Alliance Course Catalog

This eLearning primarily features a video of a popular Child Protection Medical Consultation (MedCon) presentation for Regional Core Training. The video showcases two respected and well-known child abuse pediatricians, Dr. Rebecca Wiester and Dr. Joyce Gilbert. Dr. Wiester and Dr. Gilbert discuss important aspects of Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, and Neglect within the context of their expertise as child protection medial consultants.

Viewers are walked through recognizing sentinel injuries; understanding Abusive Head Trauma and its connection to the Period of PURPLE Crying; identifying when to seek medical consultation, how to submit a referral, and what information to provide; and how to locate important county protocols and policy resources online. Viewers will also be provided with a helpful Notes Worksheet, which will guide them through capturing important information needed in practice, and to pass the quiz at the end. This eLearning also provides a Facilitator Guide and can be viewed either individually, or facilitated for a small group viewing.

Coaching sessions are an opportunity for participants to receive training and support on critical topics that is flexible enough to respond to their current needs.  Coaching sessions can involve one or several workers, and may be delivered in person, on the phone or by other real time collaboration (face-time, etc).  Preferably, they allow material to be understood within a context of an actual case, and completion of current work.

This coaching session opportunity for staff will aim at compliance with ICWA, give recommendations for working with Tribes and Tribal families, revisit the Federal Act, State ICW codes and current policies/procedures when ICWA applies or is being considered.  

This session will revisit current practices in Department of Children, Youth, and Families, specialized units and steps available for staff, including tailored topics such as:

1. Initial Intake (ICW Procedures at initial contact) 
2. Tribal/State Agreements 
3. Inquiry and Verification of Child’s Indian Status 
4. Disclosure of Confidential Records/Information to Tribes
5. Child Protective Services for Indian Children 
6. Casework Activities for Court Proceedings – forms Legal Notice, FamLink Response from NAIR eLearning, Monthly Progress report 
7. Indian Child Placement Preferences and Relative Search
8. Adoption
9. Interstate Compact on the Placement of Indian Children
10. Local Indian Child Welfare Advisory Committees 
11. Payments for Services for Children in Tribal Care or Custody
12. Casework Services for Children and Families of Non-Federally Recognized Tribes and Canadian First Nations

DCYF rolls out new policies and any updates, revisions or other changes to current policy as needed throughout the year. This eLearning walks you through the following policies, which are effective November 1, 2021:

New Policy:

• 4551. Day and Overnight Camp Approval Process

Revised Policies

• 1150. Case Plan
• 2310. CPS Initial Face-to-Face (IFF) Response
• 4122. Case Transfer
• 4420. Monthly Visits with Children or Youth, Parents or Guardians, and Caregivers
• 46100. Monthly Clinical Supervision Case Reviews
• 4430. Courtesy Supervision

This training provides you with specifics on what the policy changes are and why the changes are being made. You will find links to resources that provide context or support your policy compliance. For your continued learning, the training includes the full text of the policy and a way to connect with someone within DCYF if you have questions.

This eLearning is part of a series that will be updated along with policy rollouts.

Working with families impacted by Domestic Violence can be challenging, nerve wracking, and sometimes inspiring.  You may often wish that you had more guidance about how you should approach this work.  In this course, you’ll learn more about the policy and legal guidance for child welfare work with families experiencing domestic violence.  More importantly, you’ll learn the best practices for this work and get to practice applying these best practices.  In Washington we are lucky to have an entire manual outlining these best practices, “The Social Worker’s Practice Guide to Domestic Violence.”  This guide will be heavily relied upon in this course and you’ll become familiar with most of its contents.  The course aims to build your knowledge and skills across four core areas: universal and periodic screening for domestic violence, conducting a specialized DV assessment, engagement and accountability with DV perpetrators, and case planning in families experiencing DV.  In addition, you’ll learn about the different types of protection orders that may exist and the implications of each, as well as the process of domestic violence safety planning with adult DV victims.              

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.

Mandatory reporters play a key role in ensuring the safety of vulnerable children. These professionals are obligated to report concerns about abuse or neglect, and this eLearning will guide you as mandated reporter through the process of identifying and documenting those concerns.

This training breaks the process down into three parts: Recognize, Record and Report. Through the training, you will understand what indicators of abuse to look for; how to appropriately record and what information to have; and what happens when a report is filed.

You 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 training also covers the federal requirement of identification of Indian heritage and affiliation with federally recognized tribes.

At the conclusion of the training, you will feel confident in understanding your role in keeping children safe.

This eLearning will teach the participant the steps for identifying Indian Children, address practical steps to input information into FamLink, give Department of Children, Youth, and Families 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 Department of Children, Youth, and Families 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

During this two-hour workshop, you will learn what characteristics make up quality contacts with caregivers and why quality contacts matter. You will have an opportunity to watch a social worker conduct a caregiver interview, and you can then apply skills observed to a case scenario. Throughout the workshop, Alliance coaches will support the integration of quality contacts into social work practice.

