Compendium Child Welfare

Child Welfare Training Grant funds are authorized each fiscal year for grants to public or other non-profit institutions of higher learning for special projects to train personnel for work in the field of child welfare. Federal funds for Child Welfare Training Projects were available for 1) training child welfare practitioners to work effectively with youth transitioning out of foster care through the Federal Independent Living Program; 2) training managers and supervisors to enhance their capability to understand and implement ASFA; 3) competency-based training of child welfare agency supervisors; and 4) professional education for current and prospective public child welfare agency staff to obtain bachelor of social work degrees.

This section of the Compendium describes the 5 Child Welfare Training Discretionary Grants funded in FY 2001 under the following priority areas:

2001D.1: Demonstration Sites: Building Analytic Capacity for Child Welfare Programs in State Systems
2001D.2: Mentor Sites: Building Analytic Capacity for Child Welfare Programs in State Systems

The State of Oklahoma will establish a contractual relationship with the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare (KUSSW) to build the analytic capacity of DCFS to implement a Results Oriented Management (ROM) model developed by KUSSW and refined through this initiative. This approach emphasizes the use of information generated by an enhanced management-reporting model and research system, an organizational culture centered on creating a learning organization, and the increasing skills of managers to interpret and take action for program and policy improvements. Such a reports system offers relevant performance information at all levels of the agency in a flexible format that enables managers to obtain far more detail and analyses. A research and evaluation program will be implemented that informs agency policy and program development and culminates in a long-term research agenda providing a framework for future research. Training and technical assistance will be provided to facilitate the use of these new reports and research results. Several methods of communicating information and engaging staff in using data for program improvement will be undertaken, including research briefs and a listserv. To engage local stakeholders, three demonstration sites will be established in the community to engage community stakeholders in program improvement activities.

The Nevada Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) will build its data analysis capacity by expanding on its public-private partnership with Hornby Zeller Associates (HZA). By the end of this project, DCFS expects to produce monthly and quarterly reports for management decision making, focusing on case status, case flow, performance, outcome achievement, and costs and benefits. In addition, research and evaluation activities will occur regularly inside the Program Evaluation and Data (PED) unit, and DCFS management will have extensive experience in using data, and have a thorough understanding of the findings of the different analyses. HZA's extensive experience in designing and operating data analysis units for child welfare agencies will ensure that the growth in data analysis capacity occurs quickly. Under this project, PED will begin producing monthly status and case flow information out of the State Automated Child Welfare Information System in the beginning of 2002 and outcome information will become available within 6 months thereafter. More in-depth research and evaluation projects are slated to begin during the third year of the project; the training of managers in the use of data will be an ongoing process throughout the course of the project.

The Division of Child Welfare of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) will build its data-analytic capacity. The three primary objectives of the project are to establish a research center to generate studies to inform the