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Casey Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP): User’s manual (2nd ed.)

Technical Report · January 2006

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 Casey Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP)
User’s Manual (2nd ed.)
Sunday, October 29, 2006

Kathryn W. Rhodes
Mary Ellen Cox
John G. Orme
Tanya M. Coakley
Cheryl Buehler
Gary S. Cuddeback
 Table of Contents
Preface................................................................................................ 3
CFFA Home Page ............................................................................................................. 5
Foster Family Assessments Listserv ............................................................................... 5
Acknowledgements ................................................................................ 6
Casey Family Programs..................................................................................................... 6
University of Tennessee Family Foster Care Project ................................................... 6
Acknowledgments to Supporting Professionals and Parents...................................... 7
Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................... 9
Overview............................................................................................................................. 9
Foster Family Characteristics Assessed with the CHAP ........................................... 10
Brief Descriptions of the CHAP Measures ................................................................. 11
What the CHAP Adds to Foster Family Assessment ................................................ 15
How the CHAP Fits with Other Selection Tools....................................................... 16
How to Use CHAP Information................................................................................... 16
How NOT to Use CHAP Information........................................................................ 17
Training Requirements for Foster Care Workers ....................................................... 18
How to Obtain the CHAP ............................................................................................. 18
Chapter 2: Administering the CHAP ......................................................... 19
Taking a Team Approach for Collaborative Assessment .......................................... 19
Getting the Most Accurate CHAP Information ......................................................... 21
Computer or Paper-and-Pencil...................................................................................... 23
When to Administer the CHAP Components ............................................................ 23
Conducting the Fostering Challenge Interview........................................................... 28
Sharing Information with Applicants ........................................................................... 28
Chapter 3: Scoring and Interpretation ....................................................... 30
Reports .............................................................................................................................. 30
CHAP-SR Scores ............................................................................................................. 30
Fostering Challenge Vignette Scores ............................................................................ 32
Completing the CHAP-SR Online................................................................................ 37
Chapter 4: Frequently Asked Questions ..................................................... 41
Chapter 5: Planned Revisions .................................................................. 46
References ......................................................................................... 47
Appendix 1: Sample Reports ................................................................... 49
CHAP Summary Report (Applicants) .......................................................................... 49
CHAP Summary Report (Workers) .............................................................................. 54

2
 Preface
Foster family selection is a mutual decision-making process by which agencies ensure
that families who foster can provide safe, stable, nurturing environments for children
and youth. Engaging interested individuals to develop the knowledge, abilities, and
resources to be successful foster parents requires careful assessment. Through
assessment, applicants learn about foster care and evaluate their potential for
fostering. At the same time, the agency gathers information about applicants to
project how they will function with the agency and what supports they will need.
Effective methods for assessing foster parent applicants are critical to this decision-
making process. Assessment tools should:

¾ Inform applicants about foster care in a way that builds enthusiasm,

competence, and commitment
¾ Support applicants’ self-assessment about their abilities to care for
children and to work in partnerships
¾ Guide the information-gathering process in a thorough, efficient way
¾ Identify applicants who will provide safe, stable family environments
for foster children
¾ Identify areas in which applicants will need additional support and
training to formulate plans for ongoing foster home development
¾ Identify applicants who are less suited for fostering and respectfully
enable them to withdraw from the process

Casey Foster Family Assessments (CFFA) provide such assessment tools. The CFFA
consists of the Casey Foster Applicant Inventory (CFAI) and the Casey Home
Assessment Protocol (CHAP). This manual and the CHAP Technical Manual
describe the CHAP. The CFAI is described in more detail in the CFAI User’s and
Technical Manuals. Also, the Foster Fathers’ CFAI-A and CHAP-SR Technical
Manual describes the sample, design, and measures used to test the CFAI-A and the
CHAP-SR with foster fathers.
The CHAP is a set of standardized assessment tools that is used with foster family
applicants during the selection process. Its primary purpose is to help you and
applicants identify their strengths and target areas for further development, with the
ultimate goal of partnering foster parents with agencies in long-term commitments to
provide quality care for children and youth. The CHAP has two parts: (1) a set of
self-report questionnaires to be completed by the applicant and (2) the Fostering
Challenge interview, presented and rated by the foster care worker.
Foster family assessment involves comprehensively evaluating many aspects of
family life in a timely fashion. Agencies explore with applicants their abilities and
capacities to care for children and youth and to work with the agency. The focus is
on qualities and characteristics that are indicators of effective fostering. Agencies
typically ask applicants about reasons for fostering, family background that may
influence current family functioning, physical and mental health, family functioning,
parenting style, family resources, social supports, ability to foster children of

3
different cultural backgrounds, readiness to foster, and capacity to meet the
challenges of fostering.
Assessment requires sound information and good professional judgment to
accurately synthesize and interpret what is learned about applicants. Professional
judgments based on information gathered with standardized assessment tools
produce useful and balanced recommendations. Standardized tools highlight relevant
information, focus communication between workers and applicants, and increase
accountability by providing quantitative information that can be incorporated easily
into reports. Standardized tools also save money and professional time, especially
when these tools require relatively little training or effort to use.
Standardized tools for assessing foster family applicants also facilitate knowledge and
program development. They can be used to evaluate pre- and during-service training
programs. Having standardized methods for data-gathering improves knowledge
about successful foster care and important outcomes for children such as safety,
well-being, and permanence. Finally, standardized methods can be used to better
understand family qualities and characteristics and important outcomes for foster
families, such as retention, satisfaction, and well-being.
Based on the advantages of standardized tools and on interests in developing foster
families and improving service delivery to foster children, Casey Family Programs
supported the development of The Casey Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP). The
CHAP is a set of standardized measures that foster family applicants and their
workers complete during the selection process that have been tested with foster
parents. The CHAP identifies applicants’ strengths and areas for further
development and support, with the ultimate goal of facilitating quality care for
children. The CHAP is copyrighted, and as such, cannot be modified by users. It can
be used without charge and without permission from the copyright holders. We
hope you find it useful in your work with foster family applicants.

4
 Qualities and Characteristics Assessed

Reasons for Fostering

Family History
Physical and Mental Health
Family Functioning
Parenting Styles
Family Resources
Social Supports
Cultural Competency
Readiness
Capacity to Meet Challenges

Worker’s Applicant’s
Professional Judgment Self-Assessment

Recommendations for
Licensure

CFFA Home Page

The CFFA home page is http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org.

Foster Family Assessments Listserv

You can join our listserv to receive CFFA information and updates automatically by
e-mail. Find the link for Join the Foster Family Assessments listserv on the left-hand
column of the home page (http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org), then click on
the button and complete the requested information. You will receive an e-mail
confirming that you want to join the listserv.

5
 Acknowledgements
The CHAP is a product of the Family Foster Care Project of the University of
Tennessee in collaboration with Casey Family Programs. We have developed the
CHAP with the input of researchers, administrators, workers, and foster parents who
are dedicated to improving the quality of foster care services for families, youth, and
children.

Casey Family Programs

Casey Family Programs’ mission is to provide and improve—and ultimately to
prevent the need for—foster care.
Established by United Parcel Service founder Jim Casey, the Seattle-based national
operating foundation has served children, youth, and families in the child welfare
system since 1966.
The foundation operates in two ways. It provides direct services, and it promotes
advances in child welfare practice and policy.
Casey collaborates with foster, kinship, and adoptive parents to provide safe, loving
homes for youth in its direct care. The foundation also collaborates with counties,
states, and American Indian and Alaska Native tribes to improve services and
outcomes for the more than 500,000 young people in out-of-home care across the
United States
Drawing on four decades of front-line work with families and alumni of foster care,
Casey Family Programs develops tools, practices, and policies to nurture all youth in
care and to help parents strengthen families at risk of needing foster care.
For more information about the CFFA, contact Casey Family Programs at 1300
Dexter Avenue North, Floor 3, Seattle, WA 98109, or e-mail cffa@casey.org.
Visit the Casey Family Programs web site at www.casey.org.

University of Tennessee Family Foster Care Project

It’s been known for many years that standardized measures with demonstrated
reliability and validity are needed to assess foster family applicants. Our
multidisciplinary team from the University of Tennessee worked in collaboration
with Casey Family Programs to develop and test two such tools, the Casey Home
Assessment Protocol (CHAP) and the Casey Foster Applicant Inventory (CFAI) (see
the CFAI manuals). These two measures were designed to complement each other
and together they were designed to assess a broad range of characteristics of foster
parents thought related to the quality of family foster care.
More generally, our team is committed to conducting interdisciplinary practice-
relevant foster family research that can be used to promote the safety, permanence,
and well-being of children placed with foster families. This research was supported
by Casey Family Programs, and was previously supported by the National Institutes
of Mental Health through the Children’s Mental Health Services Research Center.
To date it includes research on the:

6
 ¾ recruitment of foster families;
¾ foster family characteristics and behavioral and emotional problems of
foster children;
¾ assessment of foster family applicants and the relationships between
such characteristics and the selection and retention of foster families;
¾ role perceptions of foster family applicants and foster family workers;
¾ factors that promote or inhibit effective fostering;
¾ characteristics of foster parents willing to foster special-needs children
and the relationship of such willingness to foster family utilization;
¾ training and services for kinship and non-kinship foster families;
¾ causes and correlates of placement instability; and
¾ long-term outcomes of family foster care.

