30:4C-2.4 New Jersey Child Welfare Training Academy.

4. a. There is established the New Jersey Child Welfare Training Academy in the Department of Children and Families for the purpose of providing a training program to meet the needs of the child welfare system Statewide. The training program shall provide:

(1) pre-service and in-service training for public employees of the child welfare system;

(2) training opportunities for community-based entities and other child welfare system stakeholders as designated by the commissioner; and

(3) pre-service and in-service training for resource families.

b. The academy shall be responsible for developing and managing the training activities provided under this program, for which purpose it shall:

(1) administer, coordinate and evaluate all training activities under the program;

(2) seek to partner with social work and other professionals to ensure that the training provided under the program reflects best practices;

(3) develop training curricula, resources and products;

(4) schedule and provide notice of training events and provide training materials for those events;

(5) employ and compensate training event instructors as necessary;

(6) create mechanisms and processes to assess, identify and monitor training needs for public employees of the child welfare system, including competency-based training;

(7) create mechanisms and processes to evaluate the effectiveness of the training provided under the program;

(8) provide for the development of multimedia training tools to inform, educate and train public agency staff, resource families and others in the child welfare system;

(9) determine the minimum number of pre-service and in-service training hours required of, and ensure the availability of sufficient training opportunities for, public agency staff Statewide; and

(10) conduct any other activities necessary to develop, implement and manage the training program.

c. The training provided to resource families pursuant to this section shall include courses in the role of caregivers as part of the care and treatment of children requiring out-of-home placement. A resource family parent shall be required to complete the number of hours of pre-service and in-service training prescribed under the training program as a condition of licensure under P.L.2001, c.419 (C.30:4C-27.3 et seq.).

L.2004, c.130, s.4; amended 2006, c.47, s.115.