Resources

• Caseworker Visits with Children in Out Home Care
  This NRCFCPPP document provides a summary of state efforts as of July 24, 2008 to comply with the provisions of Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, which required states to develop plans by June 20, 2008 that would ensure that at least 90% of children in foster care will be visited by their caseworkers on a monthly basis and that the majority of those visits will take place in the child’s residence. It is based on information provided directly to the NRCFCPPP by states, as well as Internet searches of state policy and legislation. This is not a comprehensive list of all policies and practices.

• DHHS Office of Inspector General Reports on Caseworker Visits with Children in Foster Care
  The OIG issued two reports examining states' ability to track the frequency of caseworker visits to children in foster care. The OIG was directed to determine whether or not states had standards for visits by caseworkers, the extent that states issue reports on such visits, and the extent to which children were actually visited. The report indicated that 43 states had written standards calling for caseworkers to visit children in foster care at least monthly. The OIG also concluded that only 20 states of the 51 reviewed demonstrated their ability to actually produce statewide reports. Of these 20, seven states indicated that, on average, fewer than half of children in foster care were visited monthly. The OIG recommended that the Administration for Children and Families in HHS work with states that have limited or nonexistent automated capacity to develop such a system. For states where the capacity exists, HHS should work with states on ways to ensure visits are being recorded. The reports are:
  • State Standards and Capacity to Track Frequency of Caseworker Visits with Children in Foster Care (OEI-04-03-00350)

  • State Standards and Practices for Content of Caseworker Visits with Children in Foster Care (OEI-04-03-00351)

    See the NRCFCPPP PowerPoint presentations summarizing these two reports below.

• Child Welfare Caseworker Visits with Children and Parents: Innovations in State Policy
  This report from the National Conference of State Legislatures provides information about the potential of effective child welfare caseworker visits in achieving positive outcomes for children and families, both those receiving in-home and foster care services. It also offers strategies for legislators who are interested in supporting child welfare agency administrators in enhancing the quality and frequency of those visits.

• California
  Interviewing Children with Disabilities
  From the Northern California Training Academy

• Iowa
  Worker's Role: Visits with Children
  Practice tips for caseworkers.

• Minnesota
  • Minnesota PIP TIPS
    The state provides these resources to counties for assistance in their individual Program Improvement Plans. They include tips on:
    • Worker Visits with Child
    • Visits with Parents
    • Visits with Siblings in Foster Care
    • Worker Visits with Parents

• New Mexico: Worker-Child Visiting
  This PowerPoint presentation provides training for caseworkers on entering information about worker/child visits into the agency's automated information system, FACTS. It makes a connection between good practice, good documentation, and better outcomes.

• North Carolina: Tool to Enhance Monthly Agency Visits
  This 4-page, 7-item tool is designed to be a guide for monthly visits. It is intended to be used as a guide for conversation, not a checklist of items to read off every month. Workers are advised to continue to have their typical, open-ended conversations with foster parents and children in care, and then to simply use the tool at the end of the visit to summarize, ensure that important topics are not overlooked, and plan follow-up.