Alliance Course Catalog

This session will provide a basic review of the Safety Framework and an overview of the Specialized Domestic Violence Assessment, focusing on the most salient issues in screening and assessment for child welfare workers.  Participants will then consider a case example of a family experiencing domestic violence (a live case or the case scenario provided in the attachment) and apply the safety framework to determine whether the children in question are safe or unsafe.  Important issues regarding best practices for visitation and other important decisions will be touched on but are not covered in depth in this brief session.

As a result of participating in this workshop participants will:

1. Know the child safety threats most likely to be present when domestic violence endangers child safety.
2. Know CA policy regarding screening for DV and managing cases where DV is identified, including what information workers must attempt to collect to properly assess child safety in families impacted by DV.

Improve skills at assessing child safety in cases where domestic violence is occurring.

This two-day in-service training will prepare new CFWS caseworkers and experienced CFWS caseworkers who wish to improve their practice to engage parents and families from the point of transfer or case assignment. Participants will learn how to make the most of the first meeting and monthly visits with the parent in building a working relationship geared toward safe reunification and timely permanency. Participants will explore engaging children and caregivers during monthly visits, best interest considerations and permanency planning. Participants will be provided tools to improve the quality of court reports in addressing policy requirements and good practice.

****All participants are required to bring their tablets to the training. ****

This three day in-service will describe the two different CPS pathways, Family Assessment Response (FAR) and Investigations. This training includes learning modules on: Interviewing members of a household to assess safety, including children, parents and Subjects; Collateral information gathering; Protocols when working with Law Enforcement (LE); Working with Child Protection Medical Consultant Network (MEDCON) and local medical providers; Utilizing the Child Safety Framework; completing the Investigative Assessment (IA) & the Family Assessment Response Family Assessment (FARFA); Following Indian Child Welfare Act policies (ICWA); and other policy & legal requirements.  Also covered in this in service training will be requirements for reasonable efforts to prevent placement, addressing Domestic Violence, CSEC, Infant Child Safety; and more.  Participants will be asked to review several examples of CPS intakes and the information in the course will be presented through using these case examples.  On the last day, there will be a panel made up of Children’s Administration Investigative and FAR staff and a Parent Ally. This course is required for all first year CPS Case Workers as well as caseworkers and supervisors transferring to a CPS position who have not attended the CPS track within the past two years.

Coaching sessions are utilized to enhance a learner’s specific skill attainment in an identified area of practice.  Coaching sessions are provided to Children’s Administration workforce to help workers attain specific skills pertinent to their daily work/practice in child welfare.  Identified goals are created and progress towards those goals is measured by both the learner and the coach after each session. 

Assessments (Functionality and Content) field based coaching topics include:

Content and FamLink functionality in completing the Investigative Assessment (IA), Family Assessment Response Family Assessment (FARFA) and Comprehensive Family Evaluation (CFE); understanding the use of the gathering questions to assess for child safety; identifying and utilizing protective factors and protective capacities for safety and case planning; understanding timeframes for each assessment in the different program areas; service referrals and the use of EBP’s.

Coaching sessions are utilized to enhance a learner’s specific skill attainment in an identified area of practice.  Coaching sessions are provided to Children’s Administration workforce to help workers attain specific skills pertinent to their daily work/practice in child welfare.  Identified goals are created and progress towards those goals is measured by both the learner and the coach after each session.

Assessing for Child Safety throughout the Life of the Case field based coaching topics include:

Assessing for present danger/impending danger; applying the Child Safety Framework; understanding the 17 safety threats and how to plan for present danger with protective action plans and safety plans in cases with identified impending danger; how to make appropriate collateral contacts; interviewing of children, parents/caregivers and all adults in the home; using medical consultation (Med-Cons); scheduling and preparing for appropriate case staffings; using Structured Decision Making (SDM) to help assess risk in cases and reassessing child safety throughout the life of the case.  

Coaching sessions are utilized to enhance a learner’s specific skill attainment in an identified area of practice.  Coaching sessions are provided to Children’s Administration workforce to help workers attain specific skills pertinent to their daily work/practice in child welfare.  Identified goals are created and progress towards those goals is measured by both the learner and the coach after each session. 

