CBX - Children's Bureau Express
Safety, Permanency, and Well-Being

09 2004, Vol. 5, No. 7

Table of Contents
 

News From the Children's Bureau

  • Community-Based Prevention Programs
  • Searching for Birth Parents
  • Factsheets on AFCARS
  • National Adoption Information Clearinghouse Announces New Website Design
  • Circle of Parents
  • Recent State Child Welfare Legislation

Child Welfare News

  • Therapeutic Foster Care Prevents Youth Violence
  • Home Visiting Study Prompts Changes
  • Relationship Between Post-Adoption Services and Adoption Outcomes
  • Increasing Numbers of Children Receive Interstate Adoption Assistance

Strategies and Tools for Practice

  • Supporting Infants in Foster Care

Resources

  • Child Welfare and the Courts
  • Older Caregivers Raising Children
  • Families as Partners
  • Rebuilding Attachments With Traumatized Children
  • Data and Child Welfare Practice
  • Resources for Capacity Building
  • Funding for Community- and Faith-Based Victim Service Organizations

Training and Conferences

  • Evaluation of a Foster Parent Training Program Yields Promising Results
  • Online Training Conference: Abuse of Children and Adults with Disabilities
  • Conferences

News From the Children's Bureau

Community-Based Prevention Programs

The Winter 2004 issue of America's Family Support Magazine focuses on the efforts of the FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention to promote child and family well-being, family capacity, and systems effectiveness. Articles in this special issue cover a number of related topics, including:

The scope of the articles reinforces the view that families need support from their community and from society to raise safe, healthy, competent children.

America's Family Support Magazine is published by Family Support America, the lead organization of the FRIENDS National Resource Center. For more information about FRIENDS, visit their website at www.friendsnrc.org. To purchase America's Family Support Magazine, go to www.familysupportamerica.org/content/afsm/21_4/toc.htm.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: News From the Children's Bureau
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2107


Searching for Birth Parents

Adopted persons contemplating searching for their birth parents have a new resource in the information packet recently released by the National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning. Birthright: An Adoptee's Right to Know provides a brief history of policies regarding adoption records, a short list of websites, and an extensive list of books and articles that cover many adoption issues. The document also includes a concise summary of the ongoing dispute over whether adoption records should be open or closed.

This information packet can be downloaded from the National Resource Center website at www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/downloads/information_packets/ birthright_adoptees_right_to_know.pdf.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: News From the Children's Bureau
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2108


Factsheets on AFCARS

The National Resource Center for Information Technology in Child Welfare (NRCITCW) recently developed and posted factsheets that offer answers to frequently asked questions regarding AFCARS (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System) Reviews. The AFCARS factsheets cover six topics related to the reviews and the collection of data:

In each case, reporting errors identified during the Federal reviews, as well as possible solutions, are discussed, and information on the automation of data is provided.

The factsheets can be found on NRCITCW's website at www.nrccwdt.org/rscs/rscs_facts.html#facts. For information on NRCITCW's AFCARS training and technical assistance, including their AFCARS Toolkit, go to www.nrccwdt.org/ta/ta_afcars.html.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: News From the Children's Bureau
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2109


National Adoption Information Clearinghouse Announces New Website Design

The National Adoption Information Clearinghouse launched its newly redesigned website (http://naic.acf.hhs.gov) on July 28. Using customer feedback, the Clearinghouse has enhanced its ability to quickly connect customers to the information they need. Changes to the website include:

In addition, customers have an opportunity to provide feedback through "Give Us Suggestions" and "Rate This Publication" features.

Customers may still contact Clearinghouse staff by mail, phone, fax, or email. The contact information remains the same:

National Adoption Information Clearinghouse
330 C Street, SW
Washington, DC 20447
Phone: (888) 251-0075 or (703) 385-7565
Fax: (703) 385-3206
Email: naic@caliber.com

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: News From the Children's Bureau
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=850


Circle of Parents

Circle of Parents™ is a partnership of Prevent Child Abuse America, the National Family Support Roundtable, and parent leaders dedicated to using the mutual self-help support group model as a means to prevent child abuse and neglect and strengthen families. Under a 4-year grant from the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect (OCAN), Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this partnership has developed a formal national network of support groups that seeks to fully honor the principles of mutual respect, equal contribution, and shared leadership.

