Top 5 Mistakes You Can Make Choosing Family Services Software
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If you’re on the lookout for a software solution for your family services organization, proceed with caution. Your choices have exploded in the last few years, but not all of your options are capable of meeting the needs of your organization or the people it serves. To identify and implement your ideal solution, it’s incumbent […]
Certifying a Foster Parent is One of the Most Consequential Decisions in Child Welfare
If you ask any public or private child welfare agency in the United States, I submit that every single one of them would say they need more foster parents and they need them now. This causes recruiters to source the community for prospects, heartfelt PSAs to be playing on media outlets, and foster parent certification […]
How a Plastic Garbage Bag Became the Unofficial Luggage of Foster Care
It was a scene that I would see play out time and time again during my 13-year career, serving some of our nation’s most vulnerable youth. A child comes into care needing foster care, and the youth and their caseworker shows up with a couple of black garbage bags full of everything the child owned […]
Understanding the CCWIS Final Rule
On June 2, 2016, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) issued a final Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) rule to replace the Statewide and Tribal Automated Child Welfare Information Systems (S/TACWIS) rule, which for more than twenty years had been the vehicle through which states sought federal assistance for funding child welfare technology […]
Keep Children On Track and In School
Teachers face a challenge to keep children focused on their lesson plans. For some, the student’s needs exceed their expertise, time for individual attention, or the resources and support to help children with special needs. That’s where you come in. Wraparound services address the underlying factors in the child’s life. Effective wraparound services don’t happen […]
How Collaborations Can Help You Improve Outcomes
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For the vast majority of teenagers turning into adults, turning 21 represents a time of wonder and excitement. This is a time of planning for the future that includes job training, college applications and attendance, and learning practical skills. However, for the more than 400,000 children currently in foster care in the United States, this […]
The Impact of One Trusted Adult in a Former Foster Youth’s Life
For most of us reading this article, we didn’t have life completely figured out when we turned 18 years of age. I turned 18 in the middle of boot camp with the United States Marine Corps. I declined to notify my Drill Instructors that it was my birthday, lest they plan a special “celebration” for […]
A COVID-19 Call to Action for Foster Parents
Nearly 20 years ago, I embarked on what would be a fascinating career serving some of our nation’s most troubled youth. A remarkable career considering that when I started, I didn’t know anything about kids. I was a Political Science major in need of a job post-college when one of the nation’s most respected youth […]
Adoption and the Never Ending Pursuit of a Forever Family
Without exception, perhaps the most tangible reward for a job well done in the child welfare service is seeing a young child find their forever family via adoption. Yes, it’s great to see children go back home to their birth families as well. To say that I enjoyed witnessing the adoption of a child is […]
All Foster Homes Are Not Created Equal in the Child Welfare System
To be clear, the title of this article is not one of equity or opportunity regarding foster homes in the child welfare system. Rather, it is one of competency and confidence. It may come as a surprise to many, but there is not a significant deficiency in the number of foster homes looking for a […]