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.

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.

Explore additional resources for engaging individuals with lived experience as advisors for groups, committees, boards, and more.

Explore additional resources to learn how to accurately and safely collecting data on LGBTQIA2S+ youth and young adults.

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

Explore opportunities and lessons learned from the implementation of Division X of the Supporting Foster Youth and Families Through the Pandemic Act, P.L. 116–260.

Explore additional resources and learn strategies for moving forward with prioritizing lived expertise in child welfare.

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

Explore additional resources aimed at the needs of expecting and parenting teens in child welfare.

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

Examine a five-step framework that helps organizations promote youth engagement in normalcy conversations about the youth’s own care.

Explore the various aspects of the importance of normalcy for children and youth in care.

Explore additional resources to learn how incorporating voices of lived experience can help improve child welfare services.