ASFA TRAINING PROJECT PHONE POLL OF CHILD WELFARE AGENCIES

Colorado

1. How would you rate your agency's staff in terms of their understanding of ASFA requirements? We are particularly interested in the level of understanding of managers, supervisors and workers. Please rate their understanding on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being 'poor' and 5 being 'comprehensive'.

NOTE: CO is a State supervised, county administered state

a. Managers:

b. Supervisors:

c. Workers:

Comments: From a practice perspective, the workers understand and are implementing the ASFA principles. They may not, however, know that the practice is a requirement of ASFA and related regulations.

2. Based on your agency's experience to date, what skills do you think managers, supervisors and workers need to have to implement ASFA?

a. Managers?

• The ability to help workers make needed philosophical and practice shifts, for example, moving from the seemingly more lenient family preservation practice to family strengths based practice.
• Strong collaboration skills across systems to community partners such as mental health and the courts.
• Ability to assist families, attorneys, etc. to understand timeframes
  

b. Supervisors?

• The ability to help workers make needed philosophical and practice shifts, for example, moving from the seemingly more lenient family preservation practice to family strengths based practice.
• Strong collaboration skills across systems to community partners such as mental health and the courts.
• The ability to track and ensure that staff are on top of and prepared for court appearances.
  

c. Workers?

• Ability to make the needed practice shifts, including concurrent planning, expedited permanency planning and family group decision making
• An understanding of the need for and an ability to broaden decision making to include others and to work collaboratively with staff from other agencies on developing and implementing treatment plans
• Diligent and concentrated organizational skills around meeting timelines, including hearing dates.

3. As part of your ASFA implementation has your agency undertaken any activities in the following areas:

• Agency structure? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  While there has been no statewide expectation in this area, counties have looked at how cases go through the system, focussed on what services families need and reorganized to meet those needs. An example of this is the recent creation of kin care positions. Resources have been reallocated to support practices needed for shorter timeframes.
  
• Internal communication? No Yes
  If yes, please describe
  There is increased communication at the county level between the child welfare and community agency staff.
• Performance appraisals? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
• Job descriptions? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  As the counties have reorganized and shifted personnel around, they have modified and created new job descriptions to match those shifts.
  
• Staff recruitment? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  There is a stronger use of family advocates and thus an increase in contracts with Family Centers and Preserving Safe and Stable Families programs for that service.

4. How do you handle staff training on ASFA?

a. Please describe the training.

CO implemented two large training efforts on ASFA. In response to the initial law, state staff went to each region or group of counties to do cross system training on ASFA requirements. We included child welfare, judicial and county attorney staff in the initial round of training. When the final rule passed, we did a teleconference series on that set of requirements.

Two groups, comprised of county and state personnel, meet quarterly to exchange information and share their knowledge with each other on practice topics. The first group focuses on family group decision making; the second focuses on expedited permanency planning.

Several of the counties have training divisions that may supplement the statewide training on ASFA.

b. Who does the training?

The state contracts with individuals and institutions of higher education for the training.

c. Is the training just on ASFA or is it incorporated into other training that you provide?

The core new worker training includes both aspects of ASFA---the practice and compliance requirements.

d. Have you done any training with or for the courts? No Yes
If yes, please describe.
We work very closely with the courts. For example, we worked with the courts to update the Benchbook, we jointly developed and co-taught some of the initial ASFA training sessions and the state juvenile judicial conference includes ASFA throughout the tracks.

5. How well does your information system support the work of managers, supervisors and workers in implementing ASFA? Please rate the support provided by your system on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being 'poor' and 5 being 'outstanding'

a. Why did you give your system that rating?

The system was not designed to support ASFA.

b. If a rating of 1 or 2 is given, probe as to the status of the SACWIS system.

Our SACWIS is currently being piloted in 2 counties. We plan to begin full roll-out in January 2001 and conclude it by June 2001.

6. What has worked best for you in terms of supporting staff as they implement the ASFA requirements?

We have done a lot of work to assure that our state statutes mirror the federal requirements, that our rules match and that we monitor our compliance. Additionally, we have tried to provide a balance between the laws and rules and practice to assure realistic case planning for families and compliance with requirements.

Our state and county managers support staff as we work toward an increased sharing of decision making with community partners.

We have provided several tools and resources for the staff, including a concurrent planning guide, a video for workers to use when discussing permanency with families and a clear redefinition of permanency goals. We also have provided funding for the counties to work with the courts around mediation issues and with other community partners on shared family care for parents with substance abuse issues.

7. What do you view as barriers to your agency's support for staff as they implement the requirements of ASFA?

We have no subsidized guardianships and our post adoption services are limited. We need to provide additional support for staff and families to help them better understand how to make reunification work.

8. (For County based systems only.) To what extent does the fact that your state is county-based impact your ASFA implementation?

Counties ASFA implementations may not look the same but they may be more responsive to local needs than a statewide approach could be.

9. Is there anything else that you want to tell us regarding the best way to support staff as they implement the requirements of ASFA?

As we continue to expand our cross system, joint decision making, we will increase our reliance on the use of teams in the casework process. Teaming, especially cross agency teaming, is a new approach for some of the staff and we need to provide a clear framework and philosophical base for team decision making.

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