Blog Posts -- Research & Reports

A four-part training, Tribal Family Wellness Plan Learning Modules , developed by the Quality Improvement Center for Collaborative Community Court Teams in collaboration with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute , provides guidance for tribal child welfare providers about implementing programs and practices that reduce the impact of substance use on pregnant and parenting families. The goals of the module include reducing the impact of substance use on pregnant and parenting families,...

Original Post from Children's Bureau Express: For children and youth in foster care, having caring and supportive adults in their lives can significantly improve well-being and encourage positive youth development. These beneficial relationships are in part created through coregulation. Coregulation is when adults enact three types of support with youth: caring, consistent, and responsive relationships; cocreation of supportive environments; and intentional and developmentally informed...

Original post by Children's Bureau Express COVID-19 has been a source of disruption and stress for families and systems and has significantly changed the way child welfare operates in its day-to-day business. At the start of the pandemic, many courts and child welfare agencies suspended or reduced in-person family time, which is a critical part of the reunification process and has several benefits to attachment and well-being. Family time also provides an opportunity for child welfare...

Original article can be found on Children's Bureau Express here . A report from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services explores how self-regulation can be applied as a framework for promoting youth health and well-being through coregulation. It reviews which developmental skills and competencies are addressed in the current literature, how coregulation is presented, and what...

Original article can be found on Children's Bureau Express here . Youth in foster care continue to have poorer education outcomes compared with their peers. For example, the high school graduation rate in California for youth in foster care is 58 percent while the general population graduation rate is 84 percent. Best Practices Guide for Developing a District System to Improve Education Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care from the Alliance for Children's Rights seeks to build on its Foster...

Original article can be found on Children's Bureau Express here . A recent working paper by Child Trends, Integrating Positive Youth Development and Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Approaches Across the Child Welfare and Justice Systems , focuses on the importance of positive youth development (PYD) approaches in child welfare. Specifically, the working paper explores the need for PYD approaches that incorporate racial equity and inclusion, why it is important to focus on young...

Original article can be found on Children's Bureau Express here . Family Voices United published a report featuring a summary of responses from youth with lived foster care experience to the question "What supports should be provided to maintain stable foster care placements for expectant and parenting youth, or to support them in achieving safe reunification with relatives/loved ones?" Policymakers can use this report to better understand constituents and tailor programs and systems to...

A new child welfare journal, Family Integrity & Justice Quarterly , recently released its inaugural issue , which focused on harms created by the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). The journal's editors and writers point out problems with ASFA's passage and implementation, including the lack of American Indian and Alaska Native leaders in drafting the law, the preference for adoption over other forms of permanence, and built-in biases that continue to perpetuate systemic racism. "We...

CSSP is excited to share our new Youth Thrive Blueprint: Tools and Resources for Putting Youth Thrive into Practice . The Youth Thrive Blueprint is: A practice resource for youth-serving agencies and organizations to advance the well-being of young people—ages 9-26 years. Full of actionable ideas and tools to build young people’s strengths and Protective and Promotive Factors . Developed with a focus on young people in foster care and relevant to other settings such as: afterschool and...

Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World by Dorothy Roberts will be released on April 5, 2022. An award-winning scholar exposes the foundational racism of the "child welfare system" and calls for radical change. Many believe the "child welfare" system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy...

This new infographic from Rise highlights how universal child care will reduce involvement with the family policing system and strengthen family well-being. It provides an overview of Rise's policy recommendations related to making child care and respite care free and accessible—without family policing system involvement. It also includes data related to issues with child care: child care is too expensive; lack of access to child care is linked to "neglect" reports; and there are not enough...

Please read this message from Mary Rauktis, lead author of this important study, and share it with your networks! "As an educator, I teach aspiring students how to engage with and build on the resilience of children and their caregivers. As a mentor, I have advised former foster care youth who have later become colleagues and friends. I have witnessed how challenging it is to go to college not as well prepared as peers, with far less familial support and the price paid emotionally and...