The Child Welfare Specialist team supports the Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in administering the Child and Family Services Reviews and other state child welfare program monitoring activities. The team's responsibilities include:

• Conducting State Reviews. Child Welfare Specialists support the Children's Bureau with all review preparatory activities, including planning calls and related communications with the state; examination and evaluation of the capacity of the state’s case review system; review and comment on the statewide assessment; review and evaluation of the sources of data and information for evaluation of systemic factors; evaluation and selection of data and review sites; development and stratification of case samples and review of states’ sampling plans; and resolution of state-specific issues. If required, the Child Welfare Specialist provides review and comment for review team and Site Leader selection. Child Welfare Specialists participate as Site Leaders, review the state’s quality assurance processes, conduct quality assurance of the case review instruments on and off site, and support the Children’s Bureau’s Child and Family Services Reviews Unit State Leader through all phases of the process, including post-review activities.
• Negotiating and monitoring state Program Improvement Plans. After reviews, Child Welfare Specialists participate with the CFSR Unit and the federal Regional Office in the support provided to states as they develop their Program Improvement Plans and integrate those efforts with the Child and Family Services Plan and Annual Progress and Services Report. This includes any negotiation of benchmarks and activities, quarterly monitoring of state implementation progress and completion, and ongoing improvement of the Child and Family Services Reviews Unit's Program Improvement Plan process and management.
• Interpreting and articulating state and national data and measurement of Program Improvement Plan progress. Child Welfare Specialists assist with analysis of review data findings, production and management of Final Reports, monitoring of Program Improvement Plan completion, analysis of Program Improvement Plan data, identification of additional technical resources for states, development of technical and policy transmittal bulletins for the Children’s Bureau, and identification of cross-cutting Program Improvement Plan strategies to share with states.

Additional Information

For more information on the reviews, visit the Child Welfare Monitoring section of the Children's Bureau website at /programs/cb/monitoring/child-family-services-... or e-mail the Child Welfare Reviews Project, JBS International, Inc., at cw@jbsinternational.com.