Our publications and presentations of the above research can be viewed and
obtained from our web site: http://utcmhsrc.csw.utk.edu/caseyproject/.

Acknowledgments to Supporting Professionals and

Parents
As with all collaborative projects, we would not have been able to develop the Casey
Home Assessment Protocol without the assistance of many people. We received
excellent advice and support from the following (titles reflect their positions at the
time): Kathy Barbell (Director of the Casey National Center for Resource Family
Support), Mia Alvarado (Senior Specialist, Enterprise Development, Casey Family
Programs), Terry Flynn (Manager, Massachusetts Department of Social Services,
Boston Region), Fran Gutterman (Senior Enterprise Development Specialist), Rose
Quinby (Director of Social Work Practice Clearinghouse), Margaret Wilkins (Foster
Parent, Casey Family Programs Tacoma Division), Emily Hart (Case Assistant, Casey
Family Programs Tacoma Division), Elaine Manson (Branch Director, Canterbury
Branch of The Open Home Foundation, Christchurch, New Zealand), Jeanne
Dederer (Family Developer, Casey Family Programs Seattle Division), Phyllis Souza
(System's Improvement Specialist), Sasha Russell (formerly Regional Training
Specialist), Misty Stenslie (formerly Director of Alumnae Relations), Ilana Guttmann
(formerly Regional Training Specialist), Kelly Sim (Research Specialist, Casey Family
Programs Research Services), Wayne Johnson (Administrative Assistant, Casey
Family Programs Research Services).
Casey program staff Margie Higa-Funai, Phyllis Habib, Ward Townsend, Terri Lum,
Anna Kamman, Becky Kennedy, Chris Hall, and Dana Apo and Gloria Bethel, Mae
Bullock, Sue Davis, Debra Tolliver and Shereece Greene, with the Department of
Social Services, Greensboro, North Carolina, lent their perspectives as foster home
developers by reviewing the CHAP and participating in focus groups on using the
measures in practice. Casey resource families Ora Brown, and Earl and Patty Hamm
provided valuable perspective about the usefulness of the measures and gave input
for developing the Fostering Challenges rating scale.
The Family Foster Care Advisory Board was formed to keep us on track by
providing a real world perspective. Trent Barstad, Carolyn Thomas, Dianne

7
Kirkpatrick, Lesa Davis, Margie Frizzell, Mary Herrick, Pat McDaniel, and Terri Lum
reviewed materials for us. We thank them for their dedication.
There were many others we turned to at different points in our journey, depending
upon what we needed at the moment. Terri-Combs-Orme (University of Tennessee
College of Social Work) provided critical feedback on our work at each step of the
process. Karen Franck (University of Tennessee Department of Child and Family
Studies) reviewed the CHAP and provided technical assistance. Karen Jorgenson
(National Foster Parent Association) provided great suggestions for how to contact
resource parents and provided support and encouragement in numerous other ways.
Karen Sowers (Dean, University of Tennessee College of Social Work) supported
and encouraged this project in many different ways. Melody Kirby, Cathy Greenberg,
Melissa Ray, Shannon Sharp. Debra Garbe, Martha Harris, Philip Green, Laura
Webster, and Daniel Green – all at the University of Tennessee, College of Social
Work – provided wonderful administrative support all along the way. Kelly Sim and
Wayne Johnson - Jay Mezek, Scott Hunter, Rob Schroeder, Kimberly Ransiear –
Technology Services staff at Casey – helped us conceptualize technological solutions
to making the CHAP widely available.
We owe our livelihood to those individuals at Casey who demonstrated their belief
and commitment to this work by authorizing the financial support to make the work
possible. Thanks to Peter Pecora for his support in helping to initiate the project and
providing guidance at the beginning. Thanks to Jim Marquart, Ken Perry, Patsy
Sellars and Carol Boone – who continue to advocate and support our efforts to
improve services for youth by improving services to resource families.
Many of the state and local foster parent associations and foster parent conferences
helped us recruit participants for the foster mother study. We appreciate their
willingness to work with us and put up with our marketing efforts. We are deeply
grateful to these groups.

8
 Chapter 1: Introduction

In This Chapter
¾ Foster family characteristics assessed by the CHAP
¾ Brief descriptions of the CHAP measures
¾ What the CHAP adds to foster family assessment
¾ How the CHAP fits with other selection tools
¾ How to use CHAP information
¾ How NOT to use CHAP information
¾ Training requirements for foster care workers
¾ How to obtain the CHAP measures

Overview
The CFFA consists of the Casey Foster Applicant Inventory (CFAI) and the Casey
Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP). This manual and the CHAP Technical Manual
describe the CHAP. The CFAI is described in more detail in the CFAI User’s and
Technical Manuals. Also, the Foster Fathers’ CFAI-A and CHAP-SR Technical
Manual describes the sample, design, and measures used to test the CFAI-A and the
CHAP-SR with foster fathers.
This manual is for agency leaders and foster care workers who assess, train, and
develop foster families. It tells you about how to use the CHAP with foster families.
The CHAP was developed for assessing foster parent applicants. It also can be
adapted for use with adoptive applicants and practicing foster parents.
The User’s Manual introduces the CHAP, discusses how to use CHAP to assess
foster parent applicants, and tells how to administer it. Everything you need to
administer the CHAP and interpret scores is in this User’s Manual.
The Technical Manual describes the conceptual foundations of the CHAP, how we
developed components of the protocol, and results of reliability and validity studies
with the CHAP. As you read the User’s Manual and want more information about an
area of the CHAP, refer to the Technical Manual.
The CHAP consists of the CHAP-SR self-report questionnaires and the Fostering
Challenge Interviews. Throughout this manual we refer to all of the measures and
interviews as the CHAP. However, agencies can decide to use all or part of the
CHAP. Agencies also can select specific parts of the protocol to measure
characteristics of particular interest. Having options to choose measures from the
CHAP allows maximum flexibility to tailor assessment procedures for applicant
groups or when recruiting specific types of placements for children.

Terms We Use
Terminology varies from agency to agency. We use the following terms in the CHAP
Manual.

9
 Foster family refers to families who provide temporary out-of-home care for
children in foster care. This can include families who provide short-term, long-term,
therapeutic, and emergency placements for children.
Family foster care worker or worker refers to an agency employee assigned
to work with a foster family applicant or practicing foster parent.
Applicant refers to an individual who has applied with an agency to provide family
foster care.
Selection refers to the mutual decision-making process that occurs between the
applicant and the agency, and that results in recommendations regarding licensure.
Licensure refers to the state or agency licensing, approval, or certification process
for becoming a foster family.

Foster Family Characteristics Assessed with the

CHAP
Fostering has similarities to parenting one’s own children. There also are unique
aspects of foster care associated with joining agencies in a common mission to
protect children and strengthen families. Foster families’ decisions and actions have
to comply with the mandates and policies of foster care and with court orders
governing care and permanency plans for children.
Successful foster parents have characteristics and assets that support their knowledge
and skills about parenting and about foster care. They also often require external
supports and services. Foster families’ characteristics and assets affect the quality of
children’s foster care experiences while they are with foster families. They also relate
to outcomes such as foster parent satisfaction and retention that affect the overall
quality of foster care.
Our review of family foster care research, assessment and training materials, existing
parenting research relevant to family foster care, standards for family foster care, and
input from foster care workers and foster parents suggest assessing a range of
personal and family characteristics in order to identify foster parent strengths and
areas for development. Some of these factors are indicators of strengths for parents
in general. Other factors are specific to foster parenting. In order to address these
factors, we have compiled or developed a wide variety of measures to assess foster
parent applicants.
The CHAP includes measures to assess the following areas:

¾ Reasons for fostering

¾ Mental health, especially depression
¾ Substance abuse
¾ Stressful life events
¾ Hardiness (i.e. a sense of purpose, seeing changes as a normal part of
life, perceived influence over life events)
¾ Marital satisfaction
¾ Marital conflict

10
 ¾ Parenting styles
¾ Applicant’s childhood relationships with his/her parents
¾ Receptivity to fostering children of different cultural and racial
backgrounds
¾ Beliefs about caring for others (sensitivity to others needs, commitment
to caring, etc.)
¾ Supports for fostering
¾ Time available for fostering
¾ Receptivity to birth family connections
¾ Willingness to foster children with different types of problems
¾ Capacity to meet fostering challenges

Chapter 1 in the CHAP Technical Manual provides a detailed discussion of the

theoretical background of the CHAP. There are other important qualities and
characteristics for foster families that aren’t included in the CHAP. Some of
these areas include co-parental decision-making, family routines, flexibility, and
knowledge of and ability to promote child development.