In addition to developing infrastructure for this national network, project activities have focused on:

Other efforts include development of network standards and principles for self-help and mutual support groups, a self-assessment process for State networks, and a participatory action research model for evaluating project activities. Each parent leader and member organization participates fully in the work of Circle of Parents, including strategic planning, implementing, and evaluating all partnership activities. A national Parents as Leaders team, formed in 2001, ensures the parent voice is valued and informs all project activities.

Circle of Parents is now working toward becoming its own nonprofit organization beginning in October 2004, when the OCAN grant ends. For more information about Circle of Parents, visit the website at www.circleofparents.org or contact Cynthia Savage, Project Manager, at (312) 662-3520.

Note: This program was funded by the Children's Bureau, Grant #90-CA-1668. This article is part of a series highlighting successful Children's Bureau Discretionary Grant-funded projects around the country, emerging from official Children's Bureau site visits.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: News From the Children's Bureau
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=856


Recent State Child Welfare Legislation

A new report released by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) presents an overview of significant State legislation related to child welfare issues enacted during calendar years 2002 and 2003. The report, State Child Welfare Legislation: 2002-2003, describes emerging issues and key legislative trends related to child welfare practice. It also discusses new laws that have had a significant impact on child welfare practice or administration and includes an appendix of citations and summaries of specific child welfare-related laws in each State.

Issues addressed by the report include:

State Child Welfare Legislation: 2002-2003 is the first of five reports to be prepared under the Children's Bureau Technical Assistance to State Legislators on the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) Project. It is available on the NCSL website at www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/childlegislation.pdf.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: News From the Children's Bureau
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=851


Child Welfare News

Therapeutic Foster Care Prevents Youth Violence

Program-intensive therapeutic foster care can prevent violent behavior among chronically delinquent youth, ages 12 to 18, who are at risk of committing violent acts, according to a recent report by The Task Force on Community Preventive Services.

The Task Force examined experimental studies published prior to December 2001 on two types of therapeutic foster care:

The Task Force found that program-intensive therapeutic foster care reduces the number of arrests, the rates of incarceration, and days of incarceration. On the other hand, they concluded that current research regarding the effectiveness of cluster therapeutic foster care is inconclusive and that more studies are needed.

The report recommends that communities that are considering implementing or expanding program-intensive therapeutic foster care services consider these results in the context of local data, such as the number of chronically delinquent juveniles exhibiting violent behavior in the community and the availability of resources to implement these services.

This report is part of a series of topics included in the Guide to Community Preventive Services, a product of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, with the support of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in collaboration with public and private partners. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide staff support to the Task Force.

A copy of the report is available on the CDC's website at www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5301a1.htm. Information about the Guide to Community Preventive Services is available at www.thecommunityguide.org/.

Related item

For more information on outcomes for youth in therapeutic foster care, see the 1999 Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health at www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/features/surgeongeneralreport/chapter3/ sec7_1asp.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Child Welfare News
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=853


Home Visiting Study Prompts Changes

Study findings indicating that the Hawaii Healthy Start home visiting program had little impact on the incidence of child abuse and neglect have prompted changes both to the program and to the evaluation of home visiting program outcomes. As a result of a 3-year study, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center have endorsed the value of testing different models, training programs, and implementation systems in home visiting programs, as well as utilizing experimental tests to determine the impact of home visiting on the incidence of child abuse and neglect.

The Hawaii Healthy Start Program was the focus of a large-scale study involving 643 families with infants who were identified as being at risk for child abuse and neglect. In this randomized evaluation, families were assigned to home visiting or control groups. Families in the home visiting groups received regular visits from paraprofessionals who were trained to establish a trusting relationship with parents, model parenting and problem-solving skills, and help families access needed services.

