This curriculum covers a combination of the following public child welfare competencies: ethnic sensitive and multicultural practice; core child welfare skills; social work skills and methods; and human development and social environment. Sections on assessment and intervention; treatment models, principles, and programs, self-help groups, the recovery process, and relapse prevention are included, as are models of the recovery process. website resources, and pre- and posttests. (78 pages)Hohman, M. M. (1998).

This curriculum, which may be used in whole or in part, offers an overview of foster care, background on the characteristics of kin and non-kin foster parents, and trends in foster care. Special emphasis is placed on foster care recruitment, training, and retention efforts as well as the foster care payment rate structure. A comprehensive look at the elements that comprise quality of care in kinship and non-related foster homes is included. The curriculum highlights the philosophical reasons for providing quality care, the history and philosophy of kinship care, a legal history and brief policy analysis of kinship care, and domains of quality. Practice tips for child welfare workers and administrators are included, as well as a chapter where kin and non-kin foster parents address their relationship with the child welfare system and recent child welfare policies affecting foster parents and kinship caregivers. (332 pages)Berrick, J. D., Needell, B., Shlonsky, A., Simmel, C., & Pedrucci, C. (1998).

This curriculum is designed to educate social workers about the experiences and needs of families involved with both public welfare and child welfare services so that they can provide high-quality case management services within a post-welfare reform environment. Based on research from a longitudinal, ethnographic study of families living in an urban environment, the curriculum includes: a review of child welfare outcomes in the welfare reform era; a description of welfare reform as implemented in one county, including examples from the client's perspective of managing within a welfare-to-work environment; a cost of living analysis of life on welfare; a set of case examples illustrating pathways from welfare to child welfare, with special attention to aspects of welfare reform which may play a role in child welfare outcomes; and a discussion of how to apply qualitative research methods toward improving child welfare practice, as well as an explanation of the research methods used for the study. (187 pages)Frame, L., Berrick, J. D., Sogar, C., Berzin, S. C., & Pearlman, J. (2001).

This project includes three teaching modules in the area of child welfare management: Child Welfare Staff Relations, Social Advocacy in Child Welfare, and Program Development in Child Welfare. Each module includes a statement of purpose, learning objectives, reference readings, an outline for the presentation, and resources for teaching. (35 pages)California State University, Long Beach, (1994). Child Welfare Management Modules

This resource points to the California Welfare and Institutions Code from the California State Legislature.

This curriculum focuses on child maltreatment issues and effective practice strategies among immigrant Asian families. Specifically, it elucidates demographic and behavioral characteristics of child abuse victims and perpetrators in four major immigrant Asian communities (Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese), factors contributing to the selection of two types of placement (in-home and out-of-home) by child protective services workers, and effective child welfare practice with immigrant Asian families. (106 pages)Rhee, S., Chang, J. (2006).

The three case studies written for this project reflect training needs in crucial parts of the child welfare system. They may be used individually or together, and each includes an introduction that highlights the area of child welfare practice that governs the situation, and a variety of classroom exercises. An effort was made to be ethnically sensitive by emphasizing language and cultural diversity differences in family lifestyles as expressed in parenting and disciplinary styles and varying cultural norms and values. The authors strongly recommend the use of collaborative teaching with guest speakers from local departments of Social Service, substance abuse programs, etc., to supplement the case studies. (93 pages)Brewer, L. K., Roditti, M., & Marcus, A. (1996).

This six-part curriculum introduces working with children with disabilities and is based on a model that sees disability as an issue of diversity rather than of dysfunction and medicine. It may be used in part, but use in whole is strongly recommended. The modules address the competencies involving cultural skills and knowledge and impact competencies regarding child welfare skills and knowledge about child abuse. They cover: quantifying the number of persons with disabilities in the United States and California, having participants understand their own values and attitudes regarding children with disabilities, physical and sexual abuse affecting children with disabilities, families with children with disabilities, a generic model of practice that includes children with disabilities and their families, and a resource directory. (189 pages)Salsgiver, R. O. (2000).