Brief Descriptions of the CHAP Measures

The CHAP consists of two parts: (1) Self-Report Questionnaires (CHAP-SR), completed
by applicants; and (2) Fostering Challenges Interview, presented for discussion with the
applicant and rated by the worker. The following is an overview of the CHAP
components.
The Self-Report Questionnaires
Some of the CHAP-SR questionnaires are established measures with known
reliability, validity, and normative data that apply to foster parent applicants. We
developed other measures specifically for assessing foster parents. See Chapters 5, 6,
and 7 in the Technical Manual for a detailed discussion of each measure.
The questionnaires require some degree of literacy to complete. Most are written at a
5th to 6th grade reading level. Each measure takes between five to 10 minutes to
complete, depending on the length of the measure and the reading level of the
respondent. Applicants can complete the questionnaires at one time or over multiple
sittings.
The CHAP self-report questionnaires cover nine areas. These areas reflect best practice
standards for family foster care.

Area 1: Engagement in Fostering

Recruiting and keeping foster families is a major concern for most agencies. The
questionnaires in this section of the CHAP ask why applicants want to be foster
families and what agency activities influenced that decision to apply.

¾ The Reasons for Fostering (RF) inventory is a 33-item inventory

designed to measure the extent to which different types of motivations
contribute to the decision to foster. Each item represents a different
reason to foster and is rated on a five-point scale.

11
Area 2: Family History
Childhood experiences with families of origin provide a context for being able to
establish meaningful, lasting relationships in adulthood. Parental bonds can extend
beyond childhood to affect other relationships in a person’s life, particularly with
one’s spouse and children.

¾ The Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) is a 25-item scale designed to

measure adults’ perceptions of their mothers’ and fathers’ levels of
caring and overprotection.

Area 3: Physical and Mental Health1

Surprisingly little is known about the physical and mental health problems of foster
parents. For the most part, agencies rely on health screenings to determine
applicants’ levels of functioning in these areas. Questionnaires in this section assess
applicants’ physical abilities to care for children, problems such as depression,
substance abuse, and excessive stresses that can negatively affect children’s well-
being; and protective resilience for coping with change and challenge.

¾ The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depressed Mood (CES-D) is a

20-item self-report scale designed to identify current levels of
depression in the general population.
¾ The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) is a 10-item
scale designed to identify persons with hazardous or harmful levels of
alcohol consumption.
¾ The Short Hardiness Scale (SHS) is a 15-item scale designed to measure
hardiness, a dispositional resilience to stress.
¾ The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) is a 43-item scale
designed to measure the intensity and length of time necessary to
accommodate to a life event. The SRRS is based on the premise that
good and bad life events can make a person more susceptible to illness
and mental health problems.

Area 4: Family Functioning

Fostering is a family event. Families share characteristic ways of interacting with each
other that can be strengths for fostering or can create problems as families integrate
children into the system. Marital satisfaction, parental relationships, and parenting
satisfaction are qualities that contribute to providing children with safe, stable family
environments.

¾ The Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMS) is a 3-item scale designed

to measure marital satisfaction. This questionnaire is for
married/partnered applicants.

1
Originally the Duke Health Profile was tested for inclusion in the CHAP. However, as discussed
in the CHAP Technical Manual, it was not sufficiently reliable to include in the final version of the
CHAP. So, currently there is no measure of physical health in the CHAP.

12
 ¾ The Overt Interparental Hostility (OIH) scale is a 6-item scale designed
to measure how often overt verbal and physical expressions of hostility
occur between parents. This questionnaire is for married/partnered
applicants.

Area 5: Parenting Style

Foster parenting shares similarities with parenting one’s own children, but there are
also differences. Also, not all applicants are parents. Applicants have to demonstrate
an ability to form nurturing relationships with children, to support children’s
emotional and social growth, and to use positive, non-physical forms of discipline.

¾ The Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale (KPS) is a 3-item scale designed

to measure satisfaction with oneself as a parent, the behavior of one's
children, and one's relationship with one's children. This questionnaire
is for applicants with children.
¾ The Parental Acceptance Scale (PAS) is a 10-item scale designed to
measure behaviors and feelings indicating acceptance of a child by a
parent. This questionnaire is for applicants who have children.

Area 6: Family Resources

In order to foster successfully, families must have enough resources to meet existing
family needs. In addition, they should consider if they have additional resources for
foster children. The measure in this section assess the amount of time applicants
have for fostering.

¾ The Available Time Scale (ATS) is a 20-item scale designed to measure

the time an applicant anticipates he or she will have available to
complete tasks that are typical of foster parent responsibilities.

Area 7: Social Support

Foster parents rely on a system of supports in order to provide for children. Having
support increases satisfaction with fostering. Conversely, lack of support can result in
foster parents’ quitting. Measures in this section assess support for fostering.

¾ The Help with Fostering Inventory (HFI) is a 19-item scale designed to

measure the level of help with fostering that applicants anticipate they
will receive from members of their social networks. More specifically, it
measures level of anticipated help from: (1) Worship Groups (4 items);
(2) Professionals (11 items); and (3) Extended Kin (4 items).

Area 8: Cultural Competency

Foster children come from many cultural backgrounds that influence their values,
beliefs, views, and behaviors. Foster families might care for children from different
racial, ethnic, religious, spiritual, sexual orientation, or social backgrounds. Measures
in this section assess applicants’ level of awareness and openness for fostering
children who have different backgrounds than their own.

13
 ¾ The Cultural Competency Scale (CCS) is a 27-item scale designed to
measure cultural competence.. More specifically, it measures overall
cultural competence as well as: (1) cultural self awareness (3 items); (2)
multicultural openness to knowledge (12 items); and (3) cross-cultural
communication skill (10 items).
¾ The Cultural Receptivity in Fostering Scale (CRFS) is a 25-item scale
designed to measure the level of openness respondents have toward
activities that support a child’s cultural growth and development.

Area 9: Fostering Readiness

Applicants demonstrate other strengths that affect foster family utilization,
satisfaction and retention. Clear understanding of the role foster parents take with
children and agencies relates positively to foster parents’ satisfaction and retention.
Many foster parents begin fostering with a deep concern and love for children.
Receptivity to working with birth families and dedication to fostering positively relate
to the retention of helping professionals.

¾ The Foster Parent Role Performance Scale (FPRP) is a 40-item scale

designed to measure the degree of perceived responsibility for different
aspects of the foster parent role. More specifically, it’s designed to
measure: (1) perceived degree of responsibility for parenting (23 items); and (2)
perceived degree of responsibility for working with the foster care agency
¾ The Willingness to Foster Scale (WFS) is an 80-item scale designed to
measure willingness to foster different types of children. More
specifically, it’s designed to measure willingness to foster: (1) children
with emotional and behavioral problems (40 items); (2) children with
special needs (19 items); (3) children 5 and under (3 items); (4) children
6 and over (4 items); and (5) children of a different race, religion,
culture, or sexual orientation (4 items).
¾ Personal Dedication to Fostering Scale (PDFS) is a new 28-item scale
designed to measure professional commitment, moral/ethical consciousness,
receptivity, and responsivity to foster children.
¾ Receptivity to Birth Family Connections Scale (RBFCS) is a new 14-item
scale designed to measure receptivity to children's connections with birth
families.

Scales Excluded from the CHAP-SR

Several scales were tested in the study described in the CHAP Technical Manual but
were excluded from the final version of the CHAP-SR because they had inadequate
reliability or validity as tested with our sample of foster mothers. These scales are
described in more detail in the CHAP Technical Manual and they include the: Duke
Health Profile; Duke Social Support and Stress Scale (only Stress subscale tested);
Parental Psychological Control Scale; and Parental Inconsistency Scale.
Several additional scales were tested in the study described in the CHAP Technical
Manual but were excluded from the final version of the CHAP-SR because we were
unable to obtain copyright permission to include them. These scales are described in
more detail in the CHAP Technical Manual and they include the: Barnett Liking of

14
 Children Scale; Family Resource Scale; Support Functions Scale; and Family
Functioning Style Scale.
The Fostering Challenges
The CHAP Fostering Challenges are situational vignettes that assess applicants’ skills
and abilities to manage some of the unique challenges of fostering. The vignettes ask
applicants what they would do if faced with common dilemmas that foster parents
often experience. Following is an example of a Fostering Challenge vignette:

The child placed with you fits well with your family. You know the plan is for the
child to return to the birth parent. You begin to get concerned that you will be too
attached to the child. You think about the child’s leaving and wonder if you might
have difficulty letting go when the time comes. What would you do?

The Fostering Challenges have three components: (1) a set of situational vignettes,
(2) a scoring guide for each vignette, and (3) a 5-point rating scale. The foster care
worker presents a set of vignettes describing situations about caring for a foster child
to which an applicant can respond in a number of ways. Each vignette has a scoring
guide to aid family foster care workers in rating the responses. Workers rate
applicants’ responses on a 5-point scale ranging from (5) excellent to (1) poor. Using
the rating scale helps foster care workers apply their professional judgment about
applicants’ responses in a systematic, reliable, and valid manner. Summing the
vignette scores provides a total vignette score.
There are 19 vignettes and three Fostering Challenge Interviews. Eighteen of the
vignettes are divided into three interviews with a set of six vignettes each, so that
each interview has six vignettes that are unique to that interview. All applicants
respond to six vignettes. The seventh vignette is the same for the three interviews
and is only given to married/partnered applicants. You can select the interview you
want to use.

