STATE OF NEVADA - Division of Child and Family Services

A third objective for this item is that the State, through the collaboration with the Training Management Team and use of
the Nevada Partnership for Training Reports System, will enhance reports to ensure that all staff receives the required
On-Line or Specialty Core Training within the required timeframes, or to ensure that an appropriate remediation plan is in
place with the Child Welfare Agencies. In an effort to address the need for more specialized training for existing workers
and remediation needed for both new and existing workers, DCFS contracted with UNLV to develop an Intermediate Core
series when New Worker Core Training could not be delivered due to the CCDFS hiring freeze in the third and fourth
quarters of this fiscal year. One of the goals of this training series is to enhance the capacity of child welfare staff to
effectively engage children, youth and families in case decision making. It is the NPT’s position that the New Worker Core
curriculum, specifically the first two modules, is a solid basis for this type of family engagement training, and therefore the
competencies of New Worker Core will help create a framework for Intermediate Core. Moreover, the family engagement
principles in Nevada’s New Worker Core overlap with the core principles found in the National Resource Center for
Permanency and Family Connections Family Engagement Web-Based Practice Tool Kit.
Thus, UNLV started a process with the three child welfare agencies to develop competencies for training existing staff. As
part of this process, UNLV surveyed lead caseworkers, supervisors and managers regarding the competencies found in
the New Worker Core curriculum to determine their relevance in the development of Intermediate Core. An electronic
survey was sent to specific contacts at the three child welfare agencies in March 2010 to distribute within their respective
organizations. There were a total of 184 responses to the survey (131 CCDFS, 31 WCDSS, and 21 DCFS-Rural). Based
on feedback from the TMT, those competencies that were rated as most important or relevant in the survey would serve
as a platform for this level of training, and the delivery of this training would be designed to be more case-practice oriented
as opposed to lecture. The University partner(s) have analyzed the data from the survey and presented
recommendations based on the findings in May 2010 to the TMT partners. Upon approval of the competencies of
Intermediate Core by the TMT and DMG, curriculum and evaluation instruments will be developed. Once final approval
has been given, protocols and any necessary forms will be developed in preparation for delivering the training. At this
time the plan for delivering Intermediate Core will be initiated by the UNLV training team and piloted in the southern region
for Clark County existing staff in the first quarter of SFY 2011, followed by a pilot in the North by UNR starting in the third
quarter of SFY 2011.
Item 34: Foster and adoptive parent training
Goal: The State will ensure that training for current or prospective foster parents, adoptive parents, and staff of Statelicensed
or State-approved facilities that care for children receiving foster care or adoption assistance under title IV-E is
provided in accordance with statewide policy and federal standards.
To achieve this goal, there are several objectives to ensure that training for current or prospective foster and adoptive
parents and staff of State-Licensed or State approved facilities that care for children in foster care is current and timely.
The first objective to reach this goal is for an online web registration system similar to that currently in use by the Nevada
Partnership for Training for initial and ongoing training. In the CFSP, the State projected that through collaboration with
the Child Welfare Agencies and the Nevada Partnership for Training, to develop an on-line web-registration, reporting and
evaluation tracking system to ensure that all foster and adoptive parents receive the training needed within the required
timeframes. This system would be able to track electronic evaluation tools such as enrollment, knowledge gained and
satisfaction with training received by participants in the training. The child welfare agencies currently use internal tracking
systems to collect this information. The State will be reviewing these existing systems and will determine if a statewide
system is feasible in the next fiscal year.
A second objective is to ensure that current and prospective foster or adoptive parents receive training. This item was
rated as a strength in the 2009 Nevada CFSR and continues to be a strength for Nevada. Unlike the Nevada Partnership
for Training, foster and adoptive parent training is a child welfare agency run activity in Nevada. Since the first Nevada
CFSR in 2004, the agencies have been responsible for their own foster, adoptive, and kinship parent training programs.
Beginning in July 2005, each child welfare agency began using the Parent Resources for Information, Development and
Education (PRIDE) Pre-Service Curriculum for all initial Foster/Adoptive Parent training. However, in the past fiscal year
CCDFS began the implementation of the PS-MAPP curriculum, while WCDSS and the DCFS-Rural Region still use the
PRIDE curriculum. Both trainings are facilitated by agency workers and former foster/adoptive parents and both are
provided in both English and Spanish. PRIDE training is covered over 29 hours, whereas PS-MAPP varies depending on
the module. A total of 57 sessions of PRIDE was offered by all three child welfare agencies statewide to 860 participants
in the past year (47 sessions of PRIDE in English to 776 participants and 10 sessions in Spanish to 84 participants).
When Clark County switched to PS-MAPP, they offered 6 sessions to 80 participants in Clark County. Figure 16 shows
the percentage of foster and adoptive parents receiving basic training in the past fiscal year.
Nevada APSR – SFY 2010
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