Child welfare professionals routinely meet with children and families in their communities. Sometimes environmental factors, such as a public health crisis, or situational factors, such as caseload and travel demands, prevent child welfare professionals from safely performing their duties in person. This webpage offers resources to support child welfare agencies and professionals build capacity to work remotely when in-person supervision and visitation practices are inappropriate or impractical.

Improving Human Services Using Virtual Technical Assistance
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (2020)
Presents promising strategies and lessons learned gathered from a literature review and interviews on the use of virtual technical assistance in a human services setting. 

Successful Video Visits With Young Children
Burnson (2020)
National Council on Crime & Delinquency
Provides tips and strategies for overcoming potential challenges when hosting video visits with young children, including when there are technological limitations or language barriers or when participants may be in distress during a call. 

Supervising Child Welfare Professionals Virtually During a Pandemic
Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (2020)
Offers tips and guidance for virtually supervising child welfare professionals, including ways to ensure employees’ emotional and communication needs are met. Also view the webinar, Supporting the Virtual Workforce: Virtual Supervision.

Supporting Child, Caregiver, and Family Well-Being in Times of Crisis: Strategies to Promote Effective Virtual and Phone Engagement

Series Title
Bulletins for Professionals
Author(s)
Child Welfare Information Gateway, Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for States
Availability
View
Download (PDF - 370KB)
Year Published
2020
This bulletin for child-serving professionals outside of child protective services discusses ways to support children and their caregivers and connect them with appropriate resources that may mitigate any risks for harm during crisis situations. This document is organized by the five protective factors that build on family strengths to foster child and youth well-being and development. Each section contains questions that professionals can address with parents/caregivers and with children/youth in the course of their work with families, with an emphasis on content appropriate for virtual visits.

Supporting the Child Welfare Workforce When People Have to Work From Home
Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (2020)
Presents low or no-cost technology options for child welfare agencies to manage a virtual or remote child welfare workforce. 

Tips for Supporting Virtual Family Time

Series Title
Bulletins for Professionals
Author(s)
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability
View
Download (PDF - 393KB)
Order (Free)
Year Published
2020
Provides child welfare professionals with an overview of how they can promote successful virtual family time, including research about virtual interactions, how to prepare children and families, and tips and activities for visits. Family time, also known as parent-child visits, is a key factor in promoting family bonding and setting the stage for successful reunification after a child has been placed in out-of-home care. Although in-person contact is the preferred method for family time, there are extreme occasions when in-person contact is not appropriate or safe, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual family time, during which contact is established through video or streaming services, offers a safe alternative.

Using Media Effectively With Young Children and Virtual Visitation [Webinar]
Florida's Center for Child Welfare (2020)
Presents a two-part webinar series hosted by Dr. Rachal Barr on information, tips, and strategies for using remote and virtual communication to strengthen and maintain relationships between children and their families.

Virtual Case Management Considerations and Resources for Human Services Programs
Waters, Winston, & Ghertner (2020)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation 
Explains three key considerations for performing case management online and over the telephone in place of in-person visits and services. This resource also provides related resources. 

Virtual Communities of Practice in Child Welfare: A Review of the Literature
Richards & Melz (2020)
James Bell Associates
Summarizes research on virtual communities of practices (VCoP) that support peer learning and professional development. The literature review focuses on five components and strategies of successful VCoP: membership, participation, knowledge management and creation, learning, and practice. 

Virtual Home Visits Likely ‘Here to Stay’ After Pandemic Fades, Survey Finds
The Imprint (2021)
Discusses the use of virtual home visits during the COVID-19 pandemic and a survey of child welfare workers that showed virtual visits will remain a good option for connecting with families after the pandemic. 

Virtual Visitation Resources
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau (2020)
Lists resources on the use of virtual visitations in child welfare practice and other fields.

Virtual Workforce Supports
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute
Provides resources to support virtual child welfare practice, including a six-part webinar series, information on facilitating video conferencing, virtual supervision strategies, and more. 

What Do We Know About Services Administered Virtually?
Casey Family Programs (2020)
Describes the benefits of providing virtual services to families and reviews considerations that should be made when planning for virtual engagement. 

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