STATE OF NEVADA - Division of Child and Family Services

multidisciplinary processes and recommendations are reviewed and adopted into practice. In addition, n the past year
WCDSS has implemented several new policies as a result of the QI process and new legal requirements. Their local
policy manual has been updated related to case management, including Sections 13 and 20. Section 13, Case
Management for Legal Cases was revised to incorporate Family Solution Team Meetings. Section 20, Hearings was
revised pursuant to AB 364 of the 2009 Legislature and was distributed to staff. In addition, an Agency policy regarding
Request for Warrants was drafted and submitted to the District Attorney’s office for review and approval.
The DCFS-Rural region opted to use a slightly different case review method than the one originally used statewide. In
their internal process, in alternating quarters, each of the four Rural Region districts undergoes a case review process.
Using this method, one case from each worker within the District is selected and reviewed by the Quality Improvement
Unit review team. These reviews and data are then provided to the DCFS-Rural Region Management Team to discuss
training opportunities. In addition, the Rural Region Managers and Supervisors engage in regular staffings to go over
cases on an ongoing basis as part of regular staff meetings to ensure that quality is present. Information from these case
reviews is forwarded to the Quality Assurance-Training Unit so that the information learned can be disseminated to the
field.
In the past year, CCDFS developed a new initiative which includes the development of a comprehensive case review
system for all three direct practice child welfare programs (i.e. Child Protective Services (CPS), In-Home and Out-of-
Home (OOH) Services). Over the course of SFY 2010, the CCDFS Quality Assurance and Improvement Unit completed
a total of five supervisory case reviews and 24 in-home case reviews. Supervisory case reviews consist of either helping
a supervisory complete their probationary period, or because of personnel issues within the unit. In-home case reviews
began in November 2009 and consist of monthly reviews of each of the five units. As of the end of SFY 2010, all five
units were completely reviewed. A challenge reported by CCDFS to this process, is that while the in-home case review
process has been fully implemented, CPS and OOH case reviews have been delayed. This is because of decreases in
staff in the QA/QI unit by approximately 40%.
Overall, the 2009 CFSR report rated this item as a strength for Nevada.
Systemic Factor D: Staff and Provider Training
Item 32: Initial staff training
Goal: The State will operate a staff development and training program that supports the goals and objectives in the
CFSP, addresses services provided under titles IV-B and IV-E, and provides initial training for all staff who deliver these
services.
The main objective under this item is to ensure that Nevada’s child welfare workforce has a strong initial training system.
To meet this objective, the State, through the collaboration with the Training Management Team and use of the Nevada
Partnership for Training Reports System, the will enhance reports to ensure that all new staff receives the required
Nevada New Worker Core Training within the required timeframes, and also to ensure that an appropriate remediation
plan is in place with the Child Welfare Agencies. This objective is being met. The State has a contract with each of the
two in-state Universities for the SFY’s 2010 – 2012. Part of the 2010 contract was to develop a three year training plan
with annual updates to address the needs of initial worker training in Nevada. This plan has been developed and was
submitted to the child welfare agency partners in late April 2010 for review and feedback. The final plan is expected to be
presented in the summer of 2010 to the DMG. The plan outlines the infrastructure for the Training Delivery System and
includes protocols for curriculum development, staffing, training plans, annual training calendars, decision making, and
evaluation. The development of this plan has increased the efficiency of the Nevada Partnership for Training, and agency
members of the TMT have openly voiced their satisfaction with the process.
Over the past several years, Nevada has been focused on developing a strong new worker core curriculum. The Nevada
New Worker Core Training curriculum was first piloted in the fall of 2008 and then was finalized and has been in
continuous operation since January 2009. In the past year, four sessions of Core were offered by UNR in the northern
part of the state and one session was offered by UNLV in the southern part of the State. The reduction in delivery in Las
Vegas was due to a year long hiring freeze by CCDFS. The 10-week course consists of five weeks of in-class instruction
and five weeks of pre-reading assignments and on-the-job training assignments (to be done in the week’s in-between inclass
training). The training program is taught by trained University based instructors as part of the Nevada Partnership
for Training. Table 33 shows the total number of individuals trained since January 2010. The third quarter NPT Report
indicated that participant satisfaction ratings of workshop content and trainer competencies where high. The overall
Nevada APSR – SFY 2010
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