Annual assessments, including mothers' self-reports, home observations, child hospitalization and child protective services reports, and home visitors' records, showed little difference in the incidence of child abuse and neglect between families enrolled in the home visiting program and control families. In fact, high rates of abusive and neglectful parenting behaviors were found in both groups. Abusive and neglectful behavior was correlated with such maternal factors as depression, illegal substance abuse, and having no partner or having an abusive partner. These maternal risk factors for child abuse and neglect often went unrecognized by home visitors, so appropriate referrals to community services that might have prevented abuse and neglect were not made.

Researchers who studied the Healthy Start Program also noted a shift in the home visitation model that affected the content and focus of the home visits. This shift marked a change from the home visiting model of the late 1980s, in which the home visitor and supervisor developed a case plan based on family risk for abuse, to a more recent model in which parents designed their own goals within a strengths-based perspective. The latter model relied on families to propose their own risk-reduction goals, but staff were not trained to help families recognize and address their risk for abuse and neglect.

The results of this study have prompted Hawaii's Healthy Start Program to consider a number of changes, which will be tested for their effectiveness in preventing abuse and neglect. These include:

Information about this study can be found in three journal articles in the June issue of Child Abuse & Neglect, The International Journal 28(6):

Article abstracts and information about subscriptions to Child Abuse & Neglect, The International Journal can be found at http://authors.elsevier.com/JournalDetail.html?PubID=586&Precis=DESC.

Related Items

Studies of other home visiting programs have yielded more positive results. Read more about evaluations of home visiting programs in previous issues of Children's Bureau Express:

The Nurse-Family Partnership Program is a home visiting program that has shown positive results for first-time, low-income parents who are visited by nurses. For information on that program, including scientific results tracked over 20 years, visit their website at www.nccfc.org/nurseFamilyPartnership.cfm.

The Harvard Family Research Project sponsors the Home Visit Forum, comprised of representatives from national home visitation programs committed to improving outcomes, developing research that leads to better practice and training, and sharing lessons throughout the field. The Home Visit Forum is spotlighted in a recent edition of the Evaluation Exchange and can be accessed at http://gseweb.harvard.edu/~hfrp/eval/issue26/spotlight.html.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Child Welfare News
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=854


Relationship Between Post-Adoption Services and Adoption Outcomes

A study published recently in the Journal of Social Service Research found a significant relationship between post-adoption service utilization and positive adoption outcomes. Outcomes examined included parental satisfaction, quality of parent-child relationships, perceived impact of the child's adoption on the family, and perceived impact of the child's adoption on the marriage (if applicable).

Study participants included 249 of the 609 families in Nevada who were receiving adoption subsidies or who had an adoption subsidy agreement. Each family completed a "Needs and Satisfaction with Services Inventory," addressing whether they needed and/or received particular services.

The most needed services reported by adoptive parents on behalf of their children included:

Financial and needed medical supports were the most frequently reported services received; the majority of caregivers were able to obtain these services. There were, however, significant reports of unmet needs. For example, only 28 percent of respondents indicated they had received needed respite care services. Counseling and in-home supports were the most frequently reported unmet needs.

Researchers found a significant correlation between parents' receipt of services and their satisfaction with parenting. In particular, parents who received informal support services (support groups, time with other adoptive parents), financial services (subsidies, health insurance), or other support services (social work coordination, legal services) reported higher satisfaction with parenting.

Conversely, unmet needs in the following areas were associated with lower quality of parent-child relationships and more negative impact on the family and married life:

Contrary to findings from other studies, no differences were found between adoption outcomes reported by former foster parents and those reported by parents new to the adoptive child.

Based on their findings, the authors offer the following recommendations for child welfare agencies:

"Post-Adoption Service Needs of Families with Special Needs Children: Use, Helpfulness, and Unmet Needs" was published in the Journal of Social Service Research (Vol. 30, Number 4). Find more information about the journal or order a copy of this article online at www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sku=J079.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Child Welfare News
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=855


Increasing Numbers of Children Receive Interstate Adoption Assistance

Federal and State adoption subsidy programs, commonly referred to as "adoption assistance," were established to provide cash assistance and supportive services to adoptive families of children with special needs. To reduce barriers to adoption for waiting children, Federal law encourages States to facilitate the provision of adoption assistance even when a family who wishes to adopt lives outside the child's State of residence or when an adoptive family moves out of State after the adoption. A December 2003 report by the Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance (AAICAMA), Report on the Interstate Movement of Children Receiving Adoption Assistance, finds that increasing mobility and use of national adoption exchanges such as the AdoptUSKids website have resulted in increased numbers of children with special needs living in a State other than the State providing the adoption assistance ("the adoption assistance State").

