Download "The Intersection of Child Welfare and Disability: Focus on Children"

The Spring 2013 issue of CW360°, "The Intersection of Child Welfare and Disability: Focus on Children," from the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) is now available online. This CW360° explores issues impacting children with disabilities in child welfare and provides examples of policy solutions and practice strategies for working with this population.

It is essential for child welfare workers and advocates to understand and be aware of the prevalence of disability in child welfare. As Traci LaLiberte and Tracy Crudo state in their letter from the editors,

"There is not a child welfare worker, supervisor, or administrator practicing in the field today that has not or will not come into contact with children with disabilities. Indeed, it is likely that many of the children on any given child welfare worker's caseload have some form of disability."

CASCW's annual CW360° magazine provides comprehensive information on the latest research, policies, and practices in a key area affecting child well-being to communities, child welfare professionals, and other human service professionals. CASCW will also produce a special issue this summer focusing on parents with disabilities in the child welfare system.

To view the current and past issues of CW360°, visit the CW360° webpage on the CASCW website.

Registration is now open for the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare's (CASCW) 14th annual free child welfare conference, "The Intersection of Child Welfare and Disability," on May 7, 2013, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

The conference will be held in the McNamara Alumni Center on the University of Minnesota's East Bank campus, and will also be available via live web stream.

CASCW is pleased to feature the following keynote presenters:

• Dr. Dick Sobsey, Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta and Director of the JP Das Developmental Disabilities Centre.
• Dr. Traci LaLiberte, Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare at the University of Minnesota, and
• Dr. Elizabeth Lightfoot, Associate Professor and PhD Program Director at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work.

Following the keynote presenters, staff from the National Resource Center on Youth Development will discuss the development and use of their guide on psychotropic medication for youth in foster care.

In the afternoon, CASCW will host two panel presentations featuring practitioners discussing local reactions and application of the information provided in the morning keynote presentations.

For more details on the event, see our event webpage found here.

Participants may earn up to 6 CEUs for their attendance.

Information and registration for On-Site Attendees may be found here.
(There is a $15 fee for lunch.)

Information and registration for Web Stream Viewers may be found here.
(There is no charge for live web stream.)

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact Nora Lee at cascw@umn.edu or 612-624-4231.

We look forward to your attendance!

The Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare has published two new child welfare policy briefs:

		Father Engagement in Child Welfare looks at how policy can be used to positively engage fathers in their child welfare-involved children's lives. Highlighted policy issues surround bringing consistency to practice, coordinating between child protection and child support, and overcoming legal barriers to involvement.
		Child Well-Being in Minnesota: A Primer for the 2013–2014 Legislative Session is a briefing on Minnesota's child welfare system, including child protection, foster care, and adoption service systems. It highlights populations served, funding structures, and decision-making criteria for evidence-based policy solutions.

To access all seven child welfare policy briefs, please visit the Center's Child Welfare Policy Briefs webpage, part of the overall Child Welfare Policy web section.

The Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) is now accepting applications for Title IV-E funding from prospective and current Master of Social Work students who are interested in child welfare.

Federal Social Security Title IV-E funds subsidize child welfare services to keep children in their families when possible, provide permanency planning services, or finance out-of-home placement. Public child welfare services are those provided by state or county child protection, foster care, adoption, and family services agencies.

By providing Title IV-E educational support to MSW students, CASCW seeks to improve the quality of public child welfare services. Students who receive this support follow child welfare-specific curriculum requirements, including selecting Family and Children as a primary concentration. Students also attend CASCW meetings, forums, and experiential learning events to further their knowledge, and seek and accept post-graduate employment in a public child welfare setting.

Financial support varies each year, depending upon CASCW's access to federal matching funds. Generally financial support amounts to $5,000 per semester for three or four semesters depending on student program. Stipend awards are contingent upon the Center's receipt of Title IV-E funding. The Title IV-E budget and University educational costs for 2013-14 are not known at this time.

To apply, please visit our Title IV-E Stipend Information webpage.

If you have questions regarding Title IV-E educational support, please contact Liz Snyder at snyde276@umn.edu.

The Winter 2013 issue of CW360°, "Trauma-Informed Child Welfare Practice," from the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare in partnership with the Ambit Network is now available online and in print. This issue focuses on trauma-informed practice with children and families involved in the child welfare system.

CW360° is meant to provide communities, child welfare professionals, and other human service professionals with comprehensive information on the latest research, policies, and practices in a key area affecting child well-being today. As Traci LaLiberte and Tracy Crudo state in their letter from the editors,

"It is no longer a question of whether to incorporate trauma-informed organizational and practice strategies into child welfare practice, but how."

This year will also see two more issues of CW360° addressing children and parents with disabilities in the child welfare system. To view past issues, visit the CW360° webpage on our website.

