Effective January of 2007, the School of Social Work at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey was selected to coordinate a partnership with select colleges and universities throughout the state to develop and implement the New Jersey Child Welfare Training Partnership (NJCWTP). In collaboration with the New Jersey Child Welfare Training Academy (NJCWTA) and the Department of Children and Families (DCF), the NJCWTP is responsible to providing in-service training to workers throughout the state’s public child welfare system in accordance with the Modified Settlement Agreement. During the first several months, the NJCWTP focused on the development the consortium; designing and implementing a statewide training needs assessment; presenting training recommendations to the project’s Steering Committee; planning and implementing a Kick-Off meeting between the lead entity, DCF leadership, and identifying members of the projects’ Steering Committee members and consortium partners.

Currently in the second phase of the program, which began July 1, 2007 and runs through June 30, 2008, the NJCWTP is engaged in discussions around possible topical areas for future trainings, as well as completing the delivery of the training for the pilot sites of the Differential Response initiative through DCF. All trainings will ensure case-carrying child welfare staff meet the required training hours mandated in the Modified Settlement Agreement. Courses will be offered at locations in the northern, central and southern regions of the state and include a mix of classroom instruction, distance learning opportunities and web-based courses. The NJCWTP will feature an extensive quality assurance program to facilitate the identification of future training needs, assess trainee satisfaction with course offerings, and provide a feedback loop for continual course improvements. Evaluation efforts will focus on identifying changes in knowledge among training participants, using a non-experimental pretest/posttest approach, and examining other relevant practice-related outcomes, such as those included in the federal Child and Family Service Reviews.