During this two-hour workshop, you will learn what characteristics make up a quality contact with parents during initial and on-going assessment as well as out-of-home placement, and why quality contacts matter. You will have an opportunity to watch a social worker conduct a parent interview, and then you will apply skills observed to a case scenario. Throughout the workshop, Alliance coaches will support the integration of quality contacts into social work practice.

This 3-hour course will help DCYF social workers and supervisors who do ongoing work in the child welfare system with identification of and responses to secondary trauma. The training will increase knowledge and understanding of the levels of secondary trauma, its impact, and how to manage the impact in our environment.

Phoebe Mulligan, LICSW serves as the Clinical Program Director at HopeSparks Family Services in Pierce County.  Through her role as Clinical Director, Ms. Mulligan is committed to creating a team of therapists that are culturally responsive; current on best practices in the field; and building integrated systems that seek to respond holistically to children and adults who have been victims of trauma. Ms. Mulligan is regularly invited to speak regionally on Evidence-Based Practices (EBP), effects of trauma on children and adults; and as an expert on anxiety and trauma.  Her audiences range from clinicians to judges and she is often a guest lecturer in social work master's programs. A graduate of Social Work program at the University of Washington, Seattle, Ms. Mulligan is passionate about reframing the legal paradigm of response to child trauma victims to be child-centric and creating systemic partnerships that remove barriers for children.

Christina R Fajardo, MA, LMHC is a licensed Mental Health Counselor and a Child & Family Therapist at HopeSparks, Tacoma, WA. She is responsible for providing individual/ family counseling using evidence based and best practices for mental health treatment of children and families. She is a certified instructor for the Incredible Years parenting program. 

The “Supervising for Safety” series comprises three webinars and an eLearning that aim to support supervisors in the understanding and application of assessment tools and integration of these tools into their supervision. 

In this training you will consider how to support your staff in preventing and responding to safety threats in out of home care, and how integrating safety framework tools may help with this process.  We will review a variety of situations, from initial assessment of a prospective caregiver, to issues needing immediate response in a current placement, to low-level concerns that over time impact the quality of care. You will also learn how biases impact our ability to spot serious abuse by out of home or adoptive caregivers. Lastly, you will make plans to integrate strategies into your supervision practice that help ensure that everyone attached to a caregiving setting is gathering sufficient information to identify and respond to concerns early – increasing the chance that we prevent unsafe placements and that we intervene as early as possible when a safety threat does occur.

The “Supervising for Safety” series is mandatory for Area Administrators. This individual webinar is mandatory for CFWS and LD staff.

The “Supervising for Safety” series comprises three webinars and an eLearning that aim to support supervisors in the understanding and application of assessment tools and integration of these tools into their supervision. 

In this training you will consider how the safety framework helps us make decisions about whether a child needs to be removed from their parent(s).  We will also identify the legal and policy requirements that guide removal decisions. You will practice guiding a caseworker in applying the safety framework tools in their case and making a decision about whether a child needs to be removed from their home.  We will focus in particular on gathering questions, and on how to support caseworkers in obtaining sufficient, relevant information before we make an assessment of whether a child is safe. Lastly, you’ll consider how you can better integrate the child safety framework into your supervisory practice when approving or discussing removal decisions.

The “Supervising for Safety” series is mandatory for Area Administrators. This individual webinar is mandatory for CPS/FAR and LD staff.

Coaching is an important piece of ongoing professional growth, presenting opportunities for personalized skill development and self-assessment. As a supervisor, this takes on added significance as the learnings are applicable to both you and your staff. “Supervisor Reflective Workshops” give you the chance to discuss with your peers coaching successes and barriers, helping you grow and improve.

The workshops are intended to be attended after the completion of the “Learner Centered Coaching Skills for Supervisors and Area Administrators” course and support the integration of the model into supervisory practice. The sessions provide an opportunity for peer discussion around implementation of coaching with your teams. You may work through practice barriers together, or hear how coaching is applied and supports clinical supervision.

Enhanced skill-development opportunities such as how to assess for identified practice barriers, the use of reflective questions, motivational Interviewing strategies/techniques, providing feedback and the use of tools in coaching will be facilitated based on feedback and requests made from each independent group. These workshops will also provide an opportunity for you to think about coaching support you may want to identify and work on with your assigned Alliance coach.

Trauma Informed Engagement is a 6-hour course applying lessons from trauma studies to child welfare practice for children, youth, and adults. Participants will discuss practice guidelines crucial to trauma informed practice in any setting. Participants will learn to distinguish trauma from other adversities and suffering; describe the characteristics, dynamics and effects of trauma; and emphasize the ways in which chronic trauma and complex trauma compromise normal functioning. Participants will learn to recognize and respond to situations involving the loss of control of body, mind, and emotions associated with trauma. Participants will practice, and commit to trauma informed engagement strategies, utilizing themes of empowerment, advocacy, and building resilience in children, youth, and adults.