Department of Social Work

Child Welfare History

SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION AND PUBLIC CHILD WELFARE PARTNERSHIPS

1935

Passage of the Child Welfare Provisions of the Social Security Act. The Children's Bureau supports states spending some funds to provide social work education for staff. 

1962

Creation of ht Title IV-B, Section 426 Discretionary Training Grant Program to provide funds to institutions for higher learning to train individuals in the child welfare field. Funded at $3.5 million in 1965, this program was a major source of funding to provide social work education for agency workers and to provide and to provide opportunities for students to pursue child welfare careers. 

1980

Passage of Child Welfare and Adoption Assistance Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-272). No specific staffing qualification were included. Created TitleIV-E training in which allows for state child welfare agencies to provide funds to universities for curriculum development, classroom instruction, field instruction, or any 75% federal match. Includes foster and adoptive parent training and worker training in, including preparing students for public child welfare practice. Few universities and agencies use these funds to prepare workers in the university. 

1986-1988

A Staffing Crisis in Child Welfare is Identified. Agencies were having difficulty recruiting and retaining competent, committed staff. The dilemma was that social work felt that child welfare agencies were not interested in attracting and retaining professional social workers and child welfare agencies felt that social work education was not providing the relevant education for contemporary child welfare practice. Actions began to occur.

* NASW hosts symposium on "Professional Social Work Practice in Public Child Welfare," March 1986 with support from the HHS Office of Human Development Services, creates a task force on promoting professional social work practice in public practice in public child welfare an agenda priority.

* CWLA 1988 Biennial Resolution on Recruitment and Retention of Staff creates task force and study.

* NAPCWA/APWA publication of Guidelines of a Model System of Protective Services for Abuse and Neglected Children and Their Families.

* American Humane Association publishes guidelines for staffing child protection agencies which recommend that staff have social work degrees.

* Booz-Allen, Hamilton study in Maryland suggest that hiring staff with social work degrees in more cost effective than just providing training.

* NASW forum addresses the need for partnerships between social work education and child welfare agencies to address staffing issues.  

1989

* Publication of Addressing the Program and Personnel Crisis in Public Child Welfare: A Social Work Response, Pecora, Briar & Zlotnik, NASW.

* NASW hosts a colloquium on the staffing crisis in child welfare, including representatives form NAPCWA, CSWE, CWLA and the Children's Bureau. 

1990

* U.S.. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect recommends that child protective service staff meet national educational standards and that guidelines be established regarding caseloads and staff training. 

1991

* Children's Bureau provides funding to Florida International University to host The National Child Welfare Training Conference which brought together 100 social work educators and agency administrators from over 40 states to address strategies to create partnerships to address issues of recruitment, retention and staff competencies. New Partnerships, Briar, Hasen and Harris, Florida International University, provides the proceeding from that meeting.

* Universities and agencies strengthen their collaborative efforts to provide social work education for current and future workers. 

1992

* Children's Bureau funds 11, 5 year, interdisciplinary child welfare training grants to focus on competency-based education, and requiring social work programs to work in partnerships with child welfare agencies.

* Children's Bureau fund Florida International University to provide technical assistance and conferences which promote partnerships between social work education programs and public welfare agencies.

* Ford Foundation provide a grant to CSWE-Social Work Education and Public Human Services Partnership Project.

* CWLA hosts a colloquium, in partnership with CSWE, on building partnerships between child welfare agencies and social work education programs and publishes Building Partnerships: Schools and Agencies Advancing Child Welfare Practice and Staffing the Child Welfare Agency: Recruitment and Retention.

* APWA, in collaboration with CSWE, hosts a forum in San Diego "education for Serivice:Public Human Service Agencies and School of Social Work." which focused on successful collaborative efforts. 

1993

* CWLA, in collaboration with NASW, CSWE, and funding from HHS, develops "Start Me Up" a video targeted to recruit high school and college students into child welfare careers.

* CSWE publishes Social Work Education and Public Human Services: Developing Partnerships.

* Children's Bureau funds additional grants to social work education programs to prepare students for child welfare careers.

* NASW surveys student members to determine their interest in child welfare careers-Choosing Child Welfare, Rome, NASW Office of Government Relations.

* Passage of the Family Preservation and Support Provisions of P.L. 103-66. Collaboration and partnerships among agencies and between agencies and universities is encouraged to plan, implement the provisions. Several schools of social work carry-out the planning task for the state and many social work educators are involved in the planning and evaluation process. 

1994

* "Expanding Partnerships for Vulnerable Children, Youth and Families" conference takes place in Tysons Corner, VA, not only addressing child welfare partnerships, but also addressing the need for cross-systems and cross university partnerships. 

1996

* CSWE's Ford Project publishes Social Work Education and Public Human Services Partnerships: A Technical Document.

* Over the past 5 years more than 60 child welfare training grants under Section 426 have been granted to social work education programs to prepare 100's of students for child welfare careers.

*Currently more than 30 BSW programs and 40 MSW programs receive Title IV-E funds to prepare students for child welfare careers.

Prepared by Joan Levy Zlotnik, Social Work Education/Public Human Services Project, CSWE September 1996