Child Welfare Course Materials

Expected Child Welfare Content Areas & Model Syllabi

This section contains information related to the Child Welfare Course that all BCWEP students are required to take.

 

Expected Child Welfare Content Areas for BCWEP Child Welfare Courses

Most important are the “Expected Content Areas for BCWEP Consortium Child Welfare Courses.”  These content areas must be in the child welfare courses offered at each of our social work programs.  The newly developed Work Readiness Training for our students has been designed with the understanding that our students have received or are receiving this material in their university child welfare course:

• Overview of the Child Welfare System
• Overview of the History of Child Welfare, including the legal base of practice: Major Federal and NJ Legislation, including Titles 9 and 30
• Mandatory Reporting laws and procedures – Federal and State specific
• Defining child abuse and neglect: neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse
• Case Practice Model of Child Protection, including reporting, assessing risk and safety, decision making, and the integrating of protective authority with casework practice
• Laws, Procedures and Court Interventions with Children, Youth and Families
• Family Preservation Services, including Kinship Care
• Foster Care
• Adoption
• Prevention - Protective and Risk factors
• New Jersey’s public child welfare system, its historical development, current transformation efforts, and the latest report from the federal court appointed monitor (7-19-17)
• Social Context of Child Welfare including:
  • Poverty
  • Cultural competence
  • Educational System
  • Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse
  • Domestic Violence
  • Homelessness and housing insecurity
• Juvenile Justice System and Child Welfare
• Values and Philosophies in Child Welfare Practice
• The Child Welfare Professional – A Day in the Life of a Protective Service Worker
  • Caseload Management
  • Secondary Trauma
  • Recognizing biases, individual and systemic
  • Documentation
  • Worker Safety

Model Syllabi and Student Resources

This section provides two model syllabi for the child welfare courses taught at BCWEP colleges and universities.  Consortium members may adopt or adapt either for their use.  We recognize there are unique requirements for syllabi at the different social work programs, and individual instructors have their own preferences for style and content.  What we provide in the models offered is for your use and consideration.  We have also included many of the resources cited for use in the syllabi.

Model Syllabi

• Stockton University Child Welfare Course Syllabus
• Seton Hall University Child Welfare Course Syllabus

Student Resources

The following textbooks are options for the child welfare course: 

• Crosson-Tower (10th Ed.)(2019) Understandinging Child Abuse & Neglect ISBN: 978-0-13-516806-6 
• Royse, D., & Griffiths, A. (2nd Ed.)(2024). Child welfare and child protection: An Introduction. ISBN: 979-8823356756
• Mignon, S. I. (2017). Child welfare in the United States: Challenges, Policy, and Practice. ISBN: 978-0826126429
  

 

Below are expected content areas arranged by weekly modules and contain supplemental resources.