This section includes publications related to the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs), including presentations and comments by Children's Bureau and other federal staff.
Assessing Promising Approaches in Child Welfare: Strategies for State Legislators - This document encourages state legislators and legislative staff to work collaboratively with state child welfare administrators when considering best practices during child welfare reform efforts, especially those associated with the CFSRs. It offers information on how state legislators and legislative staff can effectively consider the appropriateness of promising child welfare approaches in relation to the program improvements being made through the CFSRs.
Changing the Culture of the Workplace - This document provides comments by Jerry Milner at the Closing Plenary Session of the 2003 Annual Meeting of States and Tribes.
Engaging State Legislators in the Federal Child and Family Services Reviews: An Information-Sharing Tool for Child Welfare Agency Administrators - This tool is intended to help keep state legislators informed about their state's performance on the latest CFSRs, Program Improvement Plan (PIP) goals and achievements, PIP partners, and areas requiring legislative support. It is designed to be adapted for use by each state.
Focusing on Child Welfare Systems: Collaborating With State Legislators on Reform - This report provides state child welfare agency administrators with information about effective strategies for using the CFSRs to work more closely with legislators to improve child welfare systems. It covers the importance of legislative engagement in child welfare and strategies for building partnerships with state legislators and engaging them in the reviews.
Focusing on Child Welfare Systems: The Role of State Legislators - This report offers legislators information on using the CFSRs to enhance their role in supporting state child welfare agency administrators and creating effective child welfare policies and practices. It discusses the CFSRs as a resource for legislators and offers strategies that legislators can use to become involved in the reviews. The report is also available in a three-page brief format.
Funding of Child and Family Services Reviews Program Improvement Plans - This document describes how some states are using new resources or are re-allocating existing resources for PIP implementation following the first round of the CFSRs.
Involving State Legislators in the Child and Family Services Reviews - This brief , which is based on findings from a national survey of states conducted in June 2009, discusses ideas for state child welfare agencies about engaging state legislators and legislative staff in the CFSRs. It offers examples of how states promote collaboration on the reviews, descriptions of how states engage legislators in the CFSR process, and key action steps.
Leadership and Child Welfare Systems: The Role of State Legislators - This document discusses the critical role that state legislators play in helping support greater stability for child welfare agency leadership. Given the costs that states incur when children are not well served, legislative involvement in child welfare is as important now as ever. This document discusses those costs and the importance of the CFSRs as a tool for legislators in assessing child welfare system performance. It also describes the role of collaboration between legislators and agencies in bringing about system improvement through the CFSR process.
Legislative Brief: Child Welfare Caseworker Visits With Children and Parents - This brief presents background information about caseworker visits, including the elements that comprise quality visits. It also offers questions that legislators and their staff can use to facilitate a dialogue about caseworker visits with their child welfare agency administrators.
Moving Children Out of Foster Care: The Legislative Role in Finding Permanent Homes for Children - This report focuses on the outcomes of round 2 of CFSRs regarding state performance in moving children in child welfare systems toward permanency. It also highlights strategies that states use to improve permanency outcomes for these children and provides questions that lawmakers can use in discussions with state agencies about strategies for improving permanency outcomes.
Partners in Progress: Improving Outcomes Through Systemic Change - This document is a presentation by Joan Ohl at the 2003 Annual Meeting of States and Tribes.
State Child Welfare Legislation: 2006 - This report describes some of the state legislation related to child welfare issues that was enacted during calendar year 2006. It includes citations and summaries of specific child welfare-related laws in each state.
State Child Welfare Legislation: 2007–2008 - This report describes state legislation related to child welfare issues that was enacted during calendar years 2007 and 2008. It includes citations and summaries of specific child welfare-related laws in each state.
State Progress Toward Child Welfare Improvement: Findings from Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008 of the CFSRs - This document uses data from the CFSR Final Reports to provide state legislators with an overview of state performance in the second round of the CFSRs. It also discusses key findings from the second round.
State Child Welfare Legislation: 2009 - This report describes state legislation related to child welfare issues that was enacted during calendar year 2009. It includes citations and summaries of specific child welfare-related laws in each state.
State Child Welfare Legislation: 2010-2011 - This report describes state legislation related to child welfare issues that was enacted during calendar years 2010 and 2011. It includes citations and summaries of specific child welfare-related laws in each state.
Strategies That Address Critical Practice Areas: Successes and Challenges in Implementation - This presentation discusses strategies that address critical practice areas in child welfare.
Supporting Improvements in Child Welfare Systems Through the Child and Family Services Reviews: A Resource for State Legislators - This document provides key questions about the CFSR process that state legislators and their staff can discuss with state child welfare agencies. It is designed to enhance relationships between state child welfare administrators and state legislators who have the responsibility of child welfare agency oversight.