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Supporting Improvements in Child Welfare Systems Through the Child and Family Services Reviews: A Resource for State Legislators

May 2006

 

A new resource is available to assist State legislators in the critical task of providing oversight to State child welfare systems.

Supporting Improvements in Child Welfare Systems Through the Child and Family Services Reviews: A Resource for State Legislators is a brief that provides key questions for legislators and their staff to ask state child welfare agencies about child welfare system performance. It is designed to help legislators use the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs), conducted jointly by the federal government and states, to engage with state child welfare agencies regarding child welfare reform and system improvement.

As states gear up for a new round of Child and Family Services Reviews, legislators and staff can use the questions in this report to engage their state child welfare agency administrator and others in discussion about the CFSR during each phase of the process, including the statewide assessment, the onsite review/exit conference, the final report and Program Improvement Plan (PIP) design, implementation, monitoring and completion.

The CFSR State Team Training Project at JBS International, Inc., with support from project subcontractor the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL), produced this brief on behalf of the Children’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

  Complete Report (6 pages).  To view PDF files, you must install Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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NCSL continues to provide free technical assistance (TA) to state legislators and child welfare agencies interested in building stronger relationships toward their shared goal of creating effective child welfare systems.  If you are intersted in technical assistance, please contact Steve Christian, NCSL, at steve.christian@ncsl.org or (303) 856-1370.

Legislators might begin by asking the following:

• What were the findings of the previous CFSR?
• In what ways can those findings be compared with those of other States?
• What strategies is the state employing to make the required program improvements?
• What resources are necessary to participate in the CFSR process, including available federal resources, and does the state have sufficient funds to fully conduct all of the review-related activities?
• Did the state make the required program improvements, and if not, what are the consequences?
• What strategies will the state employ to sustain the momentum of the program improvements underway, especially in areas in which ongoing improvements will be necessary?
• How can the legislators with child welfare oversight responsibility in our state become more involved in the agency’s current or next CFSR?

Legislative staff then can use these questions to further explore the state child welfare agency’s participation in each CFSR component, the CFSR outcomes and the State’s efforts to address areas needing improvement:

• Statewide Assessment
• Onsite Review/Exit Conference
• Final Report
• PIP Design, Implementation, Monitoring and Completion