Resources

• Case Planning for Families Involved with Child Welfare Agencies: Summary of State Laws
  This document from the Child Welfare Information Gateway, current through May 2005, provides information about state laws that address child welfare case planning.

• Child Welfare Policy Manual Section 8.3C.1
  Questions and answers concerning case plan requirements in Title IV-E of the Social Security Act.

• Tough Problems, Tough Choices: Guidelines for Needs-Based Service Planning in Child Welfare
  The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Casey Family Programs, Casey Family Services, American Humane's Children's Services, the Institute for Human Services Management and the American Bar Associations Center on Children and the Law announce the publication of a unique casework resource. The book is designed to help child welfare professionals develop child-and family-specific case plans by providing a structured tool for making case decisions and service plans, a training guide for staff development, and a means for achieving agency-wide consistency in case planning.

• Some Questions to Guide Permanency Hearings
  The National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues has published this list of questions for judges to ask. It could easily guide a worker in (1) thinking about the case plan and (2) developing a court report that addresses those questions.

• Improving Permanency Hearings: Sample Court Reports and Orders
  Also from the NRC on Legal and Judicial Issues, this document outlines the “nuts and bolts” of effective permanency hearings, including the issues to be addressed in each hearing and forms that provide a record of the agency's recommendations and the court's decisions.

• Babies, Toddlers, Foster Care, and the Courts
  Two important resources from Zero to Three:
  • Court Teams for Maltreated Infants and Toddlers -- a fact sheet describing a new effort supported by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

  • Ensuring the Healthy Development of Infants in Foster Care: A Guide for Judges, Advocates and Child Welfare Professionals -- a working tool for those involved in the court process to understand the questions to ask and the resources that can address the special needs of infants in foster care and their families. Jointly published by the New York State Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children.

Resources from the States

• California: Sacramento County
  Youth Involvement in Case Plans, Court Hearings, and Administrative Reviews
  This guide emphasizes the benefits of youth involvement in developing their case plans and explores different considerations when developing a case plan. The need to consider reunification is discussed, as well as adoption and legal guardianship. Information is provided on facts and reasons for adoption, key issues to address when considering adoption, questions to consider when exploring legal guardianship, and reasons why long-term foster care is discouraged as a permanency option. A fact sheet is included that reviews considerations for youth transitioning to emancipation.

• Iowa
  Case Planning in Child Welfare
  Practice tips for caseworkers.

• CORE 102 - Casework Process and Case Planning in Child Protective Services
  This curriculum is part of the Pennsylvania Child Welfare Program, from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Social Work.

• Adoption Safe Families Act Curriculum
  This curriculum from the National Resource Center in Child Welfare Training & Evaluation includes a module on case planning. All training materials are available to download.

NRCFCPPP Information Packet

• Child, Youth and Family Involvement in Case Planning by Richard Barinbaum (April 2007)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
Last updated 05/02/08