Introduction

This document provides a comprehensive recap of the goals, accomplishments, and pending initiatives of the California Child Welfare Training (CACWT) Workgroup for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2024, and ending June 30th, 2025. The workgroup, a collaborative effort involving the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), Regional Training Academies (RTAs), county representatives, and system developers, has focused on enhancing the statewide training system to better support California's child welfare workforce. 

This summary outlines the key objectives roadmapped for development, goals successfully achieved, and items that remain pending, concluding with suggestions for the upcoming fiscal year. 

The information is drawn from workgroup meeting minutes, executive summaries, and internal planning documents from fiscal year 2024-25.

Goals or Features Roadmapped for Development

The workgroup identified several key initiatives and features to be developed to improve the CACWT system's functionality, integration, and user experience.

• System Enhancements:

  • Trainer Certification & Dashboard: Development of a comprehensive Trainer Certification feature, including a customized instructor dashboard with Single Sign-On (SSO) into Anthology, instructor badging, and various certification reports.

  • Manager/Supervisor Dashboard: Creation of a dedicated dashboard for managers and supervisors to track their staff's training progress and compliance.

  • Enrollment & User Management: Modifying the enrollment CSV import to use Section ID as the unique identifier instead of course name to prevent errors. Building a feature to bulk update usernames and emails.

  • Evaluation Management: Adding a checkbox to the section editor to allow administrators to hold evaluations until they are manually released.

  • Reporting: Development of a Survey Audit Report and improving the Training Delivery Report by adding filters to exclude "eLearning" sections and isolate specific "California" courses.

• System Integrations:

  • Virtual Conferencing Platform: Full adoption and integration of a native virtual conferencing platform (Class for Zoom/Teams) within the CACWT system to standardize virtual training delivery.

  • Curriculum Repository: Integration of a comprehensive Curriculum Repository and management tool within CACWT.

• CACWT Support:

  • Tiered Support System: Refining the tiered support model, including developing processes for triaging CARES tickets and Class virtual session tickets, and exploring the use of "Light Agents" for RTA staff in the ticketing platform.

  • Onboarding: Developing new onboarding features and guided tours for system administrators, instructors, and trainees.

Goals Successfully Met

Throughout the fiscal year, the workgroup successfully implemented numerous system enhancements, policy updates, and curriculum revisions.

• System Enhancements & Fixes:

  • Account Creation: Deployed changes to the Self-Account Creation page for Community Based Organizations (CBOs), simplifying the form and adding an agency dropdown. A verification message for pending account approval was also implemented.

  • Email Functionality: Implemented an automated email template for incomplete evaluations and enhanced the bulk email feature to show selected learners.

  • CSV Imports: Deployed updated "Learners" and "Sections" CSV import templates.

  • Reporting: Launched several new custom reports, including County Participant, County Completed Training Hours, Section Enrollment, Training Type, and a consolidated Attendance Report.

  • Learner Dashboard: Added a waitlisted tab to the pending courses module on the learner dashboard and a refresh button to update all statuses.

  • YouTube Channel: The old CalSWEC YouTube channel was successfully rebranded as the CACWT channel, and a new channel was later launched with restored video content.

  • Course Catalog Revert: The plan to revert the course catalog to its original, simpler format has been deployed to the public catalog and learner dashboard.

• System Integrations:

  • Class for Zoom Pilot: Procured a one-year pilot of Class for Zoom, including 25 Zoom Pro licenses, to analyze the product for potential system-wide adoption.

• Policy Development & Implementation:

  • Expanded Audience Access: Developed and implemented a process for county-vetted CBOs, Tribes, Juvenile Probation Placement Officers, and Mental/Behavioral Health agencies to gain access to the CACWT system.

  • Attendance Management: Initiated discussions and proposed a universal Attendance Management Procedure to ensure consistent and accurate release of evaluations, though a uniform process has not yet been adopted.

• Curriculum Management:

  • Curriculum Revisions: Successfully revised and deployed updates for numerous courses, including Supervisor Core (Days 1, 7, 8, 9, 10), Field Advisor Training, Common Core 3.5 Structured Tools Skills Lab, CSEC 101, and IP-CANS.

  • New Curriculum: Added several new courses to CACWT, such as "Supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ Youth Impacted by Commercial Sexual Exploitation" and "Individualized Care for Youth with Complex Needs."

  • Statewide Evaluation Guide: Updated the guide to include current instructions for managing Field Activities.

  • Change Log: Maintained a public-facing Curriculum Change Log to provide transparency on all updates to state-standardized training.

Goals That Are Pending

Several roadmapped goals and initiatives remain in progress, on hold, or have been delayed.

• System Enhancements:

  • Trainer Certification: While planned, development for the full trainer certification feature set has not yet started as of the end of the fiscal year. This integration will be revisited after the CalWISE oversight committee is formed and can provide more feedback towards development and implementation.

• System Integrations:

  • Curriculum Repository: This integration will be revisited after the CalWISE oversight committee is formed and can provide more feedback towards development and implementation.

• System Policy & Support:

  • Standardized Attendance Policy: The creation of a single, standardized attendance policy is still pending consensus among all RTAs and partners.

  • Trainer Resource Forum: The Trainer Resource and Curriculum Feedback Forum initiative is on hold, with feedback being temporarily routed to cwstrainingquestions@dss.ca.gov.

Suggestions for Improvement in the Next Fiscal Year

Based on the challenges and discussions from the past year, the following are suggestions for improvement:

1. Standardize Key System Policies: Prioritize reaching a consensus on a universal attendance management policy. A standardized approach will improve data consistency for evaluations and streamline support. Establishing clear policies for curriculum release cycles and trainer onboarding would also reduce regional inconsistencies.

2. Focus on Data Integrity and Migration: Dedicate resources to completing the historical data migration. Inaccurate or incomplete learner transcripts due to migration issues create significant administrative overhead and confusion. Similarly, prioritize the modification of the enrollment import to use a unique identifier like Section ID to prevent errors.

3. Streamline the Curriculum Development-to-Evaluation Pipeline: Foster closer collaboration between the curriculum and evaluation workgroups from the beginning of any new development or revision project. This ensures that evaluation needs are built into the curriculum design, rather than being addressed after the fact, which can lead to delays and rework.

Accelerate Development of High-Impact Features: Focus development efforts on completing the Trainer and Supervisor Dashboards. These features have been consistently requested and are expected to provide significant value by empowering trainers and managers with direct access to relevant data and resources.