Permanency (Timeline/Case Planning /Case Management) field based coaching topics include:

Permanency timelines; permanency from day one; engaging with families to co-create case plans; setting safety objectives; measuring progress versus compliance in cases; transition planning for children; knowing when to file for Termination of Parental Rights (TPR); understanding the court process and when to change permanency plans; understanding the adoption process; understanding parent/child visitation plans (supervised, monitored, etc.); understanding reasonable efforts versus active efforts for ICWA cases.

This course provides information on the service contract process and the role of Social Workers, Fiduciaries, Program Managers, and Contract Managers. Participants will learn how to identify what types of services do and do not require contracts, how to determine if a contract is already in place, how to access contracted providers appropriately, how CA Contract Managers develop contracts and the Social Worker’s role in the process, as well as the process for paying for contracted services through FamLink.

This training is open to all DCYF workforce and provides certification in First Aid/CPR and Blood borne pathogens/HIV. Training made available for English and Spanish speaking participants.

This training is provided by certified trainers to provide CPR, First Aid, and Blood-borne pathogens/HIV training.

During this course, supervisors will learn and practice a feedback approach that is respectful, supports reflective practice, and supports staff in growing their clinical skills. The approach is based on Debriefing with Good Judgment, which is rooted in and supported by the science of adult learning and of organizational psychology. We will review the idea of psychological safety and its impact on how staff learn and grow. Supervisors will learn about “frames,” how they drive our thoughts and actions, as well as how they are critical places for intervention when we don’t understand why a staff (or client) is approaching a problem the way they are. Supervisors will then learn the building blocks of this feedback approach, and also anticipate some possible challenges they might face in the learning conversations they have with staff. This course is designed to provide several opportunities to learn, practice the skill with real staff, and get feedback. It includes an eLearning, two half-day classroom sessions, and a live online session. All components must be completed in order to receive credit for the course.

Important Note: You will need to complete the eLearning BEFORE your first classroom session. To access the eLearning, click the icon below.

During this six hour training, the dynamics of domestic violence will be discussed including the psychological and neurological impact of abusive/neglectful environments on children and family unit, advocacy and coordinated response, myths about causation, co-occurrence substance use, cultural stereotypes, accurate assessment and effective interventions.  Particular attention is paid to assessing the difference between anger management problems and domestic violence, and effective management of perpetrators and victims of domestic violence.

Instructor Contact Information
Rose M. Roberson MS, LMHC
(509) 249-0120
Choice_Counseling@msn.com

Ms. Roberson is a licensed mental health counselor who has been in private practice for the past 20 years in the Yakima area.  Her work has been weighted in providing counseling services to domestic violence perpetrators and their victims, and those suffering from single incident as well as complex trauma.  She entered to field of mental health counseling in 1995 after having served as a Sheriff’s Deputy for the Yakima County sheriff’s department for a period of approximately 10 years.  During her tenure with the sheriff’s department she spent several years investigating crimes against children, adult sex crimes and homicides.  She also served on the lower valley child protection team providing consultation from the law enforcement perspective.  She is a current member of the Washington state’s domestic violence treatment provider’s oversight committee which oversees the provision of domestic violence perpetrator treatment programs.  She has been a speaker for Heritage College, Eastern Washington University’s school of social work, Central Washington University’s criminal justice program, the University of Washington’s Alliance for Child Welfare Excellence, the Yakima YWCA, the Red Cross, local law enforcement and fire service’s agencies related to trauma, post trauma recovery, and domestic violence.  Ms. Roberson also serves as a crisis intervention specialist for two national and international crisis response teams. 

Participants in this two-day training will increase their knowledge and understanding of early childhood development, neuroscience associated with brain development in early childhood, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), attachment & relationships, and the effects of trauma and maltreatment on development. In addition, participants will gain skills to directly impact the development of this vulnerable population through case management activities and identifying resources and interventions available in communities across Washington State. The following six modules serve as the foundation of instruction, with a final focus on how to best support the development of young children in public child welfare, and locally accessible resources to support early childhood development in your community.

