• Agencies are enhancing their case review and foster/adoptive parent recruitment systems to reflect the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR) findings
• Agencies view ASFA from a ‘good practice’ perspective and are striving to implement this approach throughout the agency and the child welfare network
• Agencies continue to deliver ASFA training and to integrate ASFA related topics into on-going training, meetings and forums
• Managerial and supervisory skills needed to implement ASFA continue to change while the workers’ needed skill set remains steady
• Barriers to the agency's ability to support staff as they implement the requirements of ASFA reflect the economic difficulties agencies continue to face.

Reviewing these themes in conjunction with the comments made by poll respondents provides valuable lessons learned regarding the progress that public child welfare agencies are making in implementing the requirements of ASFA throughout the child protective system.

ASFA mandates regarding the achievement of outcomes and the use of data carry clear expectations for child welfare workers, supervisors and managers. The 2003 phone poll indicates that while agencies are showing significant increases in understanding and implementing the requirements of ASFA, recent retirement incentives and high staff turnover can slow continued progress. Agencies need to do more work to assure that their information system produces information and reports that support and inform managerial and supervisory day to day decision-making. Continued attention is needed to crafting training systems that result in key partners throughout the child protective network having an increased understanding of how to deliver effective, outcomes-based child welfare practice.

Please visit the website for this project (http://www.muskie.usm.maine.edu/asfa) to download this report, view a full description of the project and locate individual state by state responses to the 2001- 2003 ASFA phone polls.

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