The Children’s Bureau at the Administration for Children and Families has shared links to directly related resources on COVID-19 for child welfare workers and the clients they serve. Information available includes guidance on procurement for personal protective equipment, casework visit requirements during COVID-19 response, conducting effective remote hearings in child welfare cases and court improvement programs to assist dependency courts, and postponement of Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility reviews.

This evaluation report provides summary findings of the Regional Partnership Grant (RPG) Program. Awarded by the Children’s Bureau at the Administration for Children and Families, RPG grants are partnerships between child welfare providers, entities that offer substance abuse disorder treatment, and other social service agencies that enhance child welfare for those children who are in or at risk of out-of-home placement because of a parent’s or caretaker’s substance abuse disorder. The study assesses results from 17 partnerships in 15 states that were initially funded in 2012. Continuing evaluations will be made for partnerships funded in 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation tool assists current and future Tribal TANF-Child Welfare Coordination grantees in identifying and evaluating efforts to build collaboration, assessing ongoing collaboration, and tracking progress of collaboration and coordination efforts. The assessment tool can help organizations build and strengthen partnerships, identify areas for changing practice, and improve coordination among human service providers and Tribal TANF agencies.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation will host a webinar on April 29, 2020 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET to discuss how states and counties can develop preventive child welfare practice models that are in alignment with the Family First Prevention Services Act. Discussion will cover Putting Family First, a working paper from the Annie E. Casey Foundation; core elements of child welfare practice models; the use of evidence-based case management strategies; roles of leaders in thinking about preventive services; and how to implement these models in the current COVID-19 pandemic environment. Presenters include representatives from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the National Implementation Research Network, and the Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) Department of Social Services.

Abt Associates will host a two-panel webinar on April 23, 2020 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on how to transform child welfare systems to protect children, what programs are doing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how programs are supporting community-driven and evidence-based prevention efforts against child abuse and neglect. Panelists include researchers, field practitioners, and child welfare advocates. Participants may register for either or both panels and links to join the panels will be provided on the Eventbrite page the morning of the event.

This guide from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides information to parents and caregivers on how the COVID-19 outbreak might affect their families both physically and mentally and how to help them cope. Information is provided on: COVID-19 cause and its transmission, preventative strategies, steps families can take to be better prepared, including information and communication strategies and awareness of community resources and emergency contacts, how to reduce families’ risk, and ways to help families cope with stress including suggestions for parent and caregiver self-care. A chart features reactions that children might have to the outbreak according to age group and the best ways that parents and caregivers can respond.

This blogpost summarizes two articles by Annie E. Casey Foundation staffers who focus on two critical facets for youth in foster care. The first article explores adolescent brain science and how child welfare professionals can support and engage these youth in planning their futures. The second article covers entry prevention programs and how they keep families together and reduce removal in cases other than child neglect or abuse.

This brief describes a project highlighting the development and implementation of policies and practices aimed at reducing the impact of Illinois mothers’ incarceration on their children. From interviews with incarcerated mothers, researchers learned how incarceration creates barriers to parenting, and through interviews with program administrators and others, they discovered how programs across the U.S. are addressing these barriers. Ways to help incarcerated mothers maintain relationships with their children included supporting communication between mothers and children via mail or phone, improving visitation policies, and increasing support services’ availability.

This blogpost profiles the Louisiana Department of Child and Family Services’ efforts to connect birth families with resource families following child removal, with the hopes of improving child welfare and the likelihood and timeliness of reunification. This shared parenting reflects the Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI), a Youth Law Center strategy to pave a new approach toward increasing reunification outcomes for families. This approach calls for a fundamental culture shift away from an “us-them” adversarial relationship between birth and resource families.

This brief identifies challenges for addressing families in rural areas who fall within the child welfare system and who also encounter substance misuse. It also illustrates several challenges that include a lack of family-centered options as well as transportation and technological limitations in addressing the needs of parents with substance abuse. The brief also points out the need for collaboration in rural areas between child welfare agencies and substance use treatment providers.