From January 2001 NASW NEWS
Copyright ©2001, National Association of Social Workers, Inc.

Growth Seen in States' Use of Child Welfare Training

More than 1,200 California students have been helped by the funds.

By John V. O'Neill, MSW, NEWS Staff

Social work students in North Carolina in 1999 joined those in about 40 other states who in the past decade began using federal Title IV-E funds to support training in child welfare.

The first cohort of 31 MSW students in the Tar Heel State, some with annual stipends of $15,000, finished their first year of the program designed to re-professionalize child welfare work using funds available from Title IV-E of the Child Welfare and Adoption Assistance Act of 1980.

They are specializing in child welfare in their MSW programs and performing field practice at child welfare agencies. When they graduate, they will be obliged to work in a child welfare agency one month for each month for which they received an educational stipend. Many already worked in child welfare, but without professional social work training.

The pace of participation in IV-E training programs has quickened in recent years as more states have become aware of availability of funds and seen successful programs in other states, said Joan Zlotnik, executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research, who worked to develop social work participation while at NASW and other organizations.

In California, where more than 10 years ago social work deans and state officials established a partnership among MSW programs that resulted in the California Social Work Education Center at the University of California at Berkeley, more than 1,200 MSW students have graduated with help from IV-E funding.

Title IV-E partnerships between departments of social services and social work education programs are one method used by states to alleviate the severe shortage of skilled child welfare workers and in making efforts to re-professionalize departments. Efforts have often followed highly publicized cases of decisions by child welfare workers that ended badly for the children involved.

Students who specialize in child welfare in school are more likely to choose it as a career and are more likely to successfully adapt to the pressures of the work and not change jobs, say researchers.

Sherrill Clark, executive director of California's center at Berkeley, said retention rates of former students in child welfare jobs after their periods of obligated work expired varies from county to county. In San Francisco, where starting pay for child welfare professionals is more than $50,000, the retention rate is 93 percent, she said.

While Title IV-E funds were available since the early 1980s, only in the past decade did state departments of social service and universities become aware that they could access the funds to train child welfare workers. In 1991, only eight states were receiving funds.

When the positive potential from accessing IV-E funds was realized in the early 1990s, organizations like NASW and the Council on Social Work Education began to proselytize. It became what Zlotnik called a "movement" to make states and universities aware and to provide technical assistance. Organizations and agencies held conferences to spread the word.

Requirements for accessing IV-E funds are so indefinite that states and universities can determine what's best, based on state staffing needs, requirements and policy needs. There are many models, including: MSW-degree education for current staff; BSW education for potential staff; MSW education for prospective staff; or some combination.

Money can also be used for other training purposes like seminars, for centers in universities for research and program evaluation, or to hire field instructors for child welfare practice.

Zlotnik conducted a survey of social work programs for CSWE covering the 1995-1996 school year to get a snapshot of who was getting IV-E funds and how much. The survey was sent to all 550 BSW and MSW programs in the U.S. Sixty-two percent (248, or 59 percent, of BSW programs and 94, or 72 percent, of MSW programs) responded.

Recently published results indicate 29 states were receiving funds to support social work education.

Results showed regional variations. Of $50.9 million in training funds for social work education, 24 percent went to California, the state with the most foster children, and 2 percent went to New York, the state with the second-largest foster care population.

Of the $50.9 million, $4 million supported BSW education; $21 million supported MSW education; and $25.9 million was for in-service training. In the 1995-96 school year, 1,280 students received support from IV-E funds, about 57 percent of them new to child welfare. Numbers involved varied greatly, with 43 percent of programs having fewer than 10 students; 31 percent, between 11 and 40; and 26 percent, more than 40.

There was a slowdown in growth of accessing IV-E funds in 1995 and 1996 over concern that the funds would become part of block grants in welfare reform legislation. Once child welfare escaped the block grant and since the passage in 1997 of the Adoption and Safe Families Act, "it created more interest and incentive for states and universities, and there has been a tremendous growth in the number of states working with schools to get IV-E money," said Zlotnik. More states — including New Jersey, Arkansas, Hawaii and North Carolina — started programs, for a total of about 40 states, she said.

North Carolina may be a typical program. "We are looking for eager, enthusiastic new people for the field," said Evelyn Williams at the University of North Carolina. In the first year, there was room for 40 participants, but there were only 31 takers, she said. This year, there were more applicants than awards.

"Our students are already being looked at carefully by county [social services] directors," she said.

Title IV-E is a "huge resource for agencies," said Zlotnik. "By the time they [students] graduate, they are ready to be hired by agencies. The program not only creates an interest in child welfare; it helps agencies with recruiting. People come to agencies knowledgeable, committed and with a payback requirement."

Data from the University of Maryland program showed that 49 percent intended to have child welfare as their career choice, and 72 percent of students taking child welfare jobs were hired by the agencies where they did their field placements, Zlotnik's research showed.

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