What Do Professionals Need to Know?
Child Protective Services
How OPDV Can Help
Training
Recognizing that Child Protective Services (CPS) workers frequently face
the unique challenges these two issues present in their cases, the New York
State legislature passed a law (Chapter 280) in 2002 requiring domestic violence
training for all CPS caseworkers and supervisors. In response, the Office
of Children and Family Services (OCFS) and the Office for the Prevention of
Domestic Violence (OPDV) jointly developed training for CPS caseworkers. Since
2004, OPDV trainers have trained approximately 3,000 CPS caseworkers throughout
New York.
Revised Curriculum
March 2007 marked the roll out of a revised CPS curriculum, based in part on the constructive comments from CPS workers during the first three years of training. The following new elements have been included in the training:
- An activity which allows participants to ”walk in the shoes” of a domestic violence survivor who is using different community resources to find safety and support for her children and herself.
- Specific questions for interviewing family members which are printed on perforated pages to make them useable for home visits.
- More information on offender accountability, community resources, and the impact of the Nicholson vs Scoppetta decision when making case determinations.
- Teaching case studies to enhance workers’ expertise in handling complex cases.
Training Description
- Domestic
Violence Training for Child Protective Workers
Brief description of the training, topics, benefits, who should attend, as well as registration and contact information.
Technical Assistance
Project staff are available to provide technical assistance to local districts as their schedules allow. Please contact the Child Protective Services Project at the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence at (518) 457-5987 to find out more information regarding technical assistance.
