Do Collaborations with Schools of Social Work Make a Difference for the Field of Child Welfare? Practice, Retention and Curriculum.

Historically, the profession of social work has held a leadership role in the field of child welfare. Opportunities provided in a number of significant public policies allow schools of social work to be eligible to receive Title IV-E funding for professional development of child welfare workers. Today, hundreds of these partnerships throughout the country (Zlotnik, 1997) are spending millions of federal dollars to professionally educate Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work students for careers in child welfare. Unfortunately, there is not a corresponding proliferation of evaluation research to measure the effectiveness of these partnerships. This article provides a comprehensive description and evaluation of a partnership between a school of social work and a state department of child protective services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]