|
The 2022 Employee Annual Review Checklist was assigned to all DCYF employees in the Washington State Learning Center, on Thursday, Sept. 1. The 2022 review must be completed via the Washington State Learning Center in the online module by Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. This gives employees roughly eight weeks to review the policies and complete the attestations. Employees who joined DCYF on or after Sept. 1, 2022, are not required to take this review as all applicable information is captured in their new hire paperwork and orientation.
We want to ensure that staff know how to access the Learning Center and what to do if they experience any launch issues. Please be sure to use Chrome as your web browser when launching the Learning Center, which is on the DCYF intranet under the Personnel tab, HR Training and Development page.
To access the Employee Annual Review Checklist module, log into the Washington State Learning Center, click the “Self” button in the upper left navigation, select Dashboards, and select My Experience Hub (see screen shot listed below).
For questions related to the Washington State Learning Center, please contact DCYF Learning Center.
screen shot of Washington State Learning Center website
Additional Information on the Learning Center
We wanted to provide some reminders for staff and supervisors as they use the Learning Center.
The absolute soonest anyone can access the Learning Center when starting with DCYF is on the second day of employment. For this to occur:
- For new DCYF employees, supervisors must submit all new employee paperwork to HR prior to the employee’s first day of work;
- The new employee must be entered in to the HR Management System (HRMS); and
-
Have submitted the employee ID number to the IT Service Desk so that it can be added to the employee Active Directory account. (This is the main reason staff cannot access the Learning Center.)
When you complete an online training, the completion takes at least 10 minutes before you see the status of the training show up as complete, but this can take as long as overnight, to update in the platform.
If you do not see the correct supervisor to employee relationship in Learning Center, please contact your local HR Consultant. This information will need to be update in HRMS.
If you have completed a statewide required training at a different state agency, you will still be assigned the training at DCYF. By processing your assignment, the Learning Center will acknowledge the previous completion. This is a platform setting that we cannot change. Staff need to complete the registration process of the assigned training for the Learning Center to be able to acknowledge the previous completions.
For questions related to the Washington State Learning Center, please contact the DCYF Learning Center.
The 6620 Referrals to the Division of Child Support policy was revised and went into effect Sept. 1, 2022, and is posted on the DCYF internet.
The changes reflect the end of the automatic referral process to start collecting child support 72 hours after a child or youth is removed from the parents’ or guardians’ care and custody. As of Sept. 1, 2022, only cases where there is a court finding of abandonment, as defined in RCW 13.34.030, will be referred to the Division of Child Support unless good cause exists to not pursue that collection. DCYF wants to minimize the number of referrals and revise good cause criteria as the pervious process caused financial hardship and delayed reunification.
For questions, please contact Tara Camp.
Fall is in the air, and we’re kicking off September with School Attendance Awareness Month. Did you know that missing 10% of school days for any reason can translate into having difficulty learning to read by third grade, achieving in middle school years, and graduating from high school? Just two absences per month are enough to dramatically impact academic success. Further, children experiencing poverty are three times more likely to be chronically absent from school, with students from communities of color and those with disabilities being disproportionately affected.
Fortunately, it’s a solvable problem and one that DCYF is dedicated to remedying. Here are some examples of DCYF’s efforts to promote school attendance for our youth:
- DCYF’s early learning programs, like ECEAP and Head Start, help young children build good attendance habits early and create a solid foundation for successful learning later in life.
- The Educational Advocacy Program provides direct advocacy, consultation, information, and referral services for youth in care. Coordinators offer services designed to help keep foster youth engaged in school and progress toward graduation.
- The Education and Training Voucher (ETV) program provides financial support to dependent youth ages 16-20 to attend college, university, or vocational and technical college. In the past academic year, DCYF provided nearly $600,000 in ETVs to help 171 students stay in school and achieve their educational and career goals.
- Juvenile Rehabilitation (JR) is structuring educational environments to encourage youth to show up and is using their feedback to strengthen and improve JR education systems through a series of focus groups and listening sessions hosted by JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA). Through this partnership, we’re empowering youth by investing in them with transformative leadership training.
- JR is partnering with Educational Consultant Dr. Lisa Hoyt to develop a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework to improve outcomes and increase collaboration between DCYF and the school districts providing education in JR facilities. This intentional effort to build strong community, as well as early identification and intervention, helps to reach students in a preventative rather than reactive mode and increases the success of student outcomes.
DCYF’s vision is to see all of Washington’s children and youth thriving physically, emotionally, and educationally, nurtured by family and community. Regular school attendance is an essential part of that. Learn more about School Attendance Awareness Month at attendanceworks.org.
|
The Peer Support Team is hosting a statewide meeting specifically for DCYF staff that work outside of the traditional 8 to 5 Monday through Friday schedules, often referred to as afterhours. This meeting is intended to discuss challenges, share information, and identify solutions that are unique to afterhours roles.
The Afterhours Peer Support Meeting is scheduled:
- Thursday, Sept. 8 | Afterhours Peer Support Meeting | 8 – 9 p.m. | Register
The established Peer Support Drop-In sessions will continue to be open to all DCYF staff and are held on the second Thursday of every month at 1 p.m. The next Peer Support session:
- Thursday, Sept. 8 | Peer Support Drop-In session | 1 – 2 p.m. | Register
For individual or team support:
If you or someone you know would be interested in volunteering with peer support, please email us!
|
After a year and a half of planning and a successful pilot, DCYF is officially launching a RESJ Book Club for staff across Washington State.
The first RESJ Book Club choice is Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi.
DCYF will provide books for all who participate. The goal is for staff to attend the monthly book club via Zoom to lean into RESJ and hard conversations in a new way.
We will meet on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022, from 1-2:30 p.m. to offer an orientation. During this session, we will:
- Provide some background and context around the agency’s RESJ Book Club
- Discuss which chapters to read and when
- Answer questions
As change is always a constant, the October and November dates are being reconsidered, and we will provide an update as soon as possible.
That said, we have extended our timeline to register. If you are interested in participating, please complete this form by Friday, Sept. 9, 2022, to ensure we get a book to you before the first meeting.
Once you have completed the registration process, please keep an eye out for an additional email with detailed information.
If you are interested in providing support during the Book Club’s small group discussions or have any questions, email Minnette Mason or Carissa Stone. We also have an inbox for “all-things RESJ Book Club”: dcyf.resjbookclub@dcyf.wa.gov.
|
|
