movement toward building an evidence base to use in improving the effectiveness of human service programs. The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) offers practical guidance for advancing evidence-based decision-making in a recently published toolkit that describes how to design experiments for evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention or program change in family policy.

The toolkit focuses on "opportunistic experiments (OEs)," or randomized control trials (RCTs) to study the effect of an initiative, program change, or new policy that an agency is planning to implement. This contrasts with traditional RCTs, which typically look at an intervention or program change developed specifically for a research study. OEs often rely on existing data to measure outcomes for existing program participants, making them more cost effective than most RCTs (which must recruit participants and collect new data). The toolkit looks at the various types of OEs, their characteristics, programs that are well-suited to experimentation, case study examples, and how to implement them.

Advancing Evidence-Based Decision-Making: A Toolkit on Recognizing and Conducting Opportunistic Experiments in the Family Self-Sufficiency and Stability Policy Area (OPRE Report #2015-97) was developed by Mathematica Policy Research (under contract to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, OPRE) as part of the OPRE-funded Advancing Welfare and Family Self-Sufficiency Research project. The toolkit can be accessed at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/oe_learning_what_works_toolkit_final_2_b508.pdf (1 MB).
 

Throughout the Federal Government, there is a push to build an evidence base and use it to improve the effectiveness of human services programs. With this in mind, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) developed the Permanency Innovations Initiative (PII) and, in fiscal year 2010, ACF awarded grants to six organizations to implement and evaluate innovative, evidence-supported interventions that would help children leave foster care in less than 3 years and add to the knowledge base in child welfare.

To support PII grantees, ACF also established the PII Training and Technical Assistance Project (PII-TTAP), which provides training and technical assistance (T&TA) on the implementation and sustainability of the interventions. PII-TTAP created The Development, Implementation, and Assessment Approach, which focuses on best practices in implementation science and builds on work completed with PII grantees. Using the approach as a foundation, PII-TTAP developed three additional products to support child welfare professionals in their roles as managers/administrators and T&TA providers. These products deliver best practices in implementation science, helping organizations develop innovations or adapt existing ones and effectively implement them to ultimately improve outcomes for children and families.

The following resources are aimed at child welfare professionals interested in applying the approach:

• Guide to Developing, Implementing, and Assessing an Innovation - This five-volume PDF series is intended as a reference for individuals and teams as they move through the stages of the implementation process. Each volume includes instructions, quizzes, real-world examples, and tools intended to provide guidance and support for successfully implementing an innovation. The format is accessible and convenient, and the series can be downloaded and printed or used directly on your computer. Access the guide at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/guide-developing-implementing-assessing-innovation.   
• Development, Implementation, and Assessment Toolkit - This self-paced website provides virtual T&TA support and includes video hosts, interactive modules, automated tools, interviews with child welfare practitioners, and links to additional resources. The toolkit provides a more intensive transfer of learning and interactive experience than the guide. The toolkit will be publicly available in late 2016.

The following resources are aimed at T&TA providers interested in helping child welfare professionals apply the approach:

• Providing Technical Assistance to Build Implementation Capacity in Child Welfare: A Manual Based on the Development, Implementation, and Assessment Approach - This manual provides guidance to T&TA providers working with agencies or organizations using the approach. The manual includes lessons learned from providing T&TA to PII grantees that can be applied to support other child welfare organizations and grantees. Currently in development, the manual will be distributed in late 2016.
• The Development, Implementation, and Assessment Approach, which is available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/pii-develop-implement-assess-approach.

More information on PII, including the grantees and the PII Approach, is available on the Children's Bureau's website at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/pii-project-resources.
 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published regulations for a new case management information system to help State and Tribal title IV-E agencies better develop and support their child welfare programs. The Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) Final Rule replaces the Statewide and Tribal Automated Child Welfare Information Systems (S/TACWIS), developed in 1993, and addresses the significant changes in child welfare practice and technology that have evolved over the past 23 years.

