Social Work Commons^™

Professional Discretion Of Child Protective Services Investigators In Foster Care Placements, Leonard Fikes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Families of color in North Carolina have been disproportionately affected in the child welfare system, particularly in the foster care system. The purpose of this qualitative research study examined the discretionary powers of Child Protective Services (CPS) investigators and how they interpreted and applied child welfare policies that disproportionally impacted African American families from marginalized, underrepresented communities. Guided by Wallander and Molander’s professional discretion as the framework, this research expanded the current literature and increased awareness of racial disproportionality and the continued disproportionality of African American children in the child welfare system, especially foster care placements. The central research question …

Bridging The Gap Between Foster Youth And Higher Education: Perspectives Of Social Workers, Marielena Lozano

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research examined the perceptions of child welfare social workers in their role of supporting foster youth. Specifically, this study will focus on factors contributing to support for foster youth to obtain post-secondary education or vocational training.

This study utilized a qualitative research design. Data were collected from individual, semi-structured interviews with six volunteer participants in Southern and Northern California using a snowball sampling method. Throughout the interviews, the researcher asked current or former child welfare social workers to describe their perceptions and experiences in supporting foster youth in obtaining higher education.

The study found several themes related to the …

Family Separation And Child Welfare: An Examination Of U.S. Immigration Policies Affecting Unaccompanied Alien Children, Mallory K. Adams

Selected Honors Theses

Immigration policy in the U.S. is a confusing and inadequate system, the shortcomings of which directly impact the lives of millions of individuals, children, families, and communities. Its primary inadequacies include an overall lack of clearly defined policies and procedures, confusion among immigration authorities and child welfare practitioners regarding proper procedures, and non-compliance with procedural standards by immigration authorities. Those shortcomings have largely resulted in many immigrant families being separated from each other, immigrant children experiencing trauma, and a widespread disregard for unauthorized immigrants’ both constitutional and human rights. The literature reviewed describes relevant immigration policies and their issues. The …

Social Workers' Perception On The Needs And Services For Foster Children With Special Needs, Jessica Joanna Jimenez, Winnie Wing Yang Lee

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Foster children are already at a disadvantage given that they tend to live in a home without their parents. Social workers have direct interactions working with children with special needs, and through interviews with the workers, we aimed to understand whether or not the services available are able to meet foster children’s special needs. The research on special needs children in foster care is quite limited. The purpose of the study was to identify social workers’ perceptions of the needs of special needs foster children and their access to services.

This study used qualitative interviews with open-ended questions to gather …

Working Together To Achieve Safe And Timely Reunification: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Interprofessional Collaboration In The Child Welfare System, Jon D. Phillips

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Various professionals play a role in ensuring that foster children achieve safe and timely reunification, including child protective services caseworkers, guardians ad litem, mental health therapists and substance abuse counselors. Guided by ecological systems and relational coordination theories, this mixed methods dissertation explored how communication and joint decision-making between these professionals - two key components of interprofessional collaboration (IPC) - affects the safe and timely reunification of foster children

The quantitative phase involved analysis of administrative data collected from one urban county in a mountain region state. Logistic regressions were run to test if caseworker communication and joint decision-making with …

Effectiveness Of Practice Change From Risk Model To Safety Model At Dhs, Shirlana Norene Dash

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported an estimated 686,000 victims of child abuse and neglect. Forty-nine states reported a total of 1,593 fatalities. This quantitative research study examined the relationship between the variables: age of child, gender of child, age of parent/caregiver, prior substantiated reports of abuse, and incidents of abuse in Philadelphia at the Department of Human Services using risk practice model (RPM) and safety practice model (SPM). Although child welfare practitioners have examined the relationship between family and societal factors that affect child abuse; few researchers have examined the correlation between service delivery …

Reflections On The Implementation Of Improved Outcomes For Children And Its Impact On The Capacity Of Child Welfare Workers To Deliver Services, Rita Sanchez-Torres

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The emergence of the New Public Management with its emphasis on performance measurements and managerial strategies such as accountability, efficiency, and cost effectiveness have encouraged nonprofit child welfare agencies in New York City to pursue the practice of the private sector. In the current environment, service delivery has become more entrepreneurial, strategic and outcome minded on the assumption that the market-oriented approach is more effective (Watson-Bishop, 2007). This study examines the relationship between policy and service delivery. Specifically, it investigates the impact of the initiative known as Improved Outcomes for Children on child welfare supervisors in a managerial environment.

The …

Information And Communication Technologies In Public Child Welfare: A Systematic Literature Review, Stephanie K. Schneider

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This systematic literature review synthesizes findings from empirical studies published between 1989 and 2016 to examine types, use, purpose and implementation of information and communication technology in public child welfare to determine if there are thematic reoccurrences in these arenas. Study results yielded information to the field of social work and public child welfare by determining themes in successful usage, purpose and implementation of information and communication technology in public child welfare to better serve those vulnerable populations. This systematic literature review contextualizes and identifies these themes across the literature. Studies included in this review were analyzed and categorized to …

Child Support Collections To Offset Out Of Home Placement Costs: A Study Of Cost Effectiveness, Trish Skophammer

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Families experiencing out-of-home placement (OHP) are in crisis. The fact that a child has been removed from the home means the family has become involved with the child welfare or juvenile justice system. Families that experience OHP are disproportionately poor, and the reasons for OHP often stem from poverty. Because OHP is expensive, and society values parental responsibility, federal and state laws require that parents be referred to the child support system to help offset the cost of OHP through child support collections. This study explores practices around OHP cases in the child support system and adds to the small …