Building Collaborations Across Child Welfare and Education Systems

Abstract

University of Minnesota Children, Youth & Family Consortium (CYFC) in partnership with the Minnesota chapter of the Child Welfare and Education Learning Community (CWELC) conducted a brief online survey in spring 2014 to gather initial information on how professionals who work in child welfare and education facilitate collaboration across systems. Building on the results of the survey, we held eight focus groups across Minnesota where direct-service professionals from child welfare and education sectors discussed barriers to, as well as creative strategies for, enabling work across systems. All focus group conversations included people representing both child welfare and education sectors.This report discusses the findings of those focus groups. For an infographic summary, see "Bridging Child Welfare and Education Systems," also available on the University Digital Conservancy.