Foster Care Coordinator Professional Development Plan

Foster Care Coordinator Professional Development Plan

Training Plan for

Required

Structured Analysis Family Evaluation Training (2 days)

The Structured Analysis Family Evaluation (SAFE) home study tool is required for all foster care licensors beginning October 1, 2016. This standardized tool assists foster care coordinators in conducting a thorough screening and assessing of prospective foster families. It will provide an overview of the step-by-step process to evaluate families’ strengths, issues and ability to parent. You will leave this training prepared to use the home study tool.

Completion Date

Licensor Training

Foster Care Coordinator Pre-service Training (Online)

This training is specifically for newly hired foster care coordinators. It provides a high level overview of your duties by explaining the process by which children are placed into out-of-home care; the role of the Foster Care Coordinator within a licensing agency; with families; and the licensing process, including documentation requirements. You should feel prepared to begin your work, with your supervisor’s support, until you can attend the DCF 56: New Licensor training.

This training can be access on the WCWPDS website or in PDS Online. If you take it outside of PDS Online, you are encourage to add it as an external training to your PDS Online transcript.

Completion Date

DCF 56: New Licensors (2 days)

Chapter DCF 56, Administrative Code will be reviewed in-depth, highlighting recent changes or interpretations and review implementation of rules. Participants will review all licensing materials as well as discuss licensing questions and foster care related issues.

Completion Date

Foster Parent Pre-Placement Training (Online)

This training is required for foster parents. Yet you, as the licensor, should become familiar with the content for a few reasons. One, the training instructs participants to write down and discuss questions, thoughts and feelings to their licensors. In addition, you need to verify that they have completed the training by completing the Licensor Guide.

Completion Date

Recommended Trainings

EngagingtoBuildTrustingRelationships(2days)

SupportingChangeThroughEngagement*(2days)

Building a professional relationship with prospective and licensed foster parents is an essential part of your role as the Foster Care Coordinator. These two training will provide an opportunity to build your skills to engage families to build trust and learn techniques to have difficult conversations to create movement towards change.

*You must complete the Engaging to Build Trusting Relationships training prior to attending Supporting Change Through Engagement

Caseworker Pre-Service: Permanence Module (Online)

In order to provide placement support and consultation, you must have a working knowledge of the importance of permanency for children in the child welfare system. The Permanence Pre-Service module will introduce you to what the child welfare system has learned about a child's need for a permanent home and the consequences when that home is not a reality. This training will introduce and discuss permanency planningconsiderations important for planning family re-unification, adoption or foster care and strategies for concurrent planning.

Completion Date

Placement(2days)

This training introduces learners to the experience of placing a child and the factors that must be taken into account when making a placement. Learners come to understand the importance of maintaining connections and minimizing the occurrence of disruptions in placement, and review techniques to prepare children, parents and caregivers for placement.

Completion Date

CasePracticewithAmericanIndianTribes(2days)

This training presents the reason and legislative intent of the Indian Child Welfare Act, as well as the process for workers to follow in complying with ICWA in Wisconsin. Participants will learn to facilitate the implementation of ICWA. They will learn to identify and access resources needed to implement the law. Participants will learn about Indian cultures and how to work effectively with American Indian families. They will learn to work collaboratively with tribal partners and offer culturally specific services to American Indian families.

Completion Date

TraumaInformedPractice(2days)

A significant majority of children and adults who become involved in our child welfare systems have been affected by trauma. Trauma can have a lasting impact on the well-being and functioning of children, adults and their families. For you, the ability to understand the effects of trauma on children, adults and families and to identify and address the specific trauma related needs is critical to effective screening potential foster parents and supporting them as they care for children affected by trauma.

Completion Date

IntheBestInterestoftheChild:MakingtheMostofFamilyInteraction(2days)

Family Interaction between children in out-of-home care and their parents is essential to achieving permanence and improve outcomes for families. Yet, it can be an emotionally raw and vulnerable experience for children, parents and foster parents. This training will help coach and support foster parents so that they can successfully manage family interaction.

Completion Date

Confirming Safe Environments (CSE) (Online)

Partofthechildwelfareresponsibilityassumedwhenplacingachildinout-of-homecareistoassurethattheplacementissafeforthischildatthispointintime.ChildProtectiveServices,ChildWelfare,andJuvenileJusticeworkersarerequiredtocompleteConfirmingSafeEnvironments(CSE)trainingtoaddressthatresponsibility.

As the Foster Care Coordinator, you may or may not be responsible for this function. You should consult with your supervisor. However, it is recommend to complete this training to gain an understanding of the tool because foster parents will be subject assessment.

Theweb basedConfirmingSafeEnvironmentstrainingcontentcanbeaccessedthroughPre-ServicetrainingandPDSOnline.

Completion Date

Child Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) (Online)

The Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool is an assessment strategy that is designed to be used for decision support and outcomes management. Its primarypurpose is to allow a system to remain focused on the shared vision of serving children and families, by representing children at all levels of the system.

All children in out-of-home care will have a CANS assessment completed. This assessment tool reviews overall functioning, wellbeing, needs and strengths of the child and current caregiver. Children will be matched with caregivers based on their level of need and the foster parent level of care. As a part of the team, foster parent may be approached to provide information to complete the CANS assessment. The CANS assessment is also used to determine the foster care supplemental points.

Completion Date

1