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 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).

This curriculum, which can be used in whole or in part, provides background legislative initiatives, evaluations of Family Preservation/Support Programs in different areas of the country, and techniques in evaluating community-based programs. Chapters include: a description of the development of Family Preservation/Family Support programs including key federal legislation and California's implementation process; a review of current literature on both family support and family preservation evaluations; a state-wide matrix of County Five-Year Plans for the Family Preservation/Support Program Initiative, summaries of 10 county Five-Year Plans, and case studies of three counties; information on single-subject designs including the nature and scope of single-subject research and its relationship to time-series design; information on collecting and analyzing administrative level data to determine whether change has occurred in a target community; and analysis of administrative level data within a single-system design framework. This module addresses Child Welfare Policy, Planning and Administration competencies. (343 pages)Rogers, K., Ferguson, C., Barth, R. P., & Embry, R. (1998).

This curriculum focuses on factors that may lead to differential placement outcomes for children who have become dependents of the court, as the result of abuse and neglect, and have been placed with kin rather than in traditional foster homes. It is intended for use by child welfare faculty in California’s schools of social work or social welfare in both BSW and MSW programs and may be used in direct practice or Human Behavior and the Social Environment (HBSE) classes. In addition, the curriculum, or parts from it, may be used in workshops provided to line workers, supervisors, and/or managers by any of the public child welfare training academies in California or public child welfare agencies. The intent of this curriculum is to provide students and child welfare professionals with (a) background information on kinship care as an alternative to traditional foster care, (b) a brief review of the literature pertaining to the characteristics of dependent children in kinship care and their care providers, (c) opportunities to discuss beliefs about why kinship care is valuable (or not) and why it may or may not be successful, (d) demographic data pertaining to selected characteristics of children in kinship care and their care providers derived from a sample of California child welfare cases, (e) factors which may or may not be related to premature termination of kinship care placements, (f) caregiver perceptions of differential placement outcomes, (g) social worker perceptions of differential placement outcomes, and (h) opportunities to discuss how students and/or child welfare workers can decrease premature termination of kinship care placements. The curriculum is accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation containing key points from each module followed by one or more slides presenting an “active learning experience.” (78 pages) Chang, J., Liles, R., & Hoang, T. (2006).

This curriculum, which may be used in whole or in part, offers an overview of kinship care including a brief historical context for this resource, funding associated with kinship care, and some of the legal issues that have shaped kinship care policy. Characteristics of kinship care providers and children are presented, along with a thorough examination of outcomes associated with kinship care. In addition, data on the number of children in foster care, kinship care in the context of the larger out-of-home care population, outcomes associated with kinship care versus non-kin care, and the discrepancy between AFDC and AFDC-FC payments in California and the role these differential payment rates may play in kinship care outcomes are provided. Last, child welfare workers' views about the primary differences between kinship foster parents and foster family parents, and changes in policy and practice are considered. (188 pages)Berrick, J. D., Needell, B., & Barth, R. P. (1995).

This curriculum was designed to improve the quality of care provided to children in out-of-home care. It highlights the importance of providing child welfare services that are more responsive to the voices of children in kin and non-kin foster care. Components include an overview of the child welfare system in California, a literature review of children's experiences in out-of-home care, children's experiences with kin and non-kin foster care in California, adolescents' perspectives of out-of-home care in California, practice tips for child welfare workers, case vignettes, and a bibliography of relevant child welfare texts and articles cited in the curriculum. (348 pages)Fox, A., Frasch, K., & Berrick, J. D. (2000).

Prudent Parent Standard For Supervisors and Managers (2006).
The material in this module was written by Irene Becker, LCSW for CalSWEC.

This brief training resource is designed to share vital information about the Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard to everyone affected by the changes in the law. It is designed to last about one hour, so that it may be provided during a regular meeting.

A new rate structure
for Home-Based Foster Care (HBFC) was necessitated with the passage of the
Continuum of Care Reform (CCR). In response, a Level of Care (LOC) Protocol has
been developed for use by county child welfare and probation placement workers.
A LOC matrix using five domains (Physical, Behavioral/Emotional, Health,
Educational and Permanency/Family Services Domain), separately scored, and
designed to promote best practices in meeting the individual needs of
children/youth in the foster care system.