A portion of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program supporting home visits for mothers and families with young children is designated for home visiting in tribal communities. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report is a systematic review of home visiting models within tribal communities and includes a description of the review process and findings. The report also includes information about the evaluated models and summary conclusions about the models’ effectiveness. The review was first published in February 2011, and the updated edition covers results from research through September 2018.

This research-to-practice brief assesses the implications and lessons learned from implementing evidence-based home visiting services for child welfare-system involved families under the Family First Prevention Services Act. For this assessment, the brief examines a pilot project of 10 Healthy Families America programs, administered by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The assessment’s results are drawn from program and administrative data as well as interviews of program participants. The brief notes positive benefits of home visiting services, such as increased knowledge of child development, enhanced parenting skills, and improved co-parenting relationships. It also recognizes the difficulty of delivering home visiting services where there are unstable living arrangements and mental health crises among participants.

This report provides findings from a biennial survey of child welfare agencies on their expenditures for state fiscal year (SFY) 2018. The survey intends to support greater understanding among stakeholders about the challenges and opportunities that agencies encounter in delivering services. According to the survey, state and local child welfare agencies rely on multiple funding sources to administer their programs, including Medicaid, Title IV-E, Title IV-B, TANF, the Social Services Block Grant program, and other federal, state, and local sources. In this report, tabular and graphic data illustrate trends in total expenditures for child welfare agencies from SFY 2016 to SFY 2018 and the different uses of funds to cover out-of-home placements, adoption and guardianship programs, child protective services, preventive services, and assistance for older youth. The report covers recent legislation and federal policy changes and how they affect child welfare expenditures. The report also identifies points of consideration for states as they assess how to determine the type of available services they might offer, in light of how states rely on different funding structures for their respective child welfare agencies.

The 20th Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) was held virtually on October 13–15 and October 19–22, 2020. The conference sessions were organized in six thematic tracks: TANF Programs, Policies, and Populations; Employment and Mobility in the Labor Market; Youth Well-Being and the Transition to Adulthood; Strengthening Families, Fatherhood, Marriages, and Relationships; Evaluating Social Programs, Building Evidence, and Using Data; and Approaches to Alleviate Poverty and Expand Opportunity. A complete set of videos covering plenary and breakout sessions and a career panel is now available online.

The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) will host its 39th annual conference titled “Protecting Our Children: Connectedness, Resilience, and Persistence” as a virtual event from April 11 to April 14, 2021. Conference participants will include child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice service providers; legal professionals; child advocates; and tribal, state, and federal leaders. Conference goals include highlighting successful strategies for developing effective services, innovative child welfare and children’s mental health service delivery practices, approaches for financing and sustaining children’s services, and strategies to engage youth and families in developing services and policies for systemic change. The conference will provide opportunities for peer networking to support work toward permanency for all American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) families, as well as time to share research on AI/AN children’s well-being and effective child welfare and children’s mental health services, practices, and policies. There is a conference registration fee.

This research-to-practice brief supports better understanding the intersection between child maltreatment and intimate partner violence so that comprehensive community-based prevention and intervention programs can be provided effectively. The brief notes the impact of domestic violence on children in the long-term and discusses how adult survivors of domestic violence and their children need support that promotes their well-being. The brief also outlines strategies for capacity building and collaboration implemented between child protection agencies and domestic violence programs in Massachusetts, Florida, Iowa, and Connecticut.

(See also Resources on "intimate partner violence" in the Resource Library)

Placement with kin is not always possible for endangered children who need to be removed from their homes, so child protection agencies utilize resource families. This research-to-practice brief highlights different approaches used to recruit and retain resource families. The brief covers three jurisdictions that have a high rate of family-based placements and a low rate of congregate care setting placements for children in need of protection: the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, and the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families.

The Administration for Children and Families supports Tribal Home Visiting Program grantees with capacity building to create and implement data systems. This brief presents an overview of data system challenges faced by tribal programs; a summary of data system technical assistance and resources offered to Tribal Home Visiting Program grantees; case studies that demonstrate how technical assistance improved tribal data system capacity; and recommendations for delivering data system technical assistance that is uniquely suited for tribal programs.

Parents can be reluctant to engage with child protection agencies since they realize these agencies are part of a system that can remove their children from their homes; however, it is crucial for agencies to develop meaningful engagement with these families, as engaging caregivers successfully in child welfare services has been associated with fewer placements in out-of-home care and less risk of repeat abuse. This research-to-practice brief cites motivational interviewing (MI) as a promising approach used by child protection practitioners to facilitate meaningful family engagement. Essential elements of MI are identified, including an authentic partnership between case manager and client based on nonjudgmental acceptance of the client, compassion for the client, and recognition of the client’s desire for change. The brief lists communication strategies such as asking open-ended questions that practitioners use in MI, and it concludes with a discussion of how the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency has used the MI approach.

The Office of Family Assistance hosted a PeerTA webinar on Addressing Intergenerational Trauma among TANF Families on January 26, 2021. Understanding trauma and its transmission among families are critical considerations in human service delivery. Human services programs, including TANF, have a role to play in helping to mitigate and address the negative effects of intergenerational trauma through programming.

During this facilitated webinar, presenters defined intergenerational trauma and explored the ways in which trauma is transferred from parents to their children. Participants learned how TANF programs can minimize the impacts of intergenerational trauma, as well as heard about current research initiatives and from programs that are working to address intergenerational trauma in their communities. Presenters also examined the ways in which COVID-19 exacerbates trauma and strategies for TANF programs to identify and lessen these effects.

Presenters included Dr. Jessica Dym Bartlett and Dr. Dana Thomson, Child Trends; Dr. Mariana Chilton, Drexel University and Center for Hunger-Free Communities; Dr. Marla Conwell and Amber Hoyt, South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency (SPIPA); Alie Huxta, Associate Director of Partnerships and Strategic Planning; and Kevin Thomas, Jr., Associate Director of Operations and Asset Building, Building Wealth & Health Network. Dr. Nicole Bossard from ICF and TGC Consulting, Inc. facilitated the webinar.