Module 1: Why Early Childhood Matters
Module 2: Understanding the Science of Brain Development
Module 3: Understanding the Science of Attachment
Module 4: Understanding the impact of maltreatment, stress, and separation on development.
Module 5: Helping Children Thrive
Module 6: Informing Child Welfare

If you have young children on your caseload, or you are caring for young children in your home, you will find the information in this training invaluable in supporting your work with children aged birth-five.

Washington States Extended Foster Care Program allows dependent youth in placement at age 18 to continue to receive services including placement resources until age 21, in order to complete their education and ease the transition to adulthood. In this eLearning, case carrying Supervisors and Social Service Specialists will become familiar with the evolution of this program as well as its current Policy and Practice and learn how to document various EFC Services in FamLink.

This 3-hour Faculty Led workshop focuses on the increased use of opioids and the impact to child welfare in Washington State.  When you are wondering how to tell if someone is using drugs, physical signs can be your first indicator. This course will review some of the most common symptoms, physically, that someone could be on drugs or abusing drugs.

While there certainly tend to be some physical symptoms present when someone is on drugs, it is also important to look for signs of substance abuse that are behavioral and psychological.

As someone’s drug addiction continues, it often becomes more severe, and their behavior will be almost entirely focused on obtaining their next dose of drugs, and maintaining their high. We will explore how to engage with parents using drugs.

While it can be troublesome to see the signs of drug abuse, it is also important to realize you should not jump to conclusions. Instead, you should try to learn more about signs of abuse, and then explore professional care options.

This two-day in-service training will prepare new Family Voluntary Services (FVS) caseworkers and experienced FVS caseworkers who wish to improve their practice to engage parents and families from the point of transfer or case assignment. Participants will learn how to make the most of the first meeting and monthly visits with the parent in building a working relationship geared to reducing or mitigating safety threats and risk. Participants will be provided opportunity to improve the quality of case plans by linking services to behavior changes. Participants will learn policy expectations and good practice strategies for family engagement.

*****Participants are required to bring their tablets to the training.

This 7-hour course will provide participants with an overall understanding of the concept of Harm Reduction, substance use and how it affects the safety of children in the family, including inter-generational use. It covers how to utilize harm reduction plans and how to measure progress sufficiently to have mitigated the safety threats to the children with families who have children of all ages (0-18 years). The training provides an in-depth look at how workers can best support families and clients in recovery. Additionally, it will share how to connect families to appropriate resources.

Participants will be engaged to consider their own thoughts, beliefs, and biases about mental illness; understand basic definitions associated with parental mental illness and child safety; and identify family assessment strategies that can focus on the intersection between parental mental illness and child safety. Additionally, ideas and tools for drafting effective case plans and objectives to achieve child safety with parental mental illness is a factor will also be discussed. Finally, participants will receive resources for services and interventions that promote the reduction of risk associated with parental mental illness and enhance protective factors for family well-being.

This course focuses on the requirements of the Interstate Compact and Placement of Children (ICPC), including both sending children in foster care to other States, and receiving children in foster care from other States, as well as ICPC with ICWA cases. Participants learn about the ICPC process for requesting placement of children and receiving children in foster care from other States.  Information on case management activities related to permanency and the legal closure of ICPC cases are provided.  Participants also learn about the home study process, completing quarterly reports, and closing an in-state case.  ICPC is a very technical process and details about common violations, parent visits, and the support and guidance from the headquarters ICPC team are provided.

Supervisors, Program Managers, and Quality Practice Specialists need to achieve competency in understanding the child welfare practice as well as in the higher levels of systems management. This course provides Supervisors and Program Managers with an introduction of baseline competencies for middle managers in public child welfare, and opportunities to develop and practice new skills regarding these competencies. Managing self, managing others, managing systems and managing outward are the four main themes integrated throughout this course.

