October 15th Implementation Kickoff Postponed

The October 15th Kickoff has been postponed. As soon as we have a new date, we will post it here.

Article about Benefit to Providing Early Childhood Services

What Does Economics Tell Us about Early Childhood Policy? By the Rand Corporation. Research Brief. (Rand, Santa Monica, California) 2008 5 p.

["An increasing chorus of Fortune 500 CEOs, Federal Reserve Bank analysts, Nobel Prize-winning economists, and other business and economic leaders have led the call to increase public "investments" in early childhood. This call is driven by research findings that increasingly emphasize the importance of laying a strong foundation in early childhood and that show that a range of early interventions can successfully put children on the path toward positive development, preventing poor outcomes in adulthood. These findings-along with increasing recognition in the public-health and social-service sectors that providing program services in early childhood has benefits over treatment later in life-have contributed to the evolution of economists' support for early childhood investments. To help decision makers in the public and private sectors, service providers, and the public more generally, RAND researchers drew on their decades-long expertise in applying economics to early childhood issues to demonstrate how two economic concepts-human capital theory and monetary payoffs-contribute to a unifying framework that provides evidence-based guidance for early childhood policy. These concepts are summarized in this research brief."]

Full text at: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/2008/RAND_RB9352.pdf

Important Dates

June 4th 9-12 pm
This is the reconvening of the large group to share workgroup recommendations.
Edgewood Family Center
101 15th Street
SF Parking available

October 15, 2008
SF Birth to 6 Implementation Kick-Off
During the summer, YLC and the Dept. will be hard at work developing a plan for how to implement the recommendations you have developed in the workgroups. On October 15, 2008, we invite you to attend an all day meeting at the Presidio Officers Club to formally kick off the implementation phase of the San Francisco Birth to Six Initiative with a presentation on how San Francisco plans to better serve young children in care and how the plan will be implemented. Save the date now, so you can come hear how YOUR recommendations will be acted on!
Date: October 15, 2008 (all day- times TBA)
Location: Presidio Officers Club, 50 Moraga AveSan Francisco, CA 94129

Recommendations Need Your Review!

At our May 7th meeting, we'll be working on finalizing the great recommendations you've developed over the last 2 months. In preparation, please review this summary of the recommendations and come prepared with your ideas and comments.

Practice Group
1. Quicker identification and placement with relatives and NREFM for children 0-6

a. Better policy, practice for doing front end family finding
Better engagement of parents in identifying relatives and NREFM as potential placements
Utilization of parent partners
Full disclosure to parents about dept.’s obligation to identify family members and discussion of concerns.

b. Develop protocol for NERFM placements

c. Remove barriers to placing children with NREFM
Expedited fingerprinting
Support with completion of packets
Include SF in out of county courtesy NREFM approval
ICPC issues


2. Ongoing training and support for CPS workers on supporting 0-6 children
a. Develop an ER team to do removals including a child focused support person, an ER worker, a mental health back-up support person
Mental health support available as a crisis line and after removals to debrief

b. Offer BAA 3-hr training on removing/transitioning 0-6 children to all ER workers and build in ongoing case consultation/supervisory support

c. Develop a checklist/cheat sheet for child support person on removal and transition for young children.

3. Systemic process for connecting child, caregiver and bio parents to resources: mental health, head start, regional center, etc.
a. Refer every child removed to Early Head Start/Head Start

b. Involve public health nurses in getting all relevant information from children’s doctors after removal. (discuss at next meeting)

c. Improve process for referring to and starting Regional Center services (discuss at next meeting)

d. Create a resource desk within dept. that takes calls from caregivers seeking services and an associated resource manual (like 311). (discuss at next meeting).

4. Improving quality, training and location of foster parents for children 0-6.
a. Special recruiting, training, location for pool of specific 0-6 foster parents who want to make a long-term commitment to a child.

b. Providing 0-6 foster parents with better compensation and support in return for better service (including limits # of children)

c. Developing systemic facilitation of working relationship between foster and bio parents.

d. Culturally appropriate and sensitive services

e. Address transportation issues for children

5. Address lack of services, support for parenting foster youth and their children
a. Create special committee to review practices/policies for parenting foster youth and their children for child appropriateness over the summer.

