Resource Library

This brief describes two Children’s Bureau programs through which young adults provide technical assistance to states about child welfare issues: the Young Adult Consultant program and the National Youth in Transition Database Reviewers program.

This Information Memoranda (IM) provides information on best practices, resources, and recommendations for using foster care as a support for families in a way that mitigates the trauma of removal for the child and parents, expedites safe and successful reunification, and improves parent and child well-being outcomes. This Information Memorandum (IM) emphasizes the importance of state and tribal child welfare communities building and supporting relationships between resource families and parents to facilitate improved engagement of parents, promote timely reunification, build protective capacities in parents, and strengthen overall child and family well-being, while ensuring child safety.

This letter from the Children’s Bureau to state and tribal child welfare leaders describes existing flexibilities in the title IV-E program that may help agencies better serve children, youth, and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This letter from the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services urges state Governors to classify child welfare workers and service providers as level 1 emergency responders to allow them greater access to personal protective equipment.

This letter from the Children’s Bureau suggests that child welfare leaders seek to have child welfare workers and service providers classified as level 1 emergency responders, which would allow them to have greater access to personal protective equipment.

This letter from the Children’s Bureau to child welfare leaders addresses the availability of federal funding to assist with the purchase of cell phones and plans as well as personal protective equipment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This guide from the Capacity Building Center for Courts describes best practices and other recommendations for remote or virtual court hearings in child welfare cases. 

This letter from the Children’s Bureau encourages state court administrators and chief justices to engage their Court Improvement Programs to assist dependency courts in their response to COVID-19, particularly in acquiring and supporting telework and video-conferencing equipment and software to continue case oversight.

This letter from the Children’s Bureau advises child welfare leaders of the flexibility of certain requirements regarding fingerprint-based criminal records checks and caseworker visits to a child’s home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this Program Instruction (PI) is to provide guidance to title IV-E agencies that on September 30, 2019 were operating a title IV-E child welfare waiver demonstration project under the authority of section 1130 of the Act on the actions required to be considered for a Funding Certainty Grant.