The study, based on a survey of all States conducted in 2002, shows the majority of adopted children receiving State and Federal adoption subsidies (more than 75 percent) still reside in the State providing the adoption assistance. A relatively small percentage (9.8 percent) live in other States, while the child's State of residence could not be provided by approximately 16 percent of reporting States. Just 5 years earlier, however, the percentage of children living outside their adoption assistance State was 6.1 percent. Among the 30 States for which a comparison was possible, the numbers of children residing in a State other than the adoption assistance State grew by 70 percent during the 5-year period, from 9,878 children in 1997 to 17,098 children in 2002. Study authors suggest this increase indicates States are making progress toward breaking down geographic barriers to adoption.

Other findings include:

Research has shown that children with special needs and their adoptive families need support throughout the life of the adoption. As a result, this study highlights the need for States to have resources to provide adequate medical and post-adoption services for the growing numbers of children with special needs who will be crossing State lines during or subsequent to their adoptions.

The Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance (ICAMA) provides a formal mechanism to ensure that adoptive parents and their children receive medical benefits and other services in interstate situations. For more information about ICAMA, visit the AAICAMA website at http://aaicama.aphsa.org.

This study was supported by a Children's Bureau Adoption Opportunities Grant (#90-CO-0866). Copies of the report are available from:

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
810 First Street, NE, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 682-0100
Email: rbockweg@aphsa.org
Website: www.aphsa.org

Related Item

"Adoption Assistance for Children Adopted From Foster Care: A Factsheet for Families," available from the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse website (http://naic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/f_subsid.cfm), has more information about adoption assistance.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Child Welfare News
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=852


Strategies and Tools for Practice

Supporting Infants in Foster Care

Acting on the knowledge that infants are the largest group of children to enter the child welfare system, the New York State Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children spearheaded a unique collaboration among the courts, the child welfare system, and service providers. These groups worked together to radically redirect the focus of the court process onto the health and well-being of infants in foster care. The result of this collaboration was the Babies Can't Wait Initiative, created in February 2001 and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Babies Can't Wait was initially implemented in the Bronx Family Court. Early activities around this initiative involved identifying the needs of infants in foster care and linking them to services, as well as supporting caregivers' needs and enhancing potential for permanency. There were five components of the Babies Can't Wait Initiative:

A key product of the initiative was the development of an Infant Checklist to help track risk factors in infants who entered the child welfare system. In the Bronx Family Court, the checklist was used to review immunization status and make court referrals to early intervention programs.

The implementation of the Babies Can't Wait Initiative in the Bronx had a number of positive results, the most prominent of which was the increased communication among the court, child welfare professionals, and child development experts. The increased communication was accompanied by increased morale among court professionals, a stronger focus for the Bronx CASA program, and new guidelines to be used in placing infants with no siblings into foster care. In addition, as judges, lawyers, and child welfare staff became more aware of the developmental needs of infants, they began to consider caregiver capacity issues when making placement recommendations and to revise concurrent planning to emphasize appropriate first placements for infants.

The impact of the Babies Can't Wait Initiative also spread beyond the Bronx. Several other New York counties have begun to use the Infant Checklist, the training curriculum, and the collaboration model. The initiative also has been presented at several national conferences.

The full story of the Babies Can't Wait Initiative can be found in "Building Bridges for Babies in Foster Care: The Babies Can't Wait Initiative" in the spring 2004 issue of the Juvenile and Family Court Journal. Information on subscribing to the journal can be found at www.ncjfcj.org/publications/main.cfm?Action=PCATGET&CatID=1.