A new tool called the Youth Connections Scale has been developed by Annette Semanchin Jones, Ph.D. candidate at the School of Social Work, and Traci LaLiberte, executive director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, in partnership with Anu Family Services, that measures the level of connectedness of youth in foster care with supportive adults.

Research has shown that supportive adult connections for youth have many positive long-term effects, including improved self-esteem, educational achievement, and social skill development. Yet too often, youth lose their prior supportive adult connections while in out-of-home care.

The Youth Connections Scale, or YCS, was developed to fill a need in child welfare: to evaluate and measure the increased efforts of agencies to improve the level of connectedness of youth with supportive adults as a component of relational permanence of youth in foster care. Relational permanence has been defined as the lifelong connections youth develop to caring adults, which include at least one adult who will provide a permanent, parent-like connection for that youth. Many experts and scholars now advocate for child welfare agencies to increase their focus on building such permanent, supportive connections for youth while in out-of-home care.

The results of a pilot validation study of the YCS indicate that the YCS is a useful tool for child welfare agencies to measure the relational permanence of youth in foster care and strengthen their practice of creating a safety net of caring and supportive adults for these youth. This study was recently accepted for publication in Children and Youth Services Review1.

For more information on the YCS, please visit the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare's Youth Connections Scale website at http://z.umn.edu/YCS.

On January 18, 2013, the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) will graduate its first cohort of 39 adoption-competent mental health and child welfare workers through CASCW's Permanency and Adoption Competency Certificate (PACC) program. The graduation celebration will take place from 4 PM to 6 PM in the Minnesota Commons Room at the University of Minnesota St. Paul Student Center. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Representative Michele Bachmann, and the Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson have been invited.

The PACC is a professional training program developed in response to community demand for an adoption-competent mental health and child welfare workforce able to serve the unique and complex clinical and practice needs for adopted individuals and their families throughout Minnesota. Through the PACC, mental health and child welfare workers are given the knowledge and skills needed to serve families and help prevent disruptions in the post-adoption period.

The PACC includes the nationally recognized Training on Adoption Competency curriculum developed by the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.) and additional modules focusing on child welfare permanency and the Indian Child Welfare Act. The PACC emphasizes the use of 'real world' case studies, small group work, and partner interactions in order to promote critical thinking and practice application discussions among participants.

"Going through the different case studies and having discussion was most helpful and relevant, as I can use the feedback [and] ideas to help in my job in engaging families I work with." Participant Response

There are 37 additional participants in the current (fall 2012) cohorts in Rochester and the Twin Cities that will graduate in 2014.

For more information, please visit the PACC website.

Registration is now open for Codes of Silence, Confidentiality, & Secrets: Implications for the Child Welfare System. This FREE reflective seminar is co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW), the School of Social Work, College of Education and Human Development, and the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), University of Minnesota.

Agenda

Opening Remarks: Professor Esther Wattenberg of the School of Social Work, CASCW, and CURA

Presentations:

• Acknowledging the Privacy and Involuntary Status of Families in the Child Welfare System: How Should Practice Respond to Codes of Silence and Secrets Held Within a Family and Their Children?—Ronald Rooney, PhD, Professor, School of Social Work; Editor, Strategies for Work with Involuntary Clients, 2009, Second Edition
• Practical Application of the Provision of Data Practices in a Child Welfare Setting: The Tennessen Warning—Thom Campbell, JD, Social Services Program Consultant, Minnesota Department of Human Services
• Panel Presentation (TBA)

Commentary: Safeguarding Privacy in an Information Society: Special Challenges for the Child Welfare System—Dee Wilson, Director, Child Welfare Services, Knowledge Management, Casey Family Programs

Check-in will begin at 1:15 pm. Contact Esther Wattenberg or Mary Kaye LaPointe at ewattenb@umn.edu or call 612-625-6550 for more information.

CEED is excited to present the Fall issue of the Early Report: Coordinating Our Systems of Care to Promote the Healthy Development of Young Children.

This Early Report builds on our partnership with the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) and the McEvoy Lecture held in May of 2012. The report examines the need for improved coordination across Minnesota's systems of care and explores some of the challenges and successes that Minnesota faces in this effort.

Terrie Rose, founder and CEO of Baby's Space and CEHD alumna (Ph.D. '92), presented Educational Stability: What Does it Mean for Young Children? on November 8, 2012, North Star Ballroom, St. Paul Student Center, 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm.

The lecture addressed the question of how can our systems, including early care, education, early intervention, child welfare, and the courts, best support social workers, early care and education providers, families and ultimately children to get the stability of care they need to develop a healthy, secure attachment. And how can programs or systems develop policies that integrate services to best meet the needs of highly mobile children? The lecture also included small group discussions and a panel discussion by practitioners and policymakers focused on these issues.

The McEvoy Lecture was co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare and funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services..