Do Collaborations with Schools of Social Work Make a Difference for the Field of Child Welfare? Practice, retention and curriculum

The profession of social work has a leadership role in the field of child welfare. Opportunities were provided through public policies allowing schools of social work to recieve Title IV-E funding for professional development of child welfare workers. There are now hundreds of partnerships that spent millions of federal dollars to professionally educate Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work students for careers in child welfare. But there is no research that will evaluate these partnerships’ effectiveness. 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.