This guide is designed to support administrative leaders in states and other jurisdictions in using data to assess and identify ways to improve their service array.

Hop into the car for a road trip with South Carolina's Child Welfare Services Division. Hear how they left a climate driven by compliance and fear and made their way to a new culture.

Learn the definition and find information about normalcy and the reasonable and prudent parent standard in the PL 113-183.

Frankie is 14 years old and lives with his sister, brothers, and moms. He and his sister were adopted when they were 2 years old and 4 years old, respectively. He loves spending time with his aunts, uncles, and cousins and loves being part of a big family.

Explore how data reported in AFCARS about youth who run away from state custody can be used to inform interventions.

In this video, leaders of the National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services discuss the positive impact of collaboration between child welfare and mental health systems.

Explore how child welfare professionals and organizations can build capacity for implementing the reasonable and prudent parent standard (RPPS) for children and youth in foster care. 

Reflect on past results to inform plans for future improvements.

Use this project management resource to plan for the development of a Program Improvement Plan (PIP). 

Watch the Change and Implementation in Practice: Overview video to learn how key steps, tasks, and concepts fit together to support your agency’s change initiatives. 

Learn about the Children’s Bureau’s commitment to racial and other equity in its work and the actions the Children’s Bureau is taking to advance racial equity in child welfare. 

See how coordination can improve identification, reporting, and services for youth who are victims or at risk of becoming victims of sex trafficking.

Learn how to foster psychological safety on child welfare teams, promote bravery, and cultivate resilient and supportive workplace environments at child welfare agencies.

Shares Stephen’s story about being a community-based provider and policymaker in Florida, the need for laws that empower caregiver decision-making, creating Florida’s reasonable and prudent parent standard (RPPS), and the effect RPPS and normalcy laws can have on foster care.

Get informed about creating normalcy for LGBTQ children and youth in foster care and browse relevant examples.