This module offers classroom instruction with the opportunity for students to observe child welfare workers, judges and referees, and attorneys during actual court proceedings. It provides approximately six hours of classroom content and addresses competencies in ethnic sensitive and multicultural practice, core child welfare skills, social work skills and methods, and workplace management. The curriculum provides a history of the system; cultural insights; background on the differing roles of professionals in the juvenile court setting; a glossary of court terms; and guidelines for proving maltreatment, and for providing effective testimony. (50 pages)Foster, D., & Woods, B. (1995).

Offering a wealth of information, this module introduces the historical, cultural, and social factors that influence a social worker's ability to skillfully interact with Hmong, Lao, Vietnamese, and Cambodian families. It provides approximately 30 hours of classroom instruction and includes sections on: Southeast Asian history, escape, refugee, and resettlement experiences; legal and health issues; mental health and education issues; the Southeast Asian family; and child welfare practice and the Southeast Asian family. The curriculum includes pre- and posttests and materials that may be reproduced as handouts. (175 pages)Himes, H., Lee, S., Foster, D., & Woods, B. (1995)

This is an update of the 2001 curriculum: Frame, L., Berrick, J. D., Sogar, C., Berzin, S. C., & Pearlman, J. CalWORKS and Child Welfare: Case Management for Public Child Welfare Workers. This newly revised curriculum is designed to help students understand the relationship between family economic well-being and parenting and to raise students’ awareness of the important role poverty can play in interfering with parents’ best efforts to raise their children well. Under extreme circumstances, family poverty can place children at significant risk – these are the families who may come to the attention of child welfare agencies. (215 pages)Berrick, J. D., Helalian, H. S., Frame, L., Fabella, D., Lee, K., & Karpilow, K. (2010).

This curriculum focuses on the implications of California's changing welfare policy on public child welfare practice and addresses welfare policy, child welfare practice, and the impact of welfare reform on child welfare clients who are also involved with the public welfare system. Chapters include: a summary of welfare reform in California, a look at the differences between the old approach to welfare and workfare (AFDC and GAIN) and the new approach under CalWORKS, a history of welfare and child protection policy, a look at families who have been involved with both the welfare and child protection systems, an analysis of interviews with child welfare workers and administrators that explores the myriad ways in which the new federal and state policies are likely to impact their clients and themselves as professionals, and the implications of welfare reform for child protection and child welfare practice. (318 pages)Frame, L., Berrick, J. D., Lee, S., Needell, B., Cuccaro-Alamin, S., Barth, R. P., et al. (1998).

This module compares the relative effectiveness of court-mandated versus voluntary service plans in preventing child maltreatment recidivism and analyzes family characteristics that influence how families are recommended for court-mandated services. Results showed that the type of plan does not make a difference in case outcome; similar rates of recidivism were noted between both types of plans after the cases closed. Also, while children were more likely to remain in the home in families that received voluntary plans when other factors were controlled, the voluntary plan advantage disappeared. (145 pages) Jones, L. (2000).

In recent years both scholars and policymakers have expressed a remarkable amount of interest in the concepts of social capital and civil society. A growing body of research suggests that the social networks, community norms, and associational activities signified by these concepts can have important effects on social welfare, political stability, economic development, and governmental performance. This discussion based course examines the roles played by these networks, norms, and organizations in outcomes ranging from local public goods provision and the performance of democracies to ethnic conflict and funding for terrorism.

This curriculum combines systematic risk assessment (developed to address inconsistency and randomness in existing assessment tools and used to both identify factors which truly endanger children and illuminate strengths that may be build upon to ameliorate risk and preserve the family) with ethnographic interviewing (developed in response to a growing awareness of the importance of cultural differences in the helping process and the right of clients to receive culturally appropriate services). The combination of the two conceptual frameworks which helps clarify risks and strengths enables case plans and interventions to be more closely matched to what families are able and willing to do. (145 pages)Walker, P., & Tabbert, W. (1997).