Day 1: Foundations for Managers in Child Welfare
Day 2: Effective Relationships as a Manager
Day 3: Strategies for Effective Organizational Communication
Day 4: Growing and Sustaining Effective Internal and External Teams
Day 5: Essentials for Resource Management
Day 6: Strategic Thinking and Planning Tools for the Manager

Peter Dahlin, MS, is an experienced child welfare worker, supervisor, administrator and educator in the public sector for nearly 30 years. He has provided curriculum development, training, and evaluation services to child welfare, foster care, and family service agencies throughout the country and in Quebec. He has trained extensively throughout Washington and California. His specialty areas include trainer, supervisor, manager and executive development, and he has developed and delivered numerous training programs in these areas. He has created advanced trainings for supervisors and managers, including a required three-year program for Los Angeles County. He teaches the core manager (AA) course in the State of Washington, and developed and delivered part of the Core Supervisor Series in the State of Florida. His curriculum development work and training delivery, including that of “train the trainer” has also included clients such as National CASA and Casey Family Programs. As the former director of the Bay Area Academy, he oversaw an 18-month recruitment & retention study reviewing practices in thirteen counties with an emphasis on succession planning, and he has consulted with San Diego State’s Southern Academy on developing and delivering part of its Executive Development Program. He also provides executive coaching to managers and deputies in San Diego Child Welfare Services.

Comments from previous participants in this training:

"What we do is so difficult we rely on each other. And part of that is building a strong team that all come from the same mission and vision. Some of my folks had been here for a long time and they were on the verge of burnout and I had to think differently about how to look at that. Like what still motivates you to come in? why do you do it? What keeps you coming? That tool [from the AA training] I’ve used, asking them what are their passions and how can I help them get there."

"The team work portion [was the most valuable part of the training]. I had them all do the short version of the disk assessment and it brought up different communication styles and what we can expect in their management group. The most meaningful part of this training is because of the team and the connection they have. It’s the driver of retention in my opinion and I want to work on building teams to retain people."

"There are some trainings where they tell us to go back to our staff and our staff come back and say ‘no we’re not going to do that.’ But we go back and this is real, what he gives us [in this training] we can use."

"The value for me is the value for staff, the budget the grant information shouldn’t be hidden if you disperse that in a good way it will encourage creativity."

"I found it helpful to learn about the relationship with money and funding. The detail was really helpful, because I had a general idea. We always talked about half of our salary was IV-E but that’s not really true, it’s a more nuanced conversation."

"I really enjoyed the activity around staffing the formula around how much staff we should have. I want to go back and look at what the formula looks like for us, I appreciated the discussion around what types of different data we can use and the value of it."

Tribal Member who participated in this training:

"[Learning about the value of] external stakeholders was valuable. We’ve done work in the tribe around [our] vision and mission. But in terms of values, strategic plans in terms of bringing in other stakeholders was valuable information to remember to bring those folks into the discussion."

Participants in this e-learning will learn about the role of mandatory reporters in identifying possible child abuse and neglect, and in reporting these concerns. The training reviews possible indicators of child abuse and neglect, and common situations that cause mandatory reporters to call in a report. Participants will consider the impact of biases on reporting possible child abuse and neglect, and learn about the problem of racial disproportionality in our state’s child welfare system. The federal requirement that Indian heritage and affiliation with Federally recognized tribes must be identified is also explained. Lastly, the training reviews how to contact Children’s Administration to make a report, what information to have available, and what happens once a report has been made are also addressed.

Training provides an overview of successful case planning for children in foster care.  Course topics include referring to the mental health services,  use of screening tools, characteristics and behavior indicators of developmental and mental health concerns, use psychotropic medications with children in foster care, case management techniques with mental health service providers, understanding  the elements and criteria of Evidence-Based and Promising Practices, and matching available EBP’s with specific client needs.  This course will also describe key signs, symptoms and impacts of trauma, disrupted attachment, and childhood adversity and ways to incorporate trauma informed care into their day-to-day work.

This eLearning will teach the participant the steps for identifying Indian Children, address practical steps to input information into FamLink, give CA staff tips on completing Ancestry Charts and submitting referrals to the Native American Inquiry Request (NAIR) unit to fulfill the requirements of the Federal ICWA, as well as reviewing State Law and CA policies.

The NCAST Parent-Child Interaction (PCI) Teaching Scales are designed for parents/caregivers and children age birth-3 years (36 months). The PCI Teaching Scales are an assessment tool which provides valid and reliable measurements of parent-child interactions. When used in child-welfare, these scales can provide recommendations for services to strengthen parent-child interactions, and serve as reliable pre-/post- measures of progress made through service engagement.

