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In this edition - use this list to jump straight to a topic:
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Spotlight on Training
SAVE THE DATE:
Child Welfare Basics Training - July 29, 2016
Pelican Center for Children & Families and NACC
Lafayette, Louisiana
Multi-disciplinary training - more information will be available soon.
Registration coordinated by LouisianaChildren.org
Together We Can Conference - October 24-26, 2016
Lafayette, Louisiana
Multi-disciplinary training - over 50 workshops!
www.latwc.com
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(Divided by topic)
Family Teaming
Family Team Conferencing Families have a long history of dealing with crises and solving problems by convening their own network of members and supports to help address both routine family issues and emergencies. These natural networks, usually informally organized, occur in all cultures as a means of adding problem-solving expertise and informal supports. Link to article
Family Group Decision Making Family group decision-making refers to a collection of family intervention approaches in which family members come together to make decisions about caring for their children and to develop a plan for services. This type of intervention also is referred to as family team conferencing, family team meetings, family group conferencing, family team decision-making, family unity meetings, and team decision-making. Link to info
Lifelong Families Practice Model Family Teaming Comparing Approaches. Link to info
Four Approaches to Family Teaming This document introduces four approaches to involving families in child welfare decisions: Family Team Conferencing; Family Group Decision Making; Permanency Teaming; and Team Decision Making. Link to info
Safety, Permanency, & Well Being
New Series of Papers Released by Children’s Bureau on Integrating Safety, Permanency and Well-Being in Child Welfare The Children’s Bureau recently released a series of papers highlighting the importance of a well-being framework for promoting the healthy development of children and youth in the child welfare system. The well-being framework looks at the problem of child abuse from a more comprehensive and holistic viewpoint, promoting evidence-based interventions, training, trauma-informed treatment and prevention efforts to create better overall outcomes for children and their families. This framework also encourages cross-systems collaboration to ensure that children do not slip through the cracks where resources are available to them. Link to papers
Brief: The Affordable Care Act and Youth Aging Out of Foster Care Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), beginning on January 1, 2014, states must now provide Medicaid coverage for individuals under age 26 who were in foster care at age 18 and receiving Medicaid. This provision parallels one that allows all young people to stay on their parent’s health insurance until age 26. For youth who have spent time in foster care, access to health and mental health services is of critical importance and can make a difference in their successful transition to adulthood. Former foster youth typically face multiple health risks and experience behavioral health challenges and chronic health conditions at a greater rate than their peers, so ensuring that they can access this new health coverage is vital. Unfortunately, many service providers, state agencies, and former foster youth, themselves, are not aware of this new mandatory Medicaid coverage, which weakens its purpose. Link to article
Behind Every Crisis is an Opportunity The Sandusky scandal at Penn State challenged us as a nation to think about our individual and collective responsibility to protect children from harm. For Pennsylvania, the high profile sex abuse case opened up an opportunity that the legislature seized in the 2013-14 session – to revisit child protection laws created over half a century ago. Link to article
Federal Laws Related to Permanency Federal laws and policies outline and provide guidance to States on the permanency planning requirements for children and youth served by child welfare agencies. The following resources address Federal laws that affect the permanency process in child welfare. Link to info
Non-Regulatory Guidance: Ensuring Educational Stability for Children in Foster Care U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Health and Human Services (HHS) provided this joint guidance as a key tool for educational and child welfare agencies to use as they embark on establishing new partnerships and implementing the new provisions of the law. In addition to clarifying the statutory requirements, the guidance provides recommendations for SEAs, LEAs, and CWAs and highlights promising practices from the field for agencies to consider as they move toward implementation by December 10, 2016. Released June 23, 2016 Link to Reports
Reunification: Bringing Your Children Home From Foster Care Foster care is not forever. Children and youth can and do return home to their families. In fact, this is the most common outcome. This factsheet for families provides a general overview of the reunification process, including what parents can expect while their children are in foster care, what they can do to help their children return home, and what to expect after children return home. Resources available to help families during and after reunification also are included. Link to Report
Legal Representation
A Basic Human Right: Access to Legal Representation. This report argues that the current state of access to counsel in the United States fails to meet U.S. obligations under international and regional human rights norms. It is intended to aid advocates looking to international and regional human rights bodies, specifically the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, for assistance in reforming the system in the United States and in pressuring the U.S. government to provide a universal right to meaningful access to legal representation. Link to report
Immigration Courts have New Rules Governing Legal Representation Processes In a major change from current practice, one new rule will allow attorneys and other legal representatives to take on only a part of a case in immigration court. Specifically, attorneys now will be able to represent an immigrant only for the “custody and bond proceeding,” commonly called a “bond hearing.” A bond hearing is a separate court proceeding to determine whether a person will be held in a detention center during his or her immigration case. Currently, in order to represent an immigrant at a bond hearing, an attorney must sign up to provide legal representation for the entire case – and can only stop providing representation if the immigration court approves a request to withdraw from the case. Advocates believe that this requirement has resulted in fewer attorneys taking on the cases of detained immigrants. Link to article
The Arc’s Center for Future Planning™ Launches Financial Literacy Training for Low-Income Families with Children with Disabilities Research has shown that disability and poverty are intertwined, and many families that have a child with I/DD struggle financially. Often, income declines when a child with I/DD is born because parents take time off of work or leave the workforce entirely to care for the child’s needs. This reduction of household income, combined with the income and asset limits in many public means-tested benefits available to these families, only complicates asset building. Link to info
Data
Child Maltreatment 2014 Report Released - Link to Report
2016 KIDS COUNT Data Book Released - The Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2016 KIDS COUNT Data Book finds today's youth are healthier and completing high school on time despite mounting economic inequality and increasingly unaffordable college tuition. Aided by smart policies and investments in prevention, a record number of teens are making positive choices. This year, the annual report focuses on key trends in child well-being in the post-recession years and offers recommendations for how policymakers can ensure all children are prepared for the future, based on the country’s shared values of opportunity, responsibility and security. - Link to Report
Policy Matters
Disaster Planning for Child Welfare Agencies Child welfare agencies are entrusted with supporting, protecting, and caring for children and families in their communities. This work can be complex and difficult even during calm times, and it can become even more so in the midst of natural or man-made disasters. Federal law requires State child welfare agencies to develop disaster plans. Doing so is a best practice that can help child welfare agencies be better prepared to serve children and families, both those that were previously in contact with the agency and those that may require the agency’s assistance due to the disaster. This factsheet outlines the reasons child welfare agencies should develop disaster plans, provides an overview of plan development, points to resources for creating preparedness plans, and highlights State and local examples. - Link to Report
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For more calendar items, go to the CLARO website and check the calendar!
http://www.clarola.org
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