What the CHAP Adds to Foster Family Assessment

Your professional judgment always will be and should be an important part of
critical decisions about foster families. Using the CHAP can make professional
judgment more objective. The CHAP guides what to ask applicants and how to
evaluate the information obtained. The CHAP reduces ambiguity so that assessment
is less biased and more objective. The CHAP facilitates communication and
accountability.
The CHAP provides an indication of areas where applicants already have strengths
to care for children and to work with your agency. It also identifies areas where your
agency can support applicants to develop and grow as foster parents. The CHAP
Summary Report (Workers) summarizes scores from the CHAP measures in a format
that is easy to share with applicants and can be included in home study reports. The
CHAP Summary Report (Workers) highlights applicants’ strengths. It also shows how
applicants’ scores compare with scores of other foster parents. You can use the
CHAP Summary Report (Workers) to:

¾ Help with mutual decision-making

15
 ¾ Set development goals
¾ Determine what resources a family will need from your agency
¾ Outline a plan for continued growth as a foster parent
¾ Make placement decisions
¾ Plan the type and level of support and training a family will need to
foster specific types of children

The CHAP also promotes relationship building between the foster care worker and
the applicant. Completing the CHAP measures can stimulate applicants’ thoughts
about foster care, increase their involvement in the assessment process, and help
them better anticipate how being foster families can change their lives. Sharing the
Individual Report with applicants can increase their involvement in the assessment
process and provide a mechanism to clarify foster parent roles. Workers and
applicants can communicate openly about possible problem areas, support needs,
and the agency’s commitment to foster parents. This information then can be
incorporated into goals and objectives for foster family development.

How the CHAP Fits with Other Selection Tools

Most agencies already ask applicants to provide information about themselves and
their families. The CHAP compliments assessment procedures and pre-service
training models currently used by many agencies. Following are some examples:

¾ The CHAP self-report measures can replace the autobiographical narrative

in the foster family application. Applicants can share information about
themselves more easily, quickly, and thoroughly by completing the self-
report measures than by writing responses to open-ended autobiographical
questions.
¾ Applicants can complete the CHAP self-report measures during pre-service
training. We outline how the CHAP measures fit the PRIDE, PATH, and
MAPP pre-service training sessions in Chapter 3 in this manual.
¾ Workers can review applicants’ responses to the self-report measures
before conducting home interviews. This allows workers to focus questions
and guide discussion on pertinent areas where more information is needed
during face-to-face interviews.
¾ The Fostering Challenges interview allows workers to see important
strengths that an applicant has that would not be evident in a traditional
home interview.
¾ The CHAP Individual Report summarizes assessment information in a
format that is easy to interpret and can be used in the home study report.

How to Use CHAP Information

The CHAP self-report questionnaires and Fostering Challenges are applicable for
specialized, emergency, and kinship foster families as well as regular foster care
providers. The specific purpose of the CHAP is to aid in identifying applicants’
fostering strengths and development needs. Collecting standardized information
about families when they are licensed can give valuable feedback to applicants about
how they compare with other foster parents. This information can help them make

16
 realistic decisions about fostering. It also provides a baseline for charting growth in
applicants’ abilities as they gain experience over time. Information obtained with the
CHAP can be used to:

¾ Identify competencies for foster families

¾ Plan training, support, and services for foster parents
¾ Stimulate and focus discussions concerning successful fostering
between foster care workers and foster parent applicants
¾ Identify areas where foster families require more comprehensive, in-
depth assessment
¾ Prepare children and families for placement
¾ Increase awareness of potential problem areas and the services required
to minimize these problems when a less than ideal match is made
between a foster family and child
¾ Promote the well-being and retention of foster families by
individualizing training and support
¾ Coordinate information between foster family workers and child
workers
¾ Set a baseline to monitor ongoing development
In addition, agencies can use the CHAP to:

¾ Aid in program accountability, evaluation, and assessment of foster

parent outcomes
¾ Evaluate training, support, and services for foster families
¾ Track characteristics of foster parents as part of a needs assessment
when planning recruitment activities
¾ Train foster care workers regarding roles and responsibilities of foster
parents
¾ Provide standardized reporting of information about foster parents to
increase continuity for foster parents when case assignments change

How NOT to Use CHAP Information

The CHAP is not designed to replace agency guidelines for family approval such as
background checks, financial requirements, health requirements, or minimum family
standards. It also does not substitute for foster care workers’ judgments about
applicants’ qualifications. Scores on the CHAP measures should not be used to
discourage or exclude applicants from becoming foster parents. Rather, information
from the CHAP serves as a roadmap for how agencies can best support foster
parents as resources.
The CHAP should not be used as the only assessment for child abuse or neglect,
partner verbal or physical abuse, or substance abuse. It provides information about
the applicant that might indicate warning signs of potential problems in these areas,
but is not diagnostic. When workers are alerted to concerns in these areas, additional
professional assessment is indicated.

17
Training Requirements for Foster Care Workers
Bachelor’s-level agency employees can administer, score, and interpret the CHAP. It
requires basic interviewing skills for establishing rapport and gathering information,
such as using silence and non-verbal communication. The CHAP helps foster care
workers and applicants to objectively apply practice theory when making decisions
about fostering. The manual provides self-directed training modules for consistent
administration of the self-report measures and the Fostering Challenges.
The CHAP self-report measures require minimal training to administer, score and
interpret. Foster care workers can use these measures by becoming familiar with the
information about the self-report measures provided in this manual.
Please familiarize yourself with the CHAP before you it with applicants. Self-tutorial
learning modules are available
(http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org/pages/aboutassess/aboutassess_index.ht
m), and we’re continually updating online and in-person training
(http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org/pages/train/train_index.htm).
It takes practice to become familiar with rating responses for the Fostering
Challenges. Examples for excellent, good, and poor responses to each challenge
vignette, and suggestions for using these vignettes, can be obtained from Katie
Rhodes (kwrhodes@mindspring.com).

How to Obtain the CHAP

The CHAP is free for use by trained foster care workers. The CHAP measures are
copyrighted. You cannot change or modify the self-report questionnaires or the
Fostering Challenge Vignettes. You can download a free paper-and-pencil version of
any of the CHAP measures. Go to http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org, click
Take Assessment, CHAP Assessments, and click on any one of the CHAP measures.

18
 Chapter 2: Administering the CHAP

In This Chapter
¾ Taking a team approach for collaborative assessment
¾ Getting the most accurate CHAP information
¾ When to administer CHAP components
¾ Sharing information with applicants

Here are some things you need to know before using the CHAP measures. The
information in this chapter will help ensure that: (1) the CHAP scores are accurate,
(2) scores aren’t influenced by extraneous, irrelevant, or unfair factors, and (3) the
information you collect is interpreted correctly.

Taking a Team Approach for Collaborative

Assessment
The CHAP takes a collaborative team approach by combining applicants’
perspectives about their qualities and characteristics with your view of their
competencies to handle the challenges of fostering. These two perspectives provide
the best vantage points for predicting how applicants will do as foster parents and
what types of supports they will need. Applicants know the most about themselves.
You know the most about foster care.
Applicants share their views about the qualities
The CHAP gets information and characteristics they have for fostering by
from two perspectives completing the self-report measures. Foster care
workers assess applicants’ skills and abilities by
interviewing applicants using the Fostering
Challenges. The following sections cover the strengths and limitations of each
method.

Self-Report Questionnaires Provide the Applicant’s

Perspective
Applicants, especially those who are self-aware,
Self-reports let applicants tell know things about themselves that you don’t or
you about themselves can’t learn during a series of intake and home
study interviews or by observing them in pre-
service training group sessions.
Having applicants complete self-report questionnaires can help them think about
their strengths as foster parents and about how they will work with children and your
agency. It can also help them see where to develop and grow as foster parents.
Completing the questionnaires also can help applicants form questions about
fostering and offer opportunities to clarify roles and expectations.

19
 There are some potential limits to self-reports. In some cases, applicants might not
know enough about fostering to accurately complete the questionnaires. For
example, if applicants underestimate the time it takes to care for foster children, they
might think they have more time for fostering than they really do. Since foster parent
applicants want to be licensed, there is a built-in incentive to please. Some applicants
might give inaccurate responses because they want to look good. Others might think
it’s important that you see them in a positive light, especially when they first meet
you or when they are being evaluated. These factors can influence scores on the
CHAP questionnaires. We’ll discuss ways to present the purpose of the CHAP
clearly and to make sure that self-report ratings are congruent with your observations
of the applicant to minimize these limitations.