Once individuals become certified to use the PCI Teaching Scales, they must prove reliable through annual re-certification. This one-day course provides participants with the opportunity to achieve annual reliability in the use of this tool. Re-certification will allow individuals to maintain certification in the use of the PCI Teaching Scales.

Current Certification as an NCAST Assessor

Participants learn the importance of parent-child visitation and its association with improved child adjustment and permanency outcomes for children in foster care.  They also learn how to incorporate the following elements of parent-child visitation into case planning and case management activities:  

• Identify appropriate levels of supervision based on the safety threats and progress made by parents
• Identify appropriate people to assist with the visits
• Identify the best location for parent-child visits
• Report information about the visit to the Court

This course will provide participants with an overview of permanency planning for children in out of home care. This course will focus on the differences and similarities of adoption, guardianship and non-parental custody as concurrent plans. Participants will explore personal bias, how it influences their professional decision-making, and how to counter bias in making permanency decisions that reflect the best interest of children. All permanency options are explored and a case scenario will help participants understand the multiple factors to consider in determining the child’s best interest and best alternate plan.

***Supervisors: This eLearning may be completed individually or as a group during a unit meeting. If the eLearning is completed as a group, be sure to contact an Alliance coach to input completion of the eLearning training in LMS for all participants.

Supervisors may use the Supervisors Guide to Permanency Considerations eLearning (PDF) available here to promote a permanency discussion after caseworkers have taken the eLearning. (this is an optional activity)

This eLearning is a component of Regional Core Training (RCT), it is recommended RCT participants complete this eLearning during their third week of RCT instruction.

This short eLearning will orient participants to the four means by which this legal authority to place a child may be granted: Law enforcement protective custody, hospital holds, court order, and a voluntary placement agreed to by the child’s legal parents. Legal, policy and practice consideration for each, as well as subsequent placement requirements are reviewed. In addition, the legal and policy preference for placing children with safe, suitable relatives is reviewed.

This eLearning can be completed outside RCT as a stand-alone eLearning to provide instruction around authority to place and placement priorities.

This eLearning is a component of Regional Core Training (RCT), it is recommended RCT participants complete this eLearning during their fourth week of RCT instruction. RCT Participants should check with their Alliance Coach prior to independent completion of this eLearning. Some Coaches will facilitate this eLearning during a classroom session in week 4.

The Dependency Petition eLearning is an interactive and independent learning activity integrating brief legal instruction and practical application/skill building regarding Dependency Petitions.

This eLearning can be completed outside RCT as a stand-alone eLearning to provide instruction around Dependency Petitions; users outside RCT should utilize an assigned case to complete their Dependency Petition rather than using the RCT Case Scenario. Upon completion, users outside RCT should have their Supervisor review their Dependency Petition.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the legal requirements for filing a dependency petition
• Learn to organize information for case presentation to AAG and court

How do you know when it is safe to begin transitioning a child home from placement?  In this course the factors that go into making the decision to reunify will be discussed including identifying when safety threats have been contained, measuring progress, and the quality of parents’ visits and the challenge of concurrent planning.  Creating and monitoring service and safety plans will also be discussed.

This updated competency-based training program provides the foundation for effective supervisory practice in the Child Welfare system. This program will prepare new supervisors to become comfortable in assuming their new role, learning what it means to be a supervisor in the child welfare system, and to understanding the new responsibilities of this position. This program is offered on a 3-month period and covers topics such as: Becoming a Supervisor; Workload and Caseload Management; Navigating FamLink for Effective Supervision; Supervising with Data; Elements of Administrative Supervision; Talent Management; Elements of Clinical Supervision; Self Care, Secondary Trauma, Burnout Prevention and Conflict Management; Building and Facilitating Effective Teams; Role of the Supervisor in Critical Incidents and AIRS; Professional Ethics; ICW Government to Government.

Supervisor Core Training (SCT) is for new or current Supervisors only, including those who have a scheduled date for promotion. This is due to confidentiality reasons and feedback from previous SCT attendees.

All classes of SCT must be completed within one year. If participants are unable to complete all days of their scheduled class within 1 year from the first day of the class, they will need to retake the course, as the SCT content is updated periodically.

