Twenty-Five Years of the Children's Bureau Investment in Social Work Education

Abstract

One focus of the Children's Bureau over the past 25–30 years has been the provision of funds for social work students at the BSW and MSW levels to specialize in child welfare. Universities have been taking advantage of Title IV-E funds to prepare social work students for public child welfare work. To assess current practices, a survey was sent to all U.S. social work programs to determine how many had a child welfare emphasis, examine how programs ran, and evaluate the programs. Descriptive results and findings from the most sophisticated evaluations are reviewed and implications provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Title IV-E
• child welfare specialization
• social work education
• university-public agency partnerships