Fostering Challenges Provide the Family Foster Care

Worker’s Perspective
The Fostering Challenges assess an applicant’s
The Fostering Challenges give competencies to be a foster parent from your
your perspective perspective as a family foster care worker. You
have education, specialized training and
experience with foster care, foster children, and
foster families. You apply this knowledge to rate applicants’ responses about what
they would do in challenging situations.
The Fostering Challenges give you an
The Fostering Challenges opportunity to see how an applicant might
Interviews lets you see what an respond to actual situations with foster
children and youth, birth families, and foster
applicant might do as a foster care workers. In many ways, foster
parent parenting is a unique parent-child
relationship. If they become foster parents,
applicants will encounter situations that they would not normally experience
parenting their children. Additionally, foster parent applicants aren’t necessarily
parents at the time they apply.
The Fostering Challenges are based on the premise that people tend to behave in
actual situations in the way they say they will in hypothetical ones. These types of
situational questions improve the chances of observing important qualities for
successful foster parenting during an interview.
There are several advantages of using the Fostering Challenges. Foster home
interviews are artificial situations with built-in incentives for applicants to please.
Asking applicants to state what they believe they would do in a situation minimizes
socially desirable responses. Presenting situations that applicants will probably
experience opens communication and promotes discussion about foster parent and
agency roles. The Fostering Challenges can encourage open dialogue about
applicants’ strengths and what types of support applicants will need from agencies in
order to respond successfully to common challenging situations as foster parents.
You rate applicants’ responses using a five-point scale from (5) excellent response to
(1) poor response. The scoring guide gives examples of what information is needed

20
 to rate a response as excellent, good, or poor for each vignette. This provides an explicit
common basis for understanding foster parent competencies, and thus increases
agreement among workers. It also reduces bias from first impressions, cultural
similarities and differences, and the tendency to rate applicants against other foster
parents.
There are some potential limitations to consider when using the Fostering
Challenges. Compared with closed-ended questions that ask for specific responses,
open-ended situational interview questions like the Fostering Challenges are
potentially less reliable because applicants can give a wide variety of responses.
Family foster care workers with your agency may not agree totally with the criteria
for rating responses. We based our rating scale on a sample of responses from
workers and foster parents with public and private agencies and on national best
practice standards for foster care. The Fostering Challenges also can be compromised
by interviewer bias, such as giving subtle non-verbal cues that indicate approval or
disapproval of a response. Training is required to assure that the vignettes are
presented in a neutral manner that does not lead applicants to answer in a certain
way. In addition, because of the rating responsibility given to the interviewer, training
is required for administering the Fostering Challenges interviews in order to ensure
adequate reliability and validity. Because of these limitations, it’s particularly
important to establish good interrater reliability. Plan to discuss the ratings together
as a staff on a regular basis.

Getting the Most Accurate CHAP Information

6 Steps for Presenting the CHAP to Applicants
There are a number of things that you can and should do when presenting the
CHAP measures to applicants. Taking these steps at the beginning can promote
accuracy. Many of these are steps you already do when you interview applicants.
1. Develop rapport and mutual trust with the applicant, as you would
with any assessment. Be sensitive to the fact that you hold the key to whether
or not someone will be licensed to foster. You are asking for very personal
information that could be used against the applicant. Establish a reasonable
amount of rapport and mutual trust with the applicant before you introduce
the CHAP measures.
2. Engage applicants in mutual assessment. Applicants should
understand why you need the information you are asking them to provide
and what you will do with it. Explain the purpose of the CHAP and how it
will be used, as detailed in Chapter 1. Look over the self-report
questionnaires with applicants and encourage them to ask questions before
they take the questionnaires to complete on their own. One suggestion is to
distribute questionnaires as a routine part of pre-service training. Giving
applicants this information shows respect and engages them in the
assessment process. You will be likely to get better information.
3. Stress the importance of accurate information. Explain that
applicants are responsible for telling you about themselves. Make it clear that
the CHAP is useful only if applicants give honest and accurate answers. Let

21
 them know they actually can cause problems for themselves and their
families, for foster children placed in their care, and for the agency if they
aren’t truthful. Following is an example of what to say when introducing the
CHAP:

Mr. and Mrs. Jones, the CHAP is a series of questions that will help us get to
know you better. Together, we can find out how you can best help children with our
agency. By answering these questions you and I can see the strengths you have as
foster parents. The CHAP also lets us see how the agency can help you have good
experiences with children placed with you. It’s very important that you answer all of
the questions as honestly and accurately as possible. If the information you give me is
not really your opinion, but what you think I want to hear, it can cause you
problems later when you become foster parents. It also might cause problems for any
children placed with you. The best answers are what you truly believe.

4. Emphasize confidentiality. Discuss who will and will not have access to
the applicants’ CHAP information and potentially who can get access to this
information. This allows applicants to make informed self-determined
choices about what information to provide. Confidentiality laws vary across
states. Know what your state and your agency require regarding the handling
of confidential information.
5. Be sensitive to the applicant’s background and literacy level.
Take applicant’s educational, social, and cultural background into
consideration. In particular, determine if applicants can read well enough to
understand and complete the CHAP self-report questionnaires on their own.
6. Present the CHAP measures with confidence. Your beliefs about the
CHAP’s value in the selection process are communicated to applicants. They
will pick up on any uncertainty. If they think you don’t value the information
they provide, they might not complete the CHAP as carefully as they would
otherwise, or they might not complete it at all. Imagine your physician
suggesting that you take a medical test but not being confident about the
value of the information. Careful study of the CHAP materials and
completing the training exercises below will help give you the experience and
confidence to administer and use the CHAP appropriately and
constructively.

Recognize Discrepancies in Information

Despite your best efforts, some applicants might still want to put their best foot forward.
Other applicants might make good foster parents, but not look good on paper. There
are a few things that you can do to detect and eliminate or minimize this potential
problem.
Recognize and try to resolve inconsistencies. Applicants might not provide
the most accurate information. You should be on the lookout for this. For example,
on the CHAP self-report an applicant might indicate that he or she has a high level
of social support, but during pre-service training says that the extended family will
not be involved with a foster child. Or the CHAP self-report may indicate that an

22
 applicant has a high level of marital satisfaction, but responses to the Fostering
Challenges indicate little awareness of the applicant’s partner’s point of view.
When inconsistencies occur, get more information. Remember that there are a lot of
different reasons for such discrepancies, aside from invalid responses to the CHAP.
For example, an applicant may not live close to extended family, but may have a
strong network of friends. In such cases you need to collect as much information as
possible and practical and use your best professional judgment.
Compare different perspectives. In two-parent families, qualities and
characteristics of one partner might differ from the qualities of the other partner in
some ways. You should explore these differences as part of the approval process.
Such differences provide a good basis for stimulating discussion and promoting
communication and clarification.
Check for missing responses to items. All items should be completed. Scores
for the CHAP self-report measures cannot be computed if fewer than 80% of the
items are complete. If an applicant does not complete at least this number of items,
try to find out why. It might be that the applicant has trouble reading or otherwise
understanding the items, or perhaps has some sensitivity or reluctance about
completing the items. Even if the applicant leaves a few questions blank, it’s still a
good idea to find out why.

Computer or Paper-and-Pencil
You can download free paper-and-pencil versions of the CHAP-SR measures
(http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org/pages/takeassess/chapassess_index.htm).
Data from completed paper-and-pencil versions of the CHAP-SR measures may be
entered online. Go to http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org, click Take Assessment,
select CHAP Assessments, and select Begin Assessment.
The CHAP-SR measures also can be completed online, as discussed in Chapter 3.
Some agencies have computers available for applicants to use to complete the
CHAP-SR measures. Or, some foster family applicants have access to computers
(e.g., home, local library) that they can use to complete the CHAP-SR measures. In
some cases, though, it will be best for applicants to complete paper-and-pencil copies
of the CHAP-SR. Paper-and-pencil completion by applicants allows more flexibility
in terms of when and where applicants can complete the CHAP-SR measures.
Someone from the agency then can enter data from the completed paper-and-pencil
versions of the CHAP-SR measures online so it can be scored.

When to Administer the CHAP Components

Some components of the CHAP are limited by what applicants know about
fostering. For example, applicants might not be able to accurately answer the
Willingness to Foster Scale until they know about the problems and needs of children in
foster care. Other self-report scales don’t require that applicants have information
about fostering before they complete the questionnaire. A general principle is to have
applicants complete the self-report measures late enough in the application process
to get accurate information, but early enough to be useful.

23
Most of the questionnaires are short and will only take a few minutes to complete.
There are several ways to distribute the CHAP questionnaires. You can include
questionnaires with other application forms that a family completes for your agency.
You also can give the questionnaires to applicants over several meetings during the
selection process. It’s best to give the questionnaires to applicants during a face-to-
face meeting in order to explain the material and answer any questions.
Here are some points to remember when you introduce the CHAP questionnaires:

¾ Applicants should complete the questionnaires on their own without help

from others in a quiet place at a time they will not be disturbed.
¾ Suggest that applicants answer the questions on the self-report measures in
order and complete a questionnaire in one sitting to minimize
misinterpreting instructions and missing items.
¾ Ask foster parent couples to complete the CHAP self-report questionnaires
independently. Also, make it clear that under no circumstances should one
partner complete the CHAP questionnaires for the other partner.
Emphasize that you want partners to complete the CHAP on their own
because even if their perspectives are different, both are very important.
Indeed, differences might be especially important.
¾ Most couples have a natural curiosity about their partners’ answers. If both
partners agree, they can compare answers AFTER completing the
questionnaires. Probably this will satisfy their curiosity and increase the
chance that they will complete the CHAP by themselves.

Linking the Self-Report Measures to Pre-service

Training
Many of the characteristics assessed by the CHAP self-report measures are discussed
with foster parents during pre-service training. Linking the CHAP self-reports with
topics covered in pre-service training reinforces why the information is important
and motivates applicants to complete the questionnaires thoroughly and accurately.
As seen in Exhibit 2.1, some of the characteristics assessed should not change
because of pre-service training. Other characteristics that require knowledge of foster
care may change as applicants proceed through pre-service training. It’s best that
applicants complete questionnaires that assess the latter characteristics after they
have learned about foster parent roles and expectations. Exhibit 2.2 lists how the
CHAP self-report measures can be used with the predominant pre-service training
models: PATH, MAPP, and PRIDE.