6. Address quality of services, support for kinship caregivers
a. Create special committee to review practices/policies for kinship caregivers for child appropriateness over the summer.


Team Group

1. Develop parent mentor/partner and kin advocatepositions

2. Develop systemic facilitation of working partnership between foster and bio parents.

a. Create task force to develop a trauma-informed “Age Appropriate Individualized Plan” between the worker and caregivers with basic requirements and expectations of caregivers at time of placement.

b. Develop protocol for implementing icebreakers with parent, caregiver and social worker within 2 days after removal

c. Appropriate visitation for 0-6 children
Involve bio parents in child’s doctor appointments, school events and progress.
Appropriate visitation for 0-6 children supporting nursing mothers when possible.
Address transportation issues for children.

d. Facilitating ongoing relationship between foster parent/child/bio parent to continue after reunification

3. Provide training on 0-6 children’s issues

a. Quarterly trauma informed cross training for parents, caregivers, CPS workers, court, lawyers, CASAs, etc. on 0-6 issues
Reciprocal professional and non-professional cross training on communication
Early intervention services
Interagency training
kin workers specialized training

4. Improve communication between all parties
a. Set up process for social workers to return phone calls

b. Improve relationship between lawyers and caregiver/bio parent

April 2nd Team Workgroup Notes

APRIL 2, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO 0-6 TEAM RELATIONSHIPS WORK GROUP

Develop parent mentor/partner and kin advocate positions
§ Parent partners and kin advocates teach/support caregivers on early childhood and special needs and how to provide care and act as bridge between worker and parent/caregiver
§ Develop using “support for families” children with disabilities partner model.

Develop systemic facilitation of working partnership between foster and bio parents.

Develop protocol for implementing icebreakers with parent, caregiver and social worker within 2 days after removal
§ Should be facilitated by parent partner and social worker
§ Caregivers should exchange information, department should provide caregivers all information they have on child
§ Bio parent should be encouraged to bring pictures for child, baby books, etc.

Appropriate visitation for 0-6 children
Supporting nursing mothers when possible.
Involve bio parents in child’s doctor appointments, school events and progress.

Facilitating ongoing relationship between foster parent/child/bio parent after reunification
§ Train and recruit foster parents with long-term relationship in mind- helps with reunification transition.
§ Set expectation for caregivers to partner and mentor bio parents through training


Create task force to develop a trauma-informed “Age Appropriate Individualized Plan” between the worker and caregivers with basic requirements and expectations of caregivers at time of placement.
§ Contract should lay out resources dept will provide and expectations for caregiver involvement in bio parent mentoring, visitation, medical care, therapy, etc.
§ Involve bio parent and parent partner in developing.
§ Develop an associated resource manual for caregivers
§ Make age specific guidelines (0-1, 1-2, etc.)
§ Modify existing forms (SOC 154, 156) as relevant to add resources
§ Include child development experts, FCS staff, parents and caregivers on task force.

Provide training on 0-6 children’s issues

Quarterly reciprocal professional and non-professional cross training (non-professionals such as parents train attorneys/SW on how to communicate with them and vice versa).
Training on early intervention services
Interagency training (i.e. GGRC)
Provide kin workers specialized training

Improve communication between all parties

Improve relationship between lawyers and caregiver/bio parent
§ Inform bio parents when support goal of reunification
§ Create opportunity to meet with caregiver and bio parent in context of “Age Appropriate Individualized Plan”.

Child welfare should clearly disclose post-adoption available support and services to caregivers in order to make informed decisions.

Address inconsistent respite childcare policies.

April 2nd Practice Workgroup Notes

Please review the workgroup notes from April 2nd in preparation for our final workgroup meeting on May 7th before the June large group meeting.

APRIL 2, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO 0-6 WORKGROUP ISSUE SUMMARY

Practice/System Work Group

Quicker identification and placement with relatives for children 0-6

Develop protocol for NERFM placements
§ Address delays in fingerprinting process (i.e. mobile or 24/7 fingerprinting access)
§ Take steps to include SF in courtesy/out of county NERFM approval
§ Create system of support for ER workers to do family finding and emergency NERFM placements
§ Develop accountability for NERFM placement outcomes and urgency (outside and supervisor weekly reviews, prioritizing ages)
§ Include ER workers, NERFM unit, mobile fingerprinting, and admin on taskforce. Invite court and law enforcement as needed for support.

