Modify Wisely
The survey is intended to be a quick, user-friendly tool designed for busy workers. Adding questions can cause participation to drop, which can make the survey results less valuable to an agency.
This guide helps child welfare agencies deploy a simple online survey — the Kinship Diversion Estimation Tool — to gain a better understanding of how and when caseworkers are diverting children to kin. It includes step-by-step instructions, survey screenshots, sample emails and more so that jurisdictions can easily gather information and then use what they’ve learned to inform workplace discussions and decisions related to kin diversion practices.
The Kinship Diversion Estimation Tool, developed by Child Trends with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, surveys caseworkers who directly support children and families. It helps jurisdictions pinpoint regional or unit-level variations in diversion use, how workers feel about kinship diversion, the typical characteristics of kids involved in diversions, and what caseworker practices follow a decision to divert a child from foster care.