Children & Families

SHIFT Research Institute

CalHOPE Student Support

CalHOPE Student Support is a multi-stakeholder, partnered initiative – between sectors, across regions, and between system levels, intended to help California educators since 2021 in the unprecedented task of bringing children back into and improving the normative routines of learning and development by strengthening capacity for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) implementation statewide.

The CalHOPE Student Support is led by the Sacramento County...

BASEL

The Berkeley Assessment of Social and Emotional Learning (BASEL; © Regents of the University of California) is a formative assessment tool that can be administered to students, teachers, and leaders to guide SEL implementation for equity and wellbeing.

The BASEL (pronounced: basil) includes brief surveys that can be used for immediate action and transformative change. It can be administered in conjunction with Kelvin’s survey platform...

Feature: Jill Duerr Berrick on Court-Appointed Special Advocates

January 30, 2024

Imprint Magazine | Michael Fitzgerald

"For decades, hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country have had a rare opportunity to shape the lives of foster children. Court-Appointed Special Advocates meet with kids, confer with social workers and lawyers, and write official reports to judges. These unique relationships begin when the juvenile courts assign a “CASA” or “guardian ad litem.”

But today, the 40-year-old organization overseeing this national network of volunteers faces unprecedented scrutiny. Following a financial review, in early 2023 the U.S....

"The Questions That Must Be Answered" - Jill Duerr Berrick Co-Authors Essay on Child Welfare

September 6, 2023

"Seasons of sadness and confusion are a natural part of the life cycle for humans and their institutions. Although they are perhaps inevitable, they can be debilitating.

The child welfare profession is in the middle of such a season right now. Unable to recruit and retain enough qualified staff, struggling to manage the front door of the system, resorting to the use of hotels and even agency waiting rooms for hard-to-place youth, the situation appears far more precarious than in previous years.

As recently as a decade ago, we were hopeful that our goal of safely reducing the...