Exhibit 2.1. Expected Influence of Pre-service Training on Characteristics

Assessed.
Characteristics Expected to be Influenced
¾ Supports for fostering
¾ Time available for fostering
¾ Willingness to foster children with
different types of problems
¾ Receptivity to fostering children of
different cultural and racial
Characteristics Expected Not to be Influenced
¾ Reasons for fostering
¾ Mental health
¾ Substance abuse
¾ Stressful life events

24
 backgrounds
¾ Liking to spend time with children ¾ Hardiness
¾ Dedication to fostering ¾ Family functioning
¾ Working with birth parents ¾ Family supports
¾ Capacity to meet fostering challenges ¾ Family resources
¾ Marital satisfaction
¾ Parenting style
¾ Childhood relationships with parents

25
Exhibit 2.2. Administering CHAP Measures during Pre-service Training.
PATH Session Topic CHAP Questionnaire
1. Foster Children
2. Raising Foster Children ¾ Reasons for Fostering Scale
3. Understanding Hurt Children ¾ Parental Bonding Instrument
¾ Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale
4. Impact of Loss on Children
5. Using Family Strengths to Help Children ¾ Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale
¾ Overt Interpersonal Hostility Scale
¾ Available Time to Foster
¾ Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale
¾ Parental Acceptance Scale
6. Surviving Crisis ¾ Help with Fostering Inventory
¾ Short Hardiness Scale
¾ Social Readjustment Rating Scale
7. Tying it All Together ¾ Willingness to Foster Scale
¾ Foster Parent Role Performance Scale
¾ Cultural Receptivity in Fostering Scale
¾ Receptivity to Birth Family Connections
Scale
¾ Personal Dedication to Fostering Scale

MAPP Session Topic CHAP Questionnaire

1. General Overview
2. The Foster Care Experience ¾ Reasons for Fostering Scale
3. Losses and Gains ¾ Parental Bonding Instrument
4. Helping Children with Attachment ¾ CES-D
¾ AUDIT
¾ Short Hardiness Scale
5. Helping Children Learn to Manage Behaviors ¾ Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale
¾ Parental Acceptance Scale
6. Helping Children with Birth Family ¾ Cultural Receptivity in Fostering Scale
Connections ¾ Receptivity to Birth Family Connections
Scale
7. Gains and Losses ¾ Social Readjustment Rating Scale
8. Understanding the Impact of Fostering ¾ Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale
¾ Overt Interpersonal Hostility Scale
¾ Available Time to Foster
9. Perspectives in Foster Parenting ¾ Help with Fostering Inventory

10. Endings and Beginnings ¾ Willingness to Foster Scale

¾ Foster Parent Role Performance Scale
¾ Personal Dedication to Fostering Scale

26
 PRIDE Session Topic CHAP Questionnaire
1. Connecting
2. Teamwork Toward Permanency ¾ Reasons for Fostering Scale
3. Meeting Developmental Needs – ¾ Parental Bonding Instrument
Attachment ¾ Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale
4. Meeting Developmental Needs – Loss ¾ CES-D
¾ AUDIT
¾ Short Hardiness Scale
¾ Social Readjustment Rating Scale
5. Strengthening Family Relationships ¾ Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale
¾ Overt Interpersonal Hostility Scale
¾ Available Time to Foster
¾ Receptivity to Birth Family Connections
Scale
6. Meeting Developmental Needs- Discipline ¾ Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale
¾ Parental Acceptance Scale
7. Continuing Family Relationships ¾ Cultural Receptivity in Fostering Scale
8. Planning for Change ¾ Social Readjustment Rating Scale
¾ Available Time to Foster
¾ Help with Fostering Inventory
9. Making Informed Decisions
¾ Willingness to Foster Scale
¾ Foster Parent Role Performance Scale
¾ Personal Dedication to Fostering Scale

27
Conducting the Fostering Challenge Interview
To respond to the Fostering Challenges, applicants need to know about expectations
for working with birth families, the impact of loss, how to help children integrate
with foster families, and the types of services available for children.
We suggest administering the Fostering Challenges during one-to-one interviews
with applicants after they have completed pre-service training. The interview will
take about 20 minutes. Here are the steps for administering the interview:

1. Read each vignette.

2. Write down the applicant’s responses verbatim.
3. After the applicant has completed his or her answer, ask Is there anything else
you would like to add before we move on to the next situation?

It’s important to write down the applicant’s response to each situation as accurately
as possible. You will use the notes you take during the interview later, when you rate
the applicant’s answers. It’s best to have accurate notes about what the applicant
says. Trying later to remember the applicant’s answers decreases the reliability and
validity of the interview. The more accurate your notes, the more reliable your
ratings will be, and the more the interview will tell you about the applicant.
Following is an example of what to say when introducing the Fostering Challenges:

Fostering presents many challenging situations. I’m going to read several situations
that are typical of the types of challenges that foster parents face. I would like you to
tell me what you think you would do in each situation. I’m going to be taking notes
while you talk so that I can remember your answers later. As we go through the
situations, you might have some thoughts or questions about foster parenting. Hold
your questions and we can talk about them after we complete all of the situations.

For two-parent couples, interview each parent individually. Partners in couples often
have different suggestions about what they would do in these challenging situations.
These differences can stimulate discussion about fostering roles and expectations.
You can use the following explanation for why it’s important to interview parents
separately:

I would like to interview you separately because partners in couples often have
different ideas about what they would do in these situations. If you would like, you
can compare your answers after the interview. We can discuss your ideas about the
situations after you both complete the interviews.

Sharing Information with Applicants

The applicant is entitled to a copy of your overall assessment, including the results of
the CHAP. Sharing this information in a timely manner is consistent with involving
applicants in the decision-making process. When sharing assessment findings,
explain again that the purpose of the CHAP is to identify strengths and areas for
foster family development, how the CHAP is used in the overall selection process,

28
and that the findings aren’t the only factor considered for licensing. Focus on
qualitative descriptions learned from the measures. Give results in terms that
applicants can understand clearly. Remind applicants that the Individual Report
shows how their scores compare with licensed foster parents, not whether or not
they will be a good foster parents. For example, you might tell a foster mother that
her parenting style is similar to other women who are licensed foster parents. Or you
might tell her that her having enough social support is a concern that you would like
to explore with her further. Listen carefully to applicants if they believe that the
CHAP scores don’t represent their strengths and limits for fostering. Also, inform
applicants about what they can do if they disagree with your assessment.

Use Your Judgment

It’s important to remember that the CHAP is one method for gathering information
about prospective foster families. It’s part of a multidimensional comprehensive
family evaluation. The CHAP scores provide reliable and valid information, which
only can be interpreted within the context of other information you gather about the
applicant. Your analysis is based on a synthesis of all collected information, including
observations of the applicant during training, other information from the applicant,
references, background checks, observations of the home environment, and the
CHAP results. In combination, these findings form the basis of your final analysis of
the family and support the recommendations you make.

Restrictions
Currently there is only an English-language version of the CHAP, and it’s only for
use with applicants who are fluent in English. However, the CHAP will be available
in Spanish in 2007. We recommend against translating or reading the CHAP self-
report measures to applicants in these cases. Translations might not be accurate and
open the door for misunderstandings. Also, at this time, we don’t know if or how
translating the CHAP might change the information you get.

29
 Chapter 3: Scoring and Interpretation

In This Chapter
¾ CHAP reports
¾ CHAP-SR scores
¾ Brief overview of normative samples
¾ Scoring the Fostering Challenge Vignettes
¾ Online completion of the CHAP-SR

The purpose of this Chapter is to describe the CHAP reports and scores, and how to
complete the CHAP online.

Reports
When the CHAP is completed online two reports are generated automatically:
¾ CHAP Summary Report (Applicants) - this report contains the
individual responses to each of the CHAP-SR measures completed by
an individual applicant.
¾ CHAP Summary Report (Workers) - this report contains the
individual responses from up to two sets of CHAP measures as
completed for the same family (same Case ID), and the scale scores
described in this Chapter.
About 10–15 seconds after an applicant completes the CHAP, the CHAP Summary
Report (Applicants) will appear on his or her in screen in PDF format, and this report
will be emailed to the applicant in PDF format. At the same time the CHAP Summary
Report (Workers) will be emailed to you in PDF format. You and the applicant should
save and print these reports. Appendix 1 contains a partial sample of each of these
reports (i.e., the first five pages of each type of report).
You and the applicant need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your
computer to view the PDF reports. Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded free
from www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.

CHAP-SR Scores
CHAP-SR scores are computed and provided automatically in the CHAP Summary
Report (Workers). You don’t have to compute these scores--the program automatically
does it. Or these scores can be computed by hand, as described in the CHAP
Technical Manual and the Foster Fathers’ CFAI-A and CHAP-SR Technical Manual.
However, we recommend against hand-scoring because it’s easy to make mistakes
when you do this. You do need to understand how to interpret and use the scores,
and how to avoid misinterpreting and misusing them.

