Archive

insights, Volume XVIII - Keeping Families Strong and Together: Prevention Strategies in Child Welfare

In this issue of insights we provide a framework for prevention and family strengthening strategies that is guided by data on disparities in child welfare involvement, includes innovative county approaches, and offers perspectives from stakeholders including those with lived experience.

insights, Volume XVII Part 2 - Trauma and Child Welfare: Strategies for Preventing and Intervening to Promote Healing

This issue of insights explores California's progress on its implementation of trauma screening in pediatric settings for eligible children, youth, and adults. For child welfare professionals and advocates, trauma screening may hold the promise of identifying trauma to intervene, and potentially prevent a child and family's trajectory into foster care and other child-serving systems.

insights, Volume XVII Part 1- Understanding Trauma to Promote Healing in Child Welfare

This issue of insights is the first of a two-part edition to share definitions, data, and perspectives to further the understanding of the role of trauma at the individual, family, community and system level and perhaps more importantly, how to promote resilience and healing to improve outcomes for children and families. The issue includes insights and recommendations gleaned from interviews with state and county policymakers, pediatricians, judges, social workers, mental health clinicians, and social justice leaders. Stay tuned for our part two issue where we follow up on the recommendations and provide an overview of promising practices.


insights, Volume XVI - Child Welfare Policy and Progress

This issue of insights provides an overview of the latest legislative developments in California, including data and perspectives on the policy and practice transformation taking place with the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR). Beyond a comprehensive summary of child welfare state legislation, this issue also includes a discussion on the key provisions of the Family First Prevention Services Act. The issue concludes with recommendations for how to continue bolstering supports for California's children and families.


insights, Volume XV - Housing Insecurity and Child Welfare

This issue of Insights provides available data and studies on California's housing insecure families, and how housing challenges factor into their trajectory of child welfare involvement both at the front end with family maintenance interventions and removal decisions, as well as case planning for reunification. Included are promising policies and programs that offer important learnings to improve outcomes for families with housing insecurity, as well as recommendations to address the challenges of housing insecurity with the goal of improving outcomes for California’s children and families.


insights, Volume XIV - Balancing Head & Heart: California's Child Welfare Workforce

Child welfare caseworkers hold the complex role of balancing their legally mandated responsibility to protect children from neglect and abuse, with the goal of keeping families together. This issue of insights examines the valuable and complex work performed by California's child welfare workforce and highlights the challenges and opportunities present to strengthen and support the field.


insights, Volume XIII - A Matter of Substance: Challenges and Responses to Parental Substance Use in Child Welfare

This issue of insights investigates how California captures and reports child welfare entries related to substance use disorder (SUD). It explores the effects of the state’s efforts to integrate child welfare services with behavioral health, the courts, and other programs that support family reunification, and discusses different ways of moving forward with focused services in the state.


insights12insights, Volume XII - California Child Welfare: What's New and Looking Forward

This issue of insights summarizes recent child welfare reforms, examines the latest data on children in care, discusses challenges and opportunities and outlines recommendations.


insights xiinsights, Volume XI: On Balance: The Courts & Child Welfare

This issue of insights examines the juvenile court’s role in the child welfare system and provides recommendations on how to best meet the complex needs of children and families in child welfare.


 

 

insights, Volume X: Crossover Youth: A Shared Responsibility

This issue of insights offers an overview of data, policy and reform efforts that seek to better understand crossover youth and share accountability for their well-being.


insights, Volume IX: Who is Caring for Children in Foster Care?

This issue of insights looks at what we know (and don’t know) about our caregivers, and provides a primer on the programs that are working to support their success, and ultimately improve the lives of families and children in the child welfare system.


insights_Fall2014insights, Volume VIII: Federal Child Welfare Financing: The Facts and Perspectives on Reform

This issue examines the current progress and reforms in changing the way Child Welfare is financed by both federal and state agencies.


insights, Volume VII: The Promise of the Landmark Katie A. Case and Settlement–Creating New Pathways to Mental Health Services

This issue examines the current progress and promise of the Katie A. settlement implementation as a vehicle to improve the delivery of mental health services for children and youth within the child welfare system (2013/14).


insights, Volume VI: Improving Outcomes through Data Sharing in Real Time and Over Time

This issue explores the need to share real time information at both the individual and aggregate levels in order to identify, recognize, and support success including: the current landscape, examples, benefits, and moving forward (2013).

insights_vol_5insights In-Depth V: Foster Youth Educational Outcomes

This issue focuses on the educational gaps within the foster care population, describing the vulnerability of these students, the missing data links, and the critical supports to achieving better outcomes (2011).


insights, Volume IV: African American and Native American Children and Youth Overrepresentation in the Child Welfare System

This issue focuses on the over-representation of African American and Native American children in California’s child welfare system. Data show that these two populations are disproportionately represented and have much poorer outcomes than children of other races (2010).


insights_volume3insights, Volume III: Understanding Outcomes of Youth Aging Out of Foster Care

This issue provides data on outcomes as well as related policy implications for youth aging out of foster care in California (2010).


insights_volume2insights, Volume II: Understanding Permanency and the Child Welfare System

This issue focuses on permanency for children who are in the child welfare system. Along with safety and well-being, permanency is one of the three critical outcomes that guide all efforts to provide for children who have been abused or neglected (2009).


insights_volume1insights, Volume I: Understanding Data and the Child Welfare System

This premier issue examines California’s child welfare outcomes since January 2004, when the state’s new outcomes and accountability system went into effect (2009).