This curriculum consists of five modules in PowerPoint format designed to be used by instructors in class sessions or assigned to students as web-based independent learning. Instructors may use and revise the presentations for their needs. Each module contains slides with narrative information and links to additional readings and relevant websites and will take 1-2 hours for students to complete. Modules typically include factual or reflection questions. Module I informs students about the history and current status of the issue of overrepresentation of African Americans in child welfare. Module II centers on theories to explain overrepresentation and explains the background, methods, results, and recommendations from a recent CalSWEC-funded study on worker factors in overrepresentation. Module III focuses on African American family strengths, values, and norms. It includes an important reading on strengths-based practice with African American families, links to websites that are African American-centered, and ends with linking students to the Harvard University site to take the Implicit Associations Test. Module IV focuses on cultural competency and antiracism theory and reflective exercises. Module V contains abbreviated material from each of the four preceding modules. Smith, L. A., & Shon, H. (2010).

This report covers the development and uses of competencies, the programmatic foundation of CalSWEC's child welfare services effort for public child welfare graduate social work education. Competencies are developed to create a foundation of principles, goals, and learning objectives for public child welfare MSW students and outline what graduate social work specialists in child welfare need to know and be able to do in order to provide professional services to disadvantaged families and children. Part I describes the collaborative methods used to develop the competencies. Part II lists the actual competencies. Each competency includes an objective, a recommendation for the setting where the competency can best be learned (field/classroom), associated activities for use in the classroom and field, and suggested methods of student evaluation. Competencies have been used to: enhance collaboration between MSW programs and public agencies by providing a set of learning objectives for field placement contracts and a means for student evaluation, apply classroom learning to field practice, develop empirically-based curriculum, and develop curriculum for continuing education of public child welfare workers. (81 pages)Clark, S. J., & Dickinson, N. (1998).

This multi-component project studied the impact of the implementation of the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS) on child welfare practice by examining the casework practices affected by computerization, measuring the extent to which these practices were affected by computerization, and identifying organizational and individual factors that influenced the effect of computerization on these practices. Findings showed that the implementation of CWS/CMS did not lead to drastic changes in the ways in which CWSs carried out their daily work; time spent with clients was unchanged. However, the study demonstrated that CWS/CMS led to modest but crucial changes in how workers spent their time on the job, affected the quantity and quality of relationship with coworkers, and changed some workers' attitudes toward their agency and job. (Research Report: 135 pages; Curriculum: 154 pages; Training Academy Curriculum: 111 pages)Weaver, D., Furman, W., Moses, T., Linsdey, D., & Cherin, D. (1999).

This project assesses a sample of California county programs for preparing foster teenagers to live independently. Counties were selected to represent statewide variability and represent northern and southern regions as well as urban and rural areas. Chapters address: the organizational structure of each program including the agencies providing ILP services, agency staffing, coordination mechanisms, foster care supervision, and community involvement; a description of program participants including characteristics of the youth, diversity, readiness for the program, barriers to participation, foster care provider issues, foster parent training, and the relationship of birth parents to the county agency and the youth; a description of program processes including identification of eligible youth, referral, outreach, assessment, out-of-county placement, monitoring and follow-up; and an overview of program content and services including classes, activities, individual services, housing issues, and aftercare support. (186 pages)Giovannoni, J., Chaneske, E., & Furman, W. (1996).

This curriculum explores the experiences and challenges of transracial adoptive families with the goal of improving the quality of services and supports provided to them. In addition, there is a growing subset of transracial adoptive families who choose to maintain contact with their child's birth family. Very little information exists to help these families or their child welfare workers understand the bumpy terrain of openness. This curriculum fills some of the many gaps in knowledge and practice. It includes summaries of transracial adoption literature, a theoretical discussion on normative development in transracial adoptive families, practice-oriented information including discussion questions and exercises, case vignettes, worker guidance, a self-assessment tool, and findings from the in-depth qualitative study of 12 transracial adoptive families in California conducted as part of this project. Findings themes include: the complicated factors involved in choosing transracial adoption; how the children and youth understand the meaning of their adoption; issues around the choice to maintain contact with the adopted child's birth family, the role of the contact, and the vulnerability of contact arrangements; the role of race in family life and development, negotiating different cultural worlds, and developmental changes; and the role of services and supports prior to and following adoption. (216 pages)Frasch, K., Brooks, D., Reich, J., & Wind, L. (2004).