A First-Hand Account of Title IV-E Child Welfare Initiatives in Social Work Education and Practice

Abstract

This article describes the personal experiences and insights of a child welfare practitioner and professor derived from 20 years of involvement in IV-E agency/university partnerships. The author describes perspectives from her work in IV-E programs in multiple contexts (federal, state, and local). Included are descriptions of important historical events and changes in IV-E programs that have served to facilitate or impede successful child welfare practices and the education of IV-E students. Emphasis is given to the importance of: (a) communicating the complexity of work in child welfare particularly by IV-E students; (b) the challenge of sustaining effective IV-E partnership programs; (c) designing and implementing sound IV-E program evaluation procedures; and (c) understanding the political and policy-driven contexts framing current CW practices.

Child Welfare and Social Work Education

“…While maltreatment reports were exploding in numbers, concurrent slashes to state and local budgets created a situation where the needs of child welfare outpaced the service system's capacity to respond (Ausbrooks et al, 2014;Thomas, 2012;Zlotnik, 2003). In an effort to manage increased caseloads, many public child welfare agencies reduced their hiring requirements, eliminating educational prerequisites for workers (Ellett, 2014). Doing so allowed agencies to quickly fill needed positions and resulted in a subsequent "deprofessionalization" of child welfare (Ausbrooks et al, 2014;Benton & Iglesias, 2018;Falk, 2020).…”

“…With Title IV-E funding, the federal government provides a 75 percent match to states for short-and long-term training, including the attainment of educational degrees (Ellett, 2014;Social Work Policy Institute, 2012;Thomas, 2012). Though implemented in 1980, IV-E training funds only became widely used among social work educational programs starting in 1990 (Strand & Popescu, 2018;Thomas, 2012).…”

“…Furthermore, little research has been able to specifically examine the relationship between participation in Title IV-E child welfare agency-university training programs and actual outcomes for children and families who are involved in the child welfare system (Barbee et al, 2012;Ellett, 2014;Falk, 2020;Hartinger-Saunders & Lyons, 2013;Scannapieco et al, 2012). Comprehensive studies linking IV-E training to child and family outcomes are difficult to undertake for a variety of reasons, including: inconsistent program implementation across states and universities, IV-E organizational complexity, high worker turnover, and challenges defining and assessing client outcomes (Ellett, 2014;Falk, 2020;Social Work Policy Institute, 2012).…”

“…Furthermore, little research has been able to specifically examine the relationship between participation in Title IV-E child welfare agency-university training programs and actual outcomes for children and families who are involved in the child welfare system (Barbee et al, 2012;Ellett, 2014;Falk, 2020;Hartinger-Saunders & Lyons, 2013;Scannapieco et al, 2012). Comprehensive studies linking IV-E training to child and family outcomes are difficult to undertake for a variety of reasons, including: inconsistent program implementation across states and universities, IV-E organizational complexity, high worker turnover, and challenges defining and assessing client outcomes (Ellett, 2014;Falk, 2020;Social Work Policy Institute, 2012). Although a small number of studies have found a link between child welfare workers with MSW degrees and positive outcomes for children involved in the child welfare system, (see: Albers et al, 1993;Littell & Tajima, 2000;Ryan et al, 2006), studies that specifically look at the relationship between worker participation in Title IV-E training programs and child and family outcomes are exceedingly rare.…”