This toolkit is designed to enhance the important partnership between child care providers and family service workers in the child welfare system, with the goal of ensuring that foster children get the best care possible. As the division directors of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS)/Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education (DCCECE), we know how important it is that we work together in the interests of the child. It is critical that child care providers understand the impact of abuse and neglect on children, the special role they can play in the lives of foster children and how they can partner with child welfare staff. It is equally important that child welfare staff understand the impact that experiences in child care have on children’s development and to partner with child care staff. Link to Toolkit
Tag Archives: Foster Care
Promoting Resilience Among Youth in Care
An issue brief from the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative addresses resilience and provides a framework for helping youth in care develop resilience. Children and youth in foster care face many challenges that place them at greater risk of experiencing negative outcomes in adult life. However, research shows that youth with adequate support systems can and do develop resilience that enables them to cope with and adapt to these hardships.
Promoting Development of Resilience Among Young People in Foster Care is available on the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative website: Link to Jim Casey Report
Improving Systems That Support Kinship Care
About one-fourth of all children in out-of-home care are placed with kin, yet the report indicates many kinship caregivers are unaware of the numerous services and supports available to them or have inaccurate information about eligibility requirements. Given the Federal preference for kinship care and the potential cost savings of diverting children from foster care, the report identifies numerous ways in which States can improve supports for kinship families. “Stepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families,” is available on the Annie E. Casey Foundation website: Link to Kinship Care Report
Immigration and Child Welfare
The Applied Research Center (ARC) recently published a report on the obstacles that families encounter when they concurrently deal with immigration enforcement and the child welfare system. ARC’s national investigation centered on the extent to which children living in foster care are prevented from reuniting with their parents who are detained or have been deported due to alleged immigration violations.
The executive summary and full report, Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System, are available on the Applied Research Center website: http://arc.org/shatteredfamilies
Services to Children & Families of Prisoners
Parental incarceration and the disruption of family relationships can produce negative outcomes for children, including poverty, poor academic performance, aggression, depression, delinquency, and substance abuse. Incarcerated mothers and fathers are unable to work on parenting skills that may be necessary for reunification, and separation interferes with the ability of parent and child to form or maintain a strong attachment.
Family-centered services for incarcerated parents, their children, and families focus on parenting programs, family strengthening activities, nurturing of family relationships, community supports for families during incarceration and following release, and gender-specific interventions. Link to Child Welfare Information Gateway Resource Page on Incarcerated Parents
See Also: Similar Link for Foster Children of Incarcerated Parents
Michigan Title IV-E Waiver Child Welfare Demonstration Project
Submitted to: Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, July 2012
Goals and Hypothesis: Michigan’s waiver demonstration will test the hypothesis that an array of intensive and innovative home-based preservation services tailored to the needs of individual families will prevent child abuse and neglect and decrease entry of children into foster care, and increase positive outcomes for children and families in their homes and communities and improve the safety and wellbeing of children. Over the life of the waiver, we expect a reduction in foster care maintenance expenditures and a commensurate increase in spending for services to safely maintain children in their own homes. Link to Waiver proposal