Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act (201)

Fee: No Fee

The Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act (WICWA) Training was developed out of the Best Outcomes for Indian Children Project between the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the Midwest Children’s Welfare Implementation Center (MCWIC). The Project is focused on state-wide implementation of the WICWA, which became law in December 2009 and is the codification of the Federal Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which became law in 1978.

The 2 Day WICWA Curriculum was drafted in 2009 and an initial pilot of the training was presented in October 2010 to a group of social workers and supervisors. Based on feedback from the pilot, as well as input from the WICWA State Advisory Board Curriculum Subcommittee and the Intertribal Child Welfare Committee, enhancements and additions were made to the curriculum and finalized in February, 2011.

The WICWA Curriculum is an in-depth training of each component of the WICWA with special focus on the “real world” application to Social Workers. The subject matter can be very complicated so rather than presenting the material solely as What the law is, the curriculum focuses on How to apply it as it appears in the day-to-day job duties of social workers. The topics covered include:

• History & Background
• When WICWA Applies
• Tribal Intervention & Jurisdiction
• Identification & Notification
• Active Efforts
• Placement Preferences
• Serious Damage & QEW
• Voluntary Placements & Voluntary TPR

Components of the 2 day training include lecture, small and large group activities, and videos. A special effort was made to create a training that is interactive and engaging, and that will allow the participants opportunities to ask questions and apply the material to current cases that they are working on.

The MCWIC Project includes a component on outcome evaluation; so there will be a pre-test administered by email for participants after they have registered for the training. The pre-test will be used to measure the knowledge base of the participants prior to exposure to the curriculum. The post-test will be administered in the training session via paper and pencil. Special testing accommodations need to be noted on the registration form where indicated.

In order for the pre-test to be administered, the NEW Partnership for Children and Families will forward all registered participants’ names and email addresses to Kate Williams of the MCWIC Project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The MCWIC Project is coordinating and administering the pre- and post-test process.

An individualized link with the subject line “Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act: Pre-training Assessment” will be sent to each participant 2 weeks before the training date from sender- kwilliams@ccfl.unl.edu. Any questions about the pretest can also be directed to Kate at this email. It is important that participants do not look up answers as they take the pretest so that an accurate assessment can be made of their knowledge of WICWA prior to the training. Then, at the end of the second day of training, a post-test will be administered to determine the effectiveness of the training. Each test takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.

URL: http://www.uwgb.edu/newpart/
University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
NEW Partnership for Children and Families
Rose Hall 310
2420 Nicolet Dr.
Green Bay Wisconsin 54311
920-465-2724

Please report any broken links to:
Webmaster