Related Item

Read more about the issue of infants in foster care in "Researchers Study Infants Who Reenter Child Welfare System" in the November 2000 issue of Children's Bureau Express.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Strategies and Tools for Practice
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=857


Resources

Child Welfare and the Courts

Federal child welfare laws and national reform initiatives require courts to work more quickly and efficiently with child welfare agencies to meet the needs of children and families at risk. Two recent publications acknowledge the barriers faced by courts in helping vulnerable children and explore the court's role in improving outcomes for families.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Resources
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2097


Older Caregivers Raising Children

A collaboration between professionals in the fields of child welfare and aging has resulted in the development of public policy recommendations and a call to action regarding kinship care by elderly caregivers for children who might otherwise be in foster care. The New York Council on Adoptable Children, Inc., formed the Forging Connections Policy Group in 2002, bringing together professionals from the two fields; the culmination of their work, with support from the New York Community Trust, was published in the June 2004 report, Forging Connections: Challenges and Opportunities for Older Caregivers Raising Children.

This report identifies key areas where elderly caregivers face challenges, including economic hardship, the bureaucracy surrounding access to resources, health care challenges, and a cumbersome legal system. The report then makes recommendations for addressing these challenges. While 19 recommendations are offered, 5 are seen as paramount:

The report also includes a list of national resources for elderly caregivers and those who provide services, as well as an extensive bibliography. Copies are available from the New York Council on Adoptable Children, Inc., by emailing Barbara Rincon at brincon@coac.org.

Related Items

The National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center recently published a factsheet, Kinship Care, that discusses the definition and incidence of such care, State and Federal policies, the relationship between substance abuse and kinship care, characteristics of caregivers and the children for whom they provide care, and available services. The factsheet can be downloaded from http://aia.berkeley.edu/media/pdf/kinship_care_factsheet_2004.pdf.

The Federal Government maintains a web page that serves as link to other government resources on grandparents raising grandchildren. This can be found at www.firstgov.gov/Topics/Grandparents.shtml.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Resources
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2098


Families as Partners

Treating families as partners in child welfare practice is the theme of Volume 19(2) of American Humane's journal, Protecting Children. In partnership-based practice, families are involved with child welfare agencies in goal setting, assessment, and intervention. Their participation is seen as necessary to the success of the solution and, ultimately, to building stronger networks and communities.

In addition to the introduction, "Advancing Partnership-Based Practice with Families," six articles address various facets of this topic:

Information about obtaining this issue of Protecting Children can be found on the American Humane website at www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pb_home#pc.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Resources
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2099


Rebuilding Attachments With Traumatized Children

Therapists working with victims of maltreatment and other forms of trauma may find a new publication from Haworth Press of interest. Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children, by Richard Kagan (2004), uses attachment theory and research to frame a discussion of how to work with traumatized children to rebuild their self-esteem and hope for the future. Along with a discussion of how trauma impacts the development of positive attachments, the author includes case examples, strategies, and tips for therapists to use in their work.

A workbook, Real Life Heroes, complements the text by providing a tool for professionals and other caring adults to use with traumatized children. Designed for children ages 6 to 12, the workbook, or lifebook, helps children develop confidence and self-respect by honoring their past and preparing for their future.

The book and workbook are available from Haworth Press at www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sid=E5SKQVXH27US9NW1 BWCFHSVQTSV00E1F&sku=4951&AuthType=2.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Resources
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2100


Data and Child Welfare Practice

More than merely fulfilling administrative requirements, data collection and analysis can help child welfare professionals fine-tune their interventions to better serve children and families. The July 2004 issue of the North Carolina Division of Social Services' newsletter, Practice Notes, focuses on various aspects of data and child welfare services. Topics include:

This newsletter is available online at www.practicenotes.org/vol9_no4.htm.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Resources
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2101


Resources for Capacity Building

Organizations looking to build their capacity to provide services can use the Philanthropic Capacity-Building Resources (PCBR) database to identify foundations that support such efforts. A free resource developed by the Human Interaction Research Institute, the PCBR database contains information on 318 capacity-building programs being operated by U.S. foundations. The database includes a description of each program, the types of activities supported (e.g., governance, staff development, fund development), contact information, and more. Users can run twelve different types of reports to obtain the information they need (e.g., by type of grant available, by type of foundation), or users can scan all 318 programs.

