Child Welfare Education Program
The Child Welfare Education Program (CWEP) is a collaborative effort between the School of Social Work and the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS). The program assists students pursuing their Master of Social Work degree with a focus of study in child welfare by providing tuition assistance and educational support.
The primary goals of the program are to:
- Recruit promising social work graduates into long-term public child welfare careers.
- Increase professional skills of public child welfare practitioners within DHS and enhance public awareness of the role of the agency.
- Promote increased work force diversity reflective of the changing multicultural nature of our state
- Develop and implement advanced curricula that increase the relevancy of social work theory to child welfare practice.
- Provide research opportunities and resources for examining the effectiveness of the social work educational process and the ways in which public child welfare can help children and their families.
- Provide statewide access to an M.S.W. with a focus of study in child welfare in collaboration with the School of Social Work’s Distance Graduate Education Option.
Tuition and Educational Support
Students admitted to the Child Welfare Education Program can receive up to $6,000 per year toward tuition, depending on the number of credits registered for each term. Students are funded through the use of Federal Title IV-E funds. While in the program, students are required to be in field placements that work with Title IV-E eligible families, which include work with families whose children are in substitute care or at risk of being placed outside the home. Students in the Child Welfare Education Program also receive educational support while in the M.S.W. program. Upon acceptance, a student is assigned a faculty advisor who will support their educational development throughout the program. The faculty advisor serves as the liaison to the field placement. Students participate in a required elective on social work practice in child welfare as well as other child welfare electives, and can choose between Community-Based Practice and Social Service Administration and Management in their advanced practice year.
Payback Obligation
Upon acceptance into the Child Welfare Education Program and before receiving Title IV-E tuition assistance, a student signs an agreement with the Oregon Department of Human Services that details the responsibilities of the agency and the student. The student agrees to work for DHS in a child welfare capacity upon graduation from Portland State University’s M.S.W. program. The payback obligation is one year of employment for every year of tuition support. The exact period of the work obligation varies depending upon the length of each student's participation in the program.
Applying to the Child Welfare Education Program
The Child Welfare Education Program requires a separate application in addition to the application for the Graduate School of Social Work. Only those who submit application to the school by February 1 or those currently enrolled in PSU's M.S.W. program are eligible to apply to the program. Students may apply for funding in any year of their M.S.W. program. Strong program candidates will have experience working with children and families, familiarity with Oregon's public child welfare system and a desire to make a significant contribution to the field of public child welfare.
You can download the application here.
For more information about the Child Welfare Education Program please contact us at:
Child Welfare Education Program
Child Welfare Partnership
520 SW Harrison, Suite 440
Portland, OR 97201
1-800-547-8887, ext 8086
FAX: 503-725-8030