30
 Basics of Scoring all CHAP Measures
There are different ways to score measures and different ways to interpret scores for
a particular person. Usually both raw scores and normative scores are used.
However, there are a few basics to understand about both raw scores and normative
scores.
Reverse-scored items. Many, but not all, of the CHAP-SR scales have reverse-
scored items. For example, suppose that applicants are asked to rate the items in a
scale using a 4-point scale: rarely or none of the time (1), some or little of the time (2),
occasionally or a moderate amount of time (3), most or all of the time (4). If, for example, an
applicant responded rarely or none of the time to the statement I felt that I was just as good
as other people, her original score, 1, is changed to a 4. Before computing raw scores or
normative scores, responses to such items should be reverse-scored. The online
program automatically reverse-scores the requisite items. Reverse-scored items are
noted in the context of the discussion of each measure in Chapter 3 in the CHAP
Technical Manual.
People can misunderstand or misread reverse-
Reverse-scored items can be scored items more easily than items that aren’t
difficult to answer. reverse-scored,. so sometimes they don’t answer
reverse-scored items as intended. For example,
an applicant might respond most or all of the time
to the statement I felt that I was just as good as other people, when the intended answer
was rarely or none of the time. One possible reason for this is that usually most scale
items aren’t reverse-scored. Applicants can get into a pattern of responding that is
difficult to change. Applicants have to read the questions carefully in order to
respond accurately. Be aware of this potential problem when you administer and
interpret responses to the CHAP-SR scales.
Missing item responses. A scale score is not computed for any CHAP-SR scale
if fewer than 80% of the items on that scale are completed.
Raw Scores
After requisite items are reverse-scored, and if enough items are completed, raw
scores can be computed. A raw score might be the mean of a person’s responses to
scale items, or it might be the sum of a person’s responses to scale items. Chapter 3
in the CHAP Technical Manual describes how to compute raw scores for each of the
CHAP-SR scales. Raw scores, not normative scores, should be used to summarize
scores for groups of applicants or for research purposes.
Normative Scores
Valuable information can be obtained by comparing how an individual’s raw score
compares to those of others in a sample of people from a reference population, such as
licensed foster parents. This comparison helps us determine if an individual’s score
indicates, for example, high or low potential to foster. A sample from a reference
population is a normative sample. Samples are used because it’s rarely possible to get
information from an entire population, and data from a normative sample form
normative scores (AERA, APA, NCME, 1999; Anastasi & Urbina, 1997)

31
 An applicant’s raw score can be compared to the scores from a normative sample in
various ways, but in general these different methods provide information about an
individual’s standing on a measure relative to those in the normative sample. This
kind of interpretation of a score is referred to as a norm-referenced interpretation.
For each completed scale the CHAP Summary Report (Workers) shows whether an
applicant’s raw score indicates low or high potential to foster (and for some measures
medium potential), as compared to a normative sample of 304 foster mothers and 111
foster fathers who were licensed to provide family foster care. Licensed foster
parents were used as the reference population because this is the population to
which foster parent applicants aspire. The methods used to select the CHAP
normative sample, the characteristics of this sample, and the strengths and
limitations of this sample are detailed in the CHAP Technical Manual and the Foster
Fathers’ CFAI-A and CHAP-SR Technical Manual. These manuals also provide the
information used to categorize an applicant’s score on each measure as indicating low
or high potential to foster (and for some measures medium potential).
Clinical cutting scores. Some of the CHAP-SR scales have what is known as a
clinical cutting score. Someone who has a raw score at or above the clinical cutting score
is likely to have a significant problem in the area measured. For example, for the
Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depressed Mood (CES-D) scale, a score of 16
or more typically is employed as a cut-off that indicates clinical depression. Clinical
cutting scores are determined through research with normative samples. For the
CHAP-SR scales that have a clinical cutting score, the CHAP Summary Report
(Workers) indicates whether an applicant falls in the clinical range or not.

Fostering Challenge Vignette Scores

The Fostering Challenge vignettes present situations that are typical of what foster
parents experience caring for children. Foster parents have to make independent
judgments about how best to respond to these situations when they arise with
children in their care. They also find these types of situations to be stressful if they
aren’t successful in managing the problems presented. Responses to the vignettes
indicate how an applicant might deal with the situation in real life. The Fostering
Challenge vignettes can be obtained from Katie Rhodes
(kwrhodes@mindspring.com).
To score responses to vignettes, review the response you recorded at the time of the
interview and apply a score from a 5-point scale ranging from 5 (excellent) to 1
(poor) to the response for each vignette. Use whole numbers when scoring rather
than decimals (i.e. a score of 2.5). Compute the total score by summing the
individual scores and dividing by the number of vignettes.

Total Score = Sum of Vignette Scores/Number of Vignettes

Interpretation
Remember that higher scores only mean better responses to the vignettes. Having a
high score by itself does not indicate that an applicant will be a good foster parent.
Conversely, having a low score does not mean that an applicant will be a poor foster
parent. Rather, the vignette score can highlight areas where applicants have

32
strengths, as well as where they might need additional training and support in order
to meet the challenges of fostering.
Using the Rating Scales to Score the Vignettes
Each vignette has a rating scale with examples of responses to anchor excellent (5),
good (3), and poor responses (1). There are no right answers for how to respond to
these situations. Applicants might have ideas about what to do that aren’t included in
the examples on the rating scale. The examples outline components of a typical
response. The rating scale guides your judgment when scoring an applicant’s
response.
Start by comparing the applicant’s response to the components of a good response.
If the response fits these criteria, then consider other qualities of the response that
suggest rating the response as a 4 or a 5. If the response does meet the criteria for a
good response, look for what is missing before applying a rating of 2 or 1.
The rating scales indicate levels of skills and abilities to care for children and youth.
They consist of descriptions of beliefs about what applicants think they would do
and are organized around the following competencies for foster parenting:

¾ Providing a safe secure environment

¾ Providing a nurturing environment
¾ Meeting physical and mental health needs
¾ Promoting social and emotional development
¾ Connecting children to safe nurturing environments that last a life time
¾ Managing loss and ambiguity
¾ Managing the demands of fostering on personal and family well-being
¾ Supporting relationships between children/youth and birth parents
¾ Working as a member of a foster care team

General Guidelines for Rating Scores

The following gives a general outline for rating applicants’ responses to the vignettes.
Each vignette has a scoring guide with examples that are applicable to the situation
in the vignette. The Fostering Challenge vignettes can be obtained from Katie
Rhodes (kwrhodes@mindspring.com). Specific guidelines for rating each vignette
highlight components to look for when rating each vignette in addition to the more
general response characteristics.
To rate a response, start by considering if the response has any of the following
components that anchor the middle of the scale at a rating of 3.

¾ Takes steps to assure that the child is safe while in foster care
¾ Uses non-physical forms of discipline
¾ Thinks of the child as family member
¾ Willing to work through difficult behaviors
¾ Able to see potential problem areas and seek advice
¾ Uses positive rewards as well as punishment
¾ Focuses on changing behavior, but not necessarily exploring possible
underlying reasons for behavior

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 ¾ Recognizes that foster care is temporary
¾ Supports long-term for permanency for the child
¾ Recognizes losses associated with fostering
¾ Has general strategies for dealing with loss such as taking another child or
praying
¾ Seeks help and support from the foster care worker
¾ Shares important information with the worker
¾ Recognizes individual and family reactions to fostering challenges
¾ Understands the importance of birth family relationships
¾ Has a neutral or supportive attitude toward birth families
¾ Cooperates with the worker and with agency policies

Rate responses that have most of these components as Good (3). Next, consider if
the applicant’s response indicates a greater understanding of foster care, foster
children, and foster parent roles. The following components anchor the high end of
the scale at 5, Excellent.

¾ Demonstrates how providing a safe environment is opportunity for the

child to develop trust
¾ Talks openly and helps a child address feelings about sensitive issues that
many foster children experience such as loss, attachment, loyalty, sexuality
¾ Demonstrates awareness of child’s health and development needs
¾ Demonstrates willingness to seek help from child’s doctors and counselors
¾ Demonstrates awareness of the possible impact of neglect and abuse on
child’s psychosocial development
¾ Looks for possible reasons for behaviors
¾ Uses positive rewards in behavior management, having flexible
expectations, and recognizing children’s strengths
¾ Takes an active role to promote long-term goals for permanency planning
¾ Recognizes personal reactions to loss and the potential impact of previous
losses
¾ Identifies specific strategies for managing loss
¾ Has a level of self-awareness about how issues of fostering will affect the
individual and family, importance of self-care, and modeling behavior for
the child
¾ Demonstrates willingness to work with birth families and help a child with
her/his process regarding birth family relationships
¾ Initiates interactions to improve relationships, addresses disagreements
directly with the appropriate person, and advocates for child’s needs with
agency
¾ Emphasizes that agency, birth parents and foster parents work together

At the other end of the scale, a Poor (1) response has the following characteristics:

¾ Does not know what to do and does not seek help or advice
¾ Does not recognize safety issues
¾ Uses physical discipline