The database can be accessed at www.humaninteract.org/pcbrdatabase.htm.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Resources
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2103


Funding for Community- and Faith-Based Victim Service Organizations

The Federal Helping Outreach Programs to Expand (HOPE) program offers up to $5,000 for grassroots community- and faith-based victim service organizations to improve outreach and services to crime victims. Funds may be used to develop program literature, train advocates, produce a newsletter, support victim outreach efforts, and recruit volunteers. Funds are available on a continuous basis, contingent on availability.

Organizations and coalitions interested in applying must meet the following criteria:

Initiated in 2002, HOPE is a program of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). Information on applying for HOPE funds is available on the OVC website at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/fund/expandingoutreach/welcome.html.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Resources
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2104


Training and Conferences

Evaluation of a Foster Parent Training Program Yields Promising Results

The State of New Hampshire uses Federal Title IV-E funds to support training for prospective foster parents through a partnership between the State Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and the College for Lifelong Learning (CLL). In 2002, the partnership conducted an evaluation to determine the effectiveness of its 21-hour training program, Foundations for Fostering (FFF). The evaluation found this curriculum contributes to the knowledge base of prospective foster parents, enhances feelings of preparedness and confidence, and serves as a useful resource that participants can draw upon during initial foster placements.

Prospective foster parents (41) were surveyed at the beginning and end of training, and face-to-face interviews were conducted with participants (13) who went on to become licensed foster parents and had a child placed within 3 months of completing training.

Results included:

From the interviews, evaluators concluded that the sharing of fostering stories and real-life situations made a significant impression on the participants. Participants also indicated the need for further training in a number of areas, including the needs of older children, behavior management strategies, emotional disabilities, and services available to children in placement.

From these findings, evaluators concluded that preservice foster parent training offered through a Title IV-E university-agency partnership can provide numerous benefits. These findings support previous research indicating the importance of foster parent training. The partnership is repeating this study in State FY 2004 with an eye toward increasing the sample size.

More information about the Education and Training Partnership and the FFF curriculum is available on the CLL website at www.cll.edu/about/etp/.

For more information about the completed study (Part I), ongoing evaluation efforts, or to request a manuscript, please contact:

John B. Cook
Education & Training Partnership
College for Lifelong Learning
117 Pleasant Street, Dolloff Bldg.
Concord, NH 03301
Phone: (603) 271-6625
Email: etp@cll.edu

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Training and Conferences
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2105


Online Training Conference: Abuse of Children and Adults with Disabilities

Through a grant from the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, ARC Riverside California is offering an online conference of 22 1-hour "webinars" on the abuse of children and adults with disabilities. The online seminars will be offered September 9 through 29 and will be available in archive form until August 2005.

Topics of the seminars include prevention, identification, investigation, prosecution, and treatment of abuse. Seminars will concern casework and caregiving where people with disabilities are victims of child abuse, domestic violence, dependent adult abuse, and elder abuse.

The cost for the entire conference is $150. To register, visit http://disability-abuse.com.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Training and Conferences
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=2106


Conferences

Upcoming national conferences on adoption and child welfare through December 2004 include:

October

November

December

Further details about national and regional adoption and child welfare conferences can be found through the "Conference Calendar Search" feature on the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information (http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/profess/conferences/index.cfm) and National Adoption Information Clearinghouse (http://naic.acf.hhs.gov/general/conferences/index.cfm) websites.

Issue Date: 09 2004
Section: Training and Conferences
URL: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=57&articleid=861



Children's Bureau Express does not disclose, give, sell, or transfer any personal information, including email addresses, unless required for law enforcement by statute.

Child Welfare Information Gateway
www.childwelfare.gov
800.394.3366

Children's Bureau, 1250 Maryland Avenue, SW, Eighth Floor
Washington, DC 20024
EMAIL: cb_express@childwelfare.gov

Return to the Children's Bureau Website.