Overview
The National Training and Development Curriculum (NTDC) is a comprehensive training program for foster and adoptive parents, currently in the pilot stage. The goal of this project is to improve placement stability, permanency, and child and family well-being for children through the development and efficacy testing of a state-of-the-art training program that provides resource parents (foster, adoptive, and kinship) with the skills and tools needed to effectively parent children who have been exposed to trauma.
In classroom or online sessions, potential foster or adoptive parents receive in-depth training on topics such as attachment, trauma related behavior, and parenting in diverse families. The NTDC was created with input from foster families and former foster and adoptive youth. In order to ensure inclusivity, the training can be adapted to better serve the needs of kinship caregivers, American Indian Alaska Native foster and adoptive parents, as well as families who adopt through inter-county or private domestic adoption processes.
The evaluation of NTDC is a project of the University of Washington School of Social Work (UWSSW) led by Dr. Angelique Day along with Dr. Kevin Haggerty at the Social Development Research Group (SDRG). The project is being conducted by Spaulding for Children. The NTDC is funded by a five-year cooperative agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, and the Children’s Bureau. Integral to the project is its evaluation, which will include process, outcome, and cost evaluations across the eight pilot sites and four private agencies involved in rolling out the NTDC.
Evaluation Team at Partners for our Children
Many of the evaluators associated with the NTDC project are staff at Partners for Our Children. The UWSSW (and by association P4C) and Social Development Research Group (SDRG) are leading the evaluation of the NTDC across eight pilot sites (Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Tribe). The evaluation team will assess the process, outcome, fidelity, dissemination, and cost of the NTDC pilot project. The evaluation team works to ensure accurate tracking and collection of data, evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum and identify barriers to implementation.
The team will evaluate short- and long-term outcomes to understand the impact of the program. Short-term outcomes include parents’ growth in knowledge and attitude shifts, and long-term outcomes include evaluating the impact of the curriculum on placement stability, permanency, and child and family well-being. The cost evaluation will compare the potential savings of this curriculum in comparison to existing training models used at other sites.
Importantly, at the end of the pilot phase, the evaluation team will address the feasibility of rolling out NTDC nationwide.
Once the evaluation is completed and feedback from pilot sites is incorporated into the NTDC, the curriculum will be free to all state, tribal, and territory based child welfare and adoption agencies beginning April 2023.
To learn more about the NTDC curriculum, pilot sites, and other agencies involved in this project please visit the NTDC portal.
