Technical Assistance to State Legislators on the Child and Family Services Reviews

Who We Are

The Technical Assistance to State Legislators on the CFSRs initiative is designed to inform State legislators about, and engage them in, the CFSRs and other child welfare reform efforts. This effort also is designed to enhance links between State legislators who have child welfare oversight responsibility and State child welfare agencies.

How We Can Help

This project component educates State legislators about the role of the CFSRs and Program Improvement Plans (PIPs) in supporting States in improving child welfare systems. It also identifies and shares with State child welfare agencies strategies for engaging State legislators in child welfare and the CFSR and PIP processes. It promotes links between State legislators and child welfare agencies through onsite technical assistance events in States, technical assistance reports, and presentations at national conferences.

Technical Assistance Provided
During the past 2 years, technical assistance to State legislators has fostered legislator-agency collaboration in support of the CFSR process and child welfare reform through technical assistance events in a range of areas:

Assisting State legislative committees in assessing options for improving their State's ability to meet the educational needs of children in foster care
Briefing State legislators on strategies for addressing child safety issues
Arranging for State child welfare agency administrators to brief other State agency leadership on approaches that have worked in fostering legislator-agency collaboration
Helping States assess how they manage adoptions of children with special needs, including providing an overview of innovative programs in other States

The Technical Assistance Process
NCSL plans each technical assistance event with input from State legislators, State child welfare agency staff, Federal staff, and JBS. The following is additional information regarding technical assistance requests:

Eligibility—State legislators, State child welfare agencies, or both may apply for technical assistance. States that previously received technical assistance are eligible for additional assistance.
Application process—Legislators, their staff, and State child welfare agency staff may submit requests for technical assistance in writing or by telephone. Requests should include (1) a brief description of the assistance needed, (2) a description of the proposed forum for technical assistance (for example, informal meeting, legislative hearing, or workshop), (3) the intended audience, and (4) the preferred date. The project will follow up with each technical assistance requester.
Selection process—Priority will be given to applications from both State legislators and child welfare agency administrators; the technical assistance may target legislators, child welfare agencies, or both. Next in order of priority are requests that target child welfare agency personnel only. Within these guidelines, assistance is provided to all requesters within available contract resources.

For More Information

Phone:	240.645.4615 (JBS) or 303.856.1370 (NCSL)
Email:	legta@jbsinternational.com (JBS) or steve.christian@ncsl.org (NCSL)
Website:	http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/tta/state_legs.htm
Contacts:	John Zalenski (JBS) or Steve Christian (NCSL)

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