CalSWEC's Title IV-E Stipend Program has been a leader in professionalizing the public child welfare workforce, preparing a diverse, culturally responsive, and effective group of social workers to serve the children, families, and youth of California.
Here are some facts you may not know about that program taken from the 2016–2017 Title IV-E Stipend Annual Report.
1. Celebrating a 25th Jubilee
Fiscal year 2016–2017 marked the graduation of the 25th cohort from the Title IV-E Stipend Program. Of the 875 students enrolled, 395 graduated by the end of June 2017: 340 MSW, 48 BASW, and 7 Pathway. Of the 48 BASW graduates, 18 planned to begin a Title IV-E MSW program in the fall.
2. Paths worth exploring
The recently developed 27-Year Retrospective Study will be sent to all Title IV-E graduates who have participated in the stipend program over the last 27 years. It is expected to yield data that will be used to assess graduates’ career paths and the program’s value and impact in California.
The retrospective study is an element of CalSWEC’s Program Evaluation Plan, which goal is to be more integrated to include data from university partners, field and employment agency partners, and students. The Program Evaluation Plan is designed to assess how the different partners in the Title IV-E program work together to achieve the Title IV-E program goals.
3. Getting Hired
Since 1993, 95% of IV-E MSWs have found work in child welfare agencies. Among the IV-E BASWs, 75% of graduates have been hired by county or Tribal child welfare agencies since the inception of that program in 2004.
4. Entering the 21st Century, at last
The Salesforce enterprise database platform will update the CalSWEC Student Information System, CSIS, which hasn’t seen major improvements since its development in the 1990s. The migration of student data will occur first, with implementation in 2018 as partner schools are trained in the new platform.
CSIS tracks Title IV-E students and graduates from their initial enrollment in the MSW/BASW programs through the final year of their contract obligation in public child welfare. CalSWEC’s central office receives and merges quarterly data from each participating school.
5. Spreading their wings
The 2016 graduates were employed in 43 California counties, 6 graduates were employed in Tribal agencies, and 1 graduate was employed in state Adoptions.
6. Going the distance
The Pathway Program is gaining popularity, achieving its highest enrollment to date in fall 2016. The 37 students represented the most enrollees since the distance program’s inception seven years ago and a 28% increase over the previous year.
Pathway is IV-E’s part-time distance education program that addresses the needs of child welfare and Tribal agency employees from isolated areas who want to obtain a BASWs or an MSW. Students must be employees of a county or Tribal agency and be accepted into an educational institution before being considered for the Pathway Program.
7. Reflecting diversity
The Title IV-E Stipend Program’s goal of increasing the diversity of the public child welfare workforce is evidenced in IV-E students’ and graduates’ racial/ethnic composition, which is comparable to the diversity of the children and families in California’s child welfare system across the state and regionally.
Except for the 1994 graduates, the percentage of Caucasian IV-E students and graduates has been less than 40%; since 2007 the proportion of Hispanics has consistently surpassed that of Caucasians as the major race/ethnicity.