The Presence of Maltreatment Fatality-Related Content in Pre-service Child Welfare Training Curricula: A Brief Report of 20 States

The purpose of this study was to assess the presence of evidence-based information about child maltreatment fatalities (CMFs) and risk factors for CMFs in pre-service child welfare training curricula in the United States. In this first paper to examine the extent to which child welfare workers receive content on CMFs in their pre-service child welfare training, we reviewed curricula from 20 states. We searched for content related to risk assessment and fatality characteristics in the following areas: child risk factors, parent risk factors, and family/household risk factors. Our results suggest that workers’ receive very little content regarding CMFs. We discuss the findings with regard to child welfare training and practice.