2017_Brief_Convening_3rd_Doc

Developing Inter-agency Collaboration
How do we
ensure
the safety, permanency and well-being of
vulnerable children?
As California implements Continuum of Care Reform for Child Welfare, access to child care services has become an identified barrier to effective placements particularly with relative caregivers and resource families. Currently, the only option for child care services is through the existing general child care system. This system has extremely limited resources to serve a wide array of child care needs, not just the Child Welfare population, and is completely full with long waiting lists for services. This causes delays even though Child Welfare families have priority to access available spaces.
Moreover, the Child Care Resource Center’s (CCRC) research found that Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) staff predominantly made six or more attempts before being able to place a young child. To address this barrier and try to overcome some of the emergency child care needs to facilitate placements, CCRC and DCFS are developing a pilot program with the following components:
 Funding for child care for resource parents (e.g., foster parents, relatives, non-relative extended family) willing to care for children birth to 5 years old
 Professional development and training in trauma-informed care (TIC) for child care providers
 Child care navigators to match the resource family with the child care provider and navigate Child Welfare and Early Care and Education (ECE) systems to achieve the goals of safety, permanence, and well-being for the child
 System for regular communication between ECE and Child Welfare
 Research to demonstrate the need, outcomes, and policy implications