If you are not currently a supervisor, or do not have an official date for promotion, and are interested in leadership training please check out the course Growing A Leader.  Growing a Leader uses the same great content as SCT and is specifically for people not yet eligible to enroll in SCT. If you later promote to supervisor and enroll in SCT, you can choose retake the days you completed in Growing a Leader or complete only the remaining days.

Comments from Supervisors who participated in SCT:

“I think it’s been really helpful to be able to listen to my team and hear what other supervisor’s ideas were.  For example, how to address a person’s caseload if on medical leave.  Recently, I did it in a way that was completely different than I would have before SCT.  Everybody had some ownership in it and I handled it differently than I would have without the training.”

“I think the burnout and job satisfaction [pieces of the training] stood out to me.  If you know your job well, you are happier with it.  That opened my thoughts more in terms of my team, making sure they know their job. Making sure my team is always learning their jobs and getting to be an expert so that they can come to love their work and get to know their work.”

“[The training] helped me to know about the nuts and bolts of the rules of unions and how to handle personnel issues.  I have different personalities in my unit.  As a new supervisor those particular sessions helped because we were able to brainstorm strategies together…I became a lot more confident about how to work as a team.”

“I went with another supervisor and we shared what we learned during our supervisor meeting [back in my unit].  We talked about what we thought was a good idea and what we were going to do and change our practice we were asking for feedback from our co-workers.  Almost everyone in their office is so new [we have a supervisor that has only been at CA for seven months], so we all talk about what we learned and try to see what are good ways to change the supervision role for what would be the best culture of the office.”

“A lot of shifting happened for me going from a worker to a supervisor.  It was definitely touched on in SCT, but it was really helpful for me in that area to be with everyone else being a new supervisor and talking about experiences, instead of an expert talking to us.”

This training focuses on completing the final four days of the Supervisor Core Training (SCT) for those individuals who have completed the three-day course for Growing A Leader.

SCT is an in service training for new supervisors who are overseeing case carrying caseworkers. SCT is a foundational training designed to prepare newly hired social service specialist supervisors with the basic knowledge, skills, and understanding to enhance and grow their careers in public child welfare for the State of Washington. SCT is a comprehensive training program containing a total of four (4) in person training sessions, which lay the foundation for continuous on-the-job learning and professional development critical to developing competent, confident, and effective child welfare professional supervisors.

Growing A Leader prepared future leaders the basics of supervision; however, the Supervisor Core Training will prepare new case carrying supervisors to become comfortable in assuming their new role, learning what it means to be a supervisor in the child welfare system, and to understanding the new responsibilities of this position. This program is for those newly appointed supervisors who have completed the three (3) days of Growing A Leader and who have to complete the final four (4) days of Supervisor Core Training. This course is offered on a 3-month period and covers topics such as: Navigating FamLink for Effective Supervision; Supervising with Data; Human Resources and Talent Management; Self Care, Secondary Trauma, Burnout Prevention and Conflict Management; Role of the Supervisor in Critical Incidents; Professional Ethics; Indian Child Welfare/Government to Government.

Supervisors and supervising program managers from Department of Children, Youth, and Families will come together to learn how to strengthen their supervisory skills, discuss current practice trends, and hear strategies on how to best support the DCYF workforce. Staff will have time to engage and network with their peers from across the state and participate in break-out sessions that are pertinent to the daily work they do as front line supervisors and supervising program managers.

In this two-day training, we will follow the flow of a Child Welfare case and how workers need to incorporate ICWA.  Children’s Administration has a revised ICW Manual and attendees will strengthen their foundational base about ICWA and learn about changes in policy and procedure as it applies to ICWA practice in Washington State.

This course will cover the core principles of trauma informed care in working with dependent youth and young adults, engaging youth in their case planning and working with caregivers in supporting the youth’s educational success, permanency, progress to independence and well-being. This course will address policy requirements related to working with adolescents and identify resources to meet those requirements. Participants will be given the opportunity to practice quality health and safety visits to elicit youth participation in planning and improve the quality of documentation in court reports.

*****Participants are required to bring their tablets to the training.