Hold front-end TDM (before detention hearing) to identify and discuss potential placement with relatives with parents and other family members
§ Involve parent partners in preparing and supporting parents during TDM (including informing of rights and process)
§ Develop better support for parent partners to work through their own issues
§ Give full disclosure to parent about dept’s obligation to identify family members and give parent opportunity to have individual discussion about concerns with parent partner.

Address ICPC issues so placement can be expedited when necessary
§ Provide workers additional training
§ Identify ICPC experts (courts, city attys.?)


Ongoing training and support for CPS workers on supporting 0-6 children

Develop an ER team to do removals including a parent partner, a child focused support person and an ER worker
§ House parent partners in department so they can go out on removals and work with parents to try to involve them in easing the transition for the child
§ Develop a checklist/cheat sheet for child support staff on removal and transition for young children (comfort items, important info on health, food, explaining the next time parent will visit child, etc.)
§ Evaluate whether CPC and CANS address minimizing trauma of removal.
Provide ER workers mental health support at time of removal and after to debrief
§ Create a consultation line for ER workers in crisis
§ Build in standard MH debrief after removals for ER workers

Offer BAA 3-hr training on transitioning children (specific to 0-6)to all ER workers and build in ongoing case consultation/supervisory support to contract

Systemic process for connecting child, caregiver and bio parents to resources: mental health, head start, regional center, etc.

Refer every child removed to Early Head Start/Head Start
§ Involve Early Head Start/Head Start in TDMs so EHS/HS can offer alternative to removal, home visitation, mental health support.
§ Ensure children have info needed to enroll in EHS/HS (birth certificates, health history)
§ Engage other SF EHS/HS programs to get first priority for foster children in all areas.

Involve public health nurses in getting all relevant information from children’s doctors after removal. (tabled to next meeting)

Improve process for referring to and starting Regional Center services (tabled to next meeting)

Create a resource desk within dept. that takes calls from caregivers seeking services (like 311). (tabled to next meeting).

SF Implementation Kick-Off: OCTOBER 15, 2008

SAVE THE DATE - OCTOBER 15, 2008

During the summer, YLC and the Dept. will be hard at work developing a plan for how to implement the recommendations you have developed in the workgroups. On October 15, 2008, we invite you to attend an all day meeting at the Presidio Officers Club to formally kick off the implementation phase of the San Francisco Birth to Six Initiative with a presentation on how San Francisco plans to better serve young children in care and how the plan will be implemented. Save the date now, so you can come hear how YOUR recommendations will be acted on!

Date: October 15, 2008 (all day- times TBA)
Location: Presidio Officers Club, 50 Moraga AveSan Francisco, CA 94129

Workgroup Meeting Schedule

Workgroups have been hard at work developing some thoughtful, important recommendations for change! We have one workgroup meeting left before we reconvene to share our great recommendations with the larger group. Here is a summary of all dates, times and location for the work group meetings (including past meetings fyi).

Practice/Systems Work Group
March 5th 10-12pm- 3801 3rd Street, SF Parking available
April 2nd 10-12 pm- 3801 3rd Street, SF Parking available
May 7th 10-12 pm- 3801 3rd Street, SF Parking available
June 4th 9-12 pm (note: This is the reconvening of the large group to share workgroup recommendations) - Edgewood Family Center 101 15th Street, SF Parking available

Team Relationship Work Group
March 5th 1-3 pm- 3801 3rd Street, SF Parking available
April 2nd 1-3 pm- 3801 3rd Street, SF Parking available
May 7th 12:30-3:00 pm- 3801 3rd Street, SF Parking available
June 4th 9-12 pm (note: This is the reconvening of the large group to share workgroup recommendations) - Edgewood Family Center 101 15th Street, SF Parking available



Please RSVP to Mamie Yee for the May and June workgroup meetings, if you have not already done so.