Updated Jan. 5, 2015, to reflect the Initial Recommendations report, released December 31, 2014. Changes and additions are

highlighted yellow, and deletions are marked as strikethroughs.

The Training & Supervision Workgroup preliminary recommendations are listed below, grouped under general themes (which are found in the light gray boxes). Each of these recommendations are taken from the draft of the Initial Recommendations document that was made available at the December 12 meeting of the Governor’s Task Force on the Protection of Children (CPS Task Force). Some of the recommendations have italicized notes underneath, which come directly from the CPS Task Force’s discussion during the December 12 meeting. The recommendations listed below may or may not be in the final draft of the preliminary recommendations that are due today (Wednesday, December 31).

These recommendations were included in the December 31, 2014 Initial Recommendations report; changes are noted below.

Final recommendations for this legislative session are due in March of 2015.

This workgroup is also working on the following topic areas:
Workforce issues (including social work licensure, student loan forgiveness programs, and staff recruitment and retention)
    • Adequate training for mandated reporters
    • Oversight issues, including programs and services such as Child Mortality Reviews, Child and Family Services Reviews, and the DHS Rapid Consultation and Support System

    Workgroup Recommendations: Training & Supervision

    Mandate child protection-specific training (separate from current mandated Child Welfare Foundation Training) for CPS workers.
    Develop new training based on screening, FA
    [Family Assessment], FI [Family Investigation], and injury identification, and cultural competency, where the focus is more on day-to-day skills.
    Explore different ways of delivering training, including online or web-based training, to make training more accessible.

    • Kathy Johnson, Director of Kittson County Social Services, brought up that training can be expensive for out-state counties, when factoring in driving, hotels, and time away from work; however, she also pointed out that there are attention-related issues with web-based trainings.

    Establish requirements for competency-based training for CPS supervisors.
    (This recommendation was originally found under the Screening & Transparency workgroup’s recommendations.) Monitor county compliance with statute & conduct reviews/quality assurance.

    Develop multi-disciplinary training on appropriate techniques for FA and FI.