Clinical and Macro Child Welfare Practice

Catalog description

This co-taught course explores the policies, practices, and organizational contexts that shape the U.S. child welfare system. Students examine the social conditions, historical forces, and ideological debates that drive child welfare reform, as well as the systemic inequities that affect children, youth, and families—particularly those from historically marginalized communities disproportionately represented in the system. Course content emphasizes both theory and practice, with attention to safety assessment and planning, risk assessment, permanency planning, and family engagement. Students also analyze how child welfare organizations are structured and managed, and how front line practice interacts with macro-level systems, juvenile courts, and federal child welfare data reporting. By bridging micro, mezzo, and macro perspectives, the course prepares students to critically evaluate and strengthen child welfare practice while advancing equity, safety, stability, and well-being for children, youth, and families.