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.

Learn about the range of practices comprising the continuum of youth engagement to youth empowerment.

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.

See statistics on increased risks for LGBTQ youth and learn how child welfare systems can use healthy approaches when working with LGBTQ children and youth.

Learn the importance of effective, ongoing collaboration between child welfare agencies and community-based partners.

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. 

Listen to a foster care advocate’s mental health journey.

Understand the role of coaching in supporting workers, including coaching functions, effectiveness, models, and strategies.

Hear a foster and adoptive father of African American boys talk about fighting cultural biases to support his sons’ well-being.

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.

Learn solid strategies for understanding and implementing the trauma-informed care provisions of the FFPSA.

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

Find information about using collaborative practices and models across human service systems to better serve families dealing with co-occurring issues.

Learn to facilitate a normalcy conversation and to promote normal and developmentally appropriate experiences for youth in foster care.