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Continuous learning benefits everyone involved in our work. The department is committed to building competence and skills. We offer classroom and online training that advances our mission, values and goals. We partner with others to improve.
TrainLink is a partner and provider access point for the department’s learning management system. The TrainLink website contains several Learning Centers as well as links to other department registration systems. Find class schedules, online learning modules and the training registration system. TrainLink keeps track of learner participation, including completed classes and certifications.
Instructions on registering for training classes can be found on Countylink.
Child Welfare Foundation Training is designed and developed for new child protection workers. It provides skill and practice intensive content, combining classroom and web-based modules. In-person classrooms are scheduled and facilitated using a cohort model to enable networking and professional development.
Minnesota Statute 626.559 requires that all individuals employed as child protection workers complete competency-based Foundation training during their first six months of employment. The Minnesota Child Welfare Training System (MCWTS) provides Child Welfare Foundation Training, which meets the requirement outlined in 626.559.
Elements of Child Welfare Foundation training include:
To register: Supervisors must contact Myrna Klegin at myrna.klegin@state.mn.us when a new child protection worker is hired. The supervisor must provide the new employee’s name and email, supervisor name and email. New workers should begin the Child Welfare web-based and NTI modules as soon as they are hired.
In-Person Foundation Classrooms
CSP111C1 Introduction to Foundation Training
This classroom introduces new workers to public child welfare with foundational reflection and interactive activities on one’s personal identities and culture, disparities and disproportionalities, communication and trauma informed practice. Covers best practices for engaging fathers, co-occurring maltreatment and domestic violence, worker safety and self-care.
CSP111C2 Screening, Assessment, and Investigation
This classroom introduces new workers to the steps of screening, intake and investigation in the life of a case. Skills in interviewing and engaging families are practiced to support ongoing partnerships. Discussion and a case study are incorporated that address safety, risk, engagement, assessment, strengths and needs, culture, service plan development and child well-being. Indian Child Welfare Act and its application are covered as it relates to ensuring active efforts for eligible cases.
CSP111C3 Case Management, Court Involvement and Permanency
This classroom focuses on further steps of a case relating to review of placement activities such as identifying relatives, development of an out of home placement plan, entering case data, and permanency planning. A case study is incorporated to practice effective case planning, evidence gathering and documentation, court involvement, and child placement. Best practices and federal and state legal mandates are covered when working with American Indian families and tribes across the life of all types of cases.
Courses available through the Child Welfare Training System (PDF).
To register, go to the Children's Services Learning Center of TrainLink. Registration requires a unique key. To obtain a key:
“Resource family” refers to foster care providers, adoptive and pre-adoptive families and extended family members who may be providing care for children. Thousands of resource families in Minnesota are dedicated to improving the lives of children. This information is also for licensing workers interested in training options for the people they serve.
Foster Parent College is a blended-style classroom and online training for new foster families. It allows parents to complete most of the required training online and take part in only four classroom sessions. It is available in English and Spanish.
Advanced training courses are offered for new and ongoing foster families, with classroom offerings most common, and a small number available online. Courses available through the Child Welfare Training System (PDF)
For more information about upcoming Foster Parent College offerings, contact your local county social service agency.
The Supervision and Leadership curriculum is temporarily not offered while revision for this curricula takes place.
The Minnesota Child Welfare Training System contracts with more than 60 trainers to provide classroom and other training for social workers, supervisors, and resource family providers who work in public child welfare.
The training system seeks Independent contractors to develop curricula and/or provide training to county and tribal child welfare staff and to licensed child foster care providers. Training participants represent the full spectrum of diversity in Minnesota, and the department requests proposals from writers and trainers who reflect this diversity. Independent contractors are needed to to:
The master trainer contract will be open from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2019. Applicants can apply at any point through April 15, 2019 by submitting a proposal as described on this page.
For more information, contact Andrea Bartels at 651-431-4686 or send a message to dhscsp.trainerproposals@state.mn.us.
To request training, send the following information to Angela Jensen at angela.jensen@state.mn.us: Title of training requested, preferred dates and times, and training location, including the street address, city, and zip code.
Register now
The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act amended federal foster care Title IV-E, requiring states to support normalcy for all children in foster care. Children and youth in foster care need to experience the same types of developmentally appropriate and social activities that their friends, families and classmates — who are not in care — experience. This law permits foster parents, designated corporate foster care staff and residential staff to allow foster children to participate in normal childhood activities, including…, by applying the Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard.
This two-hour training is required for child welfare case managers of foster care placements, child foster care licensing staff, child foster care parents, and designated staff at corporate or residential facilities. Clarify; do they need to review these documents and then are considered trained?
Those working with children or families are legally required to report suspected child abuse or neglect.
Course name: CSP204B Facilities Investigations
Course description: Participants will build on existing knowledge, assessment strengths and skills in child protection investigations. They will gain specialized knowledge of the investigation processes to assess alleged maltreatment in a facility (child foster care, family child care or juvenile correctional facilities located within an agency’s jurisdiction). The course explores the “gray areas” unique to facility investigations, and the differing and complementary roles and responsibilities of the child protection investigator and the facility licensor. Participants review the process for facility investigations, including the intake process, evidence gathering, appropriate disposition and determination notices. It is expected that participants will have completed Child Welfare Foundation Training and is preferred that participants have completed forensic child interviewing training.
Contact: Angela Jensen, angela.jensen@state.mn.us, to schedule this training course.
Call 651-431-2354