In contrast to the single comprehensive information systems prescribed by S/TACWIS regulations, the more flexible CCWIS regulations allow agencies to develop smaller systems that are targeted to agencies' needs. Agencies will have greater opportunity to implement innovation and technology to share data between multiple systems and build a "sized-to-fit" application. The final rule's four key provisions are as follows:

• Promote data sharing with other agencies: If practicable, title IV-E agencies should exchange data with other health and human service agencies, education systems, and child welfare courts in order to help coordinate services, eliminate redundancies, improve client outcomes, and improve data quality.   
• Require quality data: Title IV-E agencies implementing a CCWIS must develop and implement data quality plans and processes to monitor data quality, as well as address and correct identified problems. 
• Reduce mandatory functional requirements: CCWIS only has 14 requirements (as opposed to the minimum 51 requirements prescribed by S/TACWIS regulations). Agencies will be allowed to build functions in the CCWIS or collect needed data through exchanges with other systems.
• Allow agencies to build systems tailored to their needs: Federal requirements for this optional system focus on quality data and exchanges between related information systems, thus allowing agencies to tailor systems to their unique needs rather than functions specified by the Federal Government. 

For more information about the CCWIS final rule, including a link to the rule itself, visit the Children's Bureau website at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/research-data-technology/state-tribal-info-systems.
 

When children are placed in foster care, it can be very stressful for everyone in the family. Families can have lots of questions, and they may feel anxious, worried, or overwhelmed. But foster care is not forever. Children and youth can and do return home to their families. In fact, this is the most common outcome. According to the latest Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System report (PDF - 136 KB), 51 percent of children exiting foster care in fiscal year 2014 were reunited with their parents or primary caretakers. Child Welfare Information Gateway published a new factsheet for families that provides a general overview of the reunification process, including what parents can expect while their children are in foster care, what they can do to help their children return home, and what to expect after children return home. Resources available to help families during and after reunification also are included. Questions and topics addressed include the following:

• What can I expect while my children are in foster care?
• What can I do to help my children come home?
• What will happen as reunification gets closer?
• What can I expect after my children come home?
• What other resources can help me and my family?

Child welfare professionals can share this factsheet with the families they serve to help prepare them to successfully reunite with their children and to spread awareness of the reunification process during 2016 National Reunification Month, and all year long. To access Reunification: Bringing Your Children Home From Foster Care, visit the Child Welfare Information Gateway website at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/reunification/.
 

The National Resource Center for Diligent Recruitment (NRCDR) at AdoptUSKids published two new resources for States and Tribes:

• Diligent Recruitment Planning Tool for Tribes: A Tribal Supplement to the Diligent Recruitment Navigator aims to help Tribal child welfare systems who are looking to develop diligent recruitment plans and programs engage, develop, and support kinship, foster, guardianship, and adoptive families. While the tool highlights key elements and information from the NRCDR's Diligent Recruitment Navigator and offers additional customized content for Tribes, it can be used either as a companion to the full Diligent Recruitment Navigator or on its own. Ideas for discussion questions and people to include in planning discussions are also featured. Access the tool at http://nrcdr.org/_assets/files/NRCDR-org/dr-navigator-tribal-supplement.pdf (100 KB).

• Developing Recruitment Plans: A Toolkit for States and Tribes provides guidance, strategies, examples, and tools for developing data-driven recruitment plans, including ideas for creating short-term plans, targeted recruitment plans focused on particular populations or areas, and comprehensive diligent recruitment plans. The toolkit features topics such as the value of a strong planning process and plan, what a recruitment plan should be, and ways to engage with data, and it offers 10 recruitment-planning worksheets. Access the toolkit at http://www.nrcdr.org/_assets/files/NRCDR-org/developing-recruitment-plans-toolkit.pdf (391 KB).

To view a list of all NRCDR publications, visit http://nrcdr.org/publications.

 

Related Item

A new synthesis of the Children's Bureau's work to fund multifaceted diligent recruitment programs for a range of resource families for children in foster care, including kinship, foster, concurrent, and adoptive families, is now available. Diligent Recruitment of Families for Children in the Foster Care System is available on the Child Welfare Information Gateway website at https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/management/funding/funding-sources/federal-funding/cb-funding/cbreports/families/.