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 ¾ Takes a wait and see approach to difficult situations
¾ Does not engage with the child or becomes overly involved
¾ Demonstrates lack of awareness of physical or mental health needs
¾ Refers to children as being the same or does not recognize individual or
developmental differences
¾ Uses punishment, shaming, and blaming others as reactions to problems
with fostering
¾ Undermines permanency plans
¾ Does not recognize the potential impact of loss
¾ Does not recognize the potential demands of fostering
¾ Indicates that he or she would have the child moved as the first response
¾ Indicates that he or she will quit fostering as the first response
¾ Expresses negative attitude toward birth parents
¾ Lacks understanding of child’s issues about birth parents
¾ Suggests that the child will see the situation as the applicant does
¾ Suggests that the child end contact with birth parents
¾ Demonstrates lack of cooperation with the worker

Consider both the breadth and the depth of the response when assigning a rating.
The breadth refers to how broadly a response covers the competency areas. The
more areas discussed in the response, the greater the breadth of the response.
Responses that address more competency areas usually will receive higher ratings.
The depth refers to the level of detail given to a particular area. Responses that
thoroughly discuss a few areas also will receive higher ratings.
Getting Familiar with Using the Rating Scale
Here are some examples of applicants’ responses to show how to use the rating
scale.
Vignette 3.1. The child in your care was placed in custody because of physical
abuse. At first the child seemed to be scared of you. With time and your patience, the
child is less afraid of making mistakes and being punished. The child’s birth parents
are taking classes to improve their parenting abilities. The child visits with the
parents weekly. You see that the child needs to re-establish trust in adults, especially
the birth parents. What do you do?

Response 1. I would talk with the child and let her know that her parents are
trying. I would encourage her to trust her parents. Little by little she will learn to
trust over time if you treat a child with kindness. It takes lots of love.

Rating. The response indicates that the applicant will speak positively about the
birth parents. It does not indicate steps that the applicant would take to help the
child trust adults, such as using non-physical forms of punishment and being
consistent. The applicant reassures the child, but does not help the child explore
feelings about the parents or issues of trust. The applicant also does not involve the
agency. The response is rated as a 2.

35
 Response 2. I would assure the child that she is safe with us. We use time outs
when children need discipline. She will see that we aren’t going to spank her. All
kids make mistakes. I would want to know how the visits are going. I would want
to wait and see what happens before she gets her hopes up so she is not disappointed
if they can’t take care of her.

Rating. The applicant assures the child that she will not use physical discipline and
maintains a neutral opinion about the birth parents. The applicant suggests specific
actions to help the child feel safe in the foster home. The applicant seeks
information from the worker. However, the response does not include helping the
child talk about the birth parents. The response is rated as a 3.

Response 3. I would suggest that I be at visits if the birth parents are

comfortable with me. If the child sees that I’m comfortable with her parents she will
be more at ease and less afraid. I also would talk with the child about the positive
side of what her parents are doing, how the visits are going now. I would talk with
her before and after visits to give her a chance to express how she is feeling so that we
can talk about trust.

Rating. The applicant takes an active role in helping the child develop trust. She is
willing to work with the birth parents and to model trusting behavior for the child.
She shares positive information about the parents. She also encourages discussion
with the child about the birth parents. However, the response does not include that
foster parents can help children develop trust by using positive approaches to
behavioral change. The response is rated as a 4.
Additional Practice Exercises
Please familiarize yourself with the rating scale for each vignette before you use the
vignettes to interview applicants.
Exercise 1. Think about the most qualified foster parent applicant you have
known. Write down how you think he or she would respond to the vignette. Do the
same for the least qualified parent you have known. Then, rate the responses.
Compare the differences in scores. Think about what else you know about these
applicants and about how this other information fits with your vignette scores
Exercise 2. Respond to the Fostering Challenge vignette as if you were an
applicant. You might do this once as if you were an applicant with excellent potential
to foster and then again as an applicant with poor potential. Rate your response
Exercise 3. Role-play the Fostering Challenge vignette with a co-worker. Ask the
co-worker to respond to the vignette. Record and rate the responses. Also role-play
discussing results with an applicant
Exercise 4. Ask a co-worker to rate an applicant’s responses from the notes that
you took during the interview. Compare your ratings with your co-worker’s. Discuss
any differences in the rating scores. Think about what else you know about the
applicant and how this other information fits with the vignette scores.

36
Completing the CHAP-SR Online
In some cases the best practice will be to ask applicants to complete paper-and-
pencil copies of these scales. Paper-and-pencil administration allows more flexibility
in terms of when and where applicants can complete the CHAP-SR scales, as
discussed in Chapter 2. You can download a free paper-and-pencil version of any of
the CHAP measures. Go to http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org, click Take
Assessment, CHAP Assessments, and click on any one of the CHAP measures. Data
from the completed paper-and-pencil questionnaires can be entered online, and the
CHAP Summary Reports will be generated automatically.
The CHAP is an easy-to-use Web-based tool. If you have ever ordered something
online, you can use the CHAP online. Before you use the CHAP online, though,
there are a few key things to know and remember.
The CHAP requires three pieces of information that you need to give the applicant:
¾ Case ID - a unique number that will identify the applicant family. If
your agency does not assign case numbers, you will need to create one
for each applicant family. Login Information requires a Case ID to
identify the family, and it will appear at the top of CHAP reports. Case
ID’s must be alpha and/or numeric, and are not case sensitive. A
maximum of 50 characters can be used. A Case ID must be unique
within your agency. If your agency assigns case numbers to applicant
families, we suggest you use that Case ID. If case numbers are not
assigned, you will need to create a Case ID that can be tracked.
¾ Worker Email Address - the CHAP web application will
automatically send CHAP Summary Reports (Worker) to the worker email
address. If your agency does not provide workers with individual email
addresses, a generic agency email address can be used. We discourage
the use of Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and other types of email accounts as
these may not provide adequate security and privacy.
¾ Agency Name - Using the same agency name during log in will enable you
and your agency to obtain aggregate reports across all families. If you are
affiliated with an organization or agency, and want to receive CHAP
aggregate data reports, the Agency Name must always be entered the same
for your agency. Agency Names can consist of alpha and/or numeric
characters and spaces only, and are not case sensitive. A minimum of seven
characters and a maximum of 25 characters must be used. If your agency has
many offices or branches, you may want to create a standard method for
designating different sites. For example, CaseyWASeattle designates the
agency, state and office. You do not need to contact Casey Family Programs
to create an Agency Name.
In addition to the information you need to give the applicant, you and the applicant
also need the following information:
¾ Applicant’s first name
¾ Applicant’s birthdate

Overview of fosterfamilyassessments.org

37
Before showing you how to complete the CHAP online we want to give you an
overview of the organization and capabilities of the Web site. To do this we’ll briefly
describe each of the menus around which the Web site is organized. To start, log on
to the Internet and go to www.fosterfamilyassessments.org.
Home. This is the page you first see when you log on to the Internet and go to
www.fosterfamilyassessments.org.
Take Assessment. When you move your cursor to the Take Assessment menu
notice that you can select either CFAI Assessments or CHAP Assessments, the two
components of the CFFA.
¾ CFAI Assessments is what you select to complete the CFAI-A (Under Foster
Family Applicant select Begin Assessment) or the CFAI-W (Under Foster Care
Agency Worker select Begin Assessment). You also can download a paper copy of
the CFAI-A (Under Foster Family Applicant select Download paper version) or get
the Quick Start Guide for Agency Workers (Under Foster Care Agency Worker select
Quick Start Guide for Agency Workers).
¾ CHAP Assessments is what you select to complete the CHAP; just select Begin
Assessment. You also can download paper copies of the CHAP measures; just
select the measure you want.
About Assessments. When you move your cursor to the About Assessment menu
notice that you can select About the Assessments, CFAI Information, CHAP Information,
or Manuals.
¾ About the Assessments gives you basic information about the CFFA. It also
contains CFFA Self-Tutorial Learning Modules.
¾ CFAI Information let’s you view Frequently Asked Questions, Quick Start for
Agency Workers, and Understanding the Comparison Reports.
¾ CHAP Information let’s you view Descriptions of Measures, Frequently Asked
Questions, Quick Start for Agency Workers, and Understanding the Summary Reports
¾ Manuals let’s you download the CFAI and CHAP manuals.
Group Data Reports. When you select this menu you get information about
automated aggregate data reports and raw data for organizations, an option that will
be available by the end of 2006.
Training. When you select this menu you get information about the CFFA
Authorized Training Program.

CHAP Online
To complete the CHAP online just log on to the Internet and go to
www.fosterfamilyassessments.org. Select CHAP Assessments from the Take
Assessments menu. Then, under Casey Home Assessment Protocol select Begin Assessment.
Please familiarize yourself with the CHAP before you use it with applicants. Self-
tutorial learning modules are available
(http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org/pages/aboutassess/aboutassess_index.ht
m), and we’re continually updating online and in-person training
(http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org/pages/train/train_index.htm).

38
Practice completing the CHAP online before asking applicants to do it. When you
practice use TEST as the case ID. For example, complete some or all of the
CHAP measures as if you were a foster parent applicant, and then examine and
interpret your scores. You might do this once as if you were an applicant with
excellent potential to foster and then again as an applicant with poor potential. Also,
if you’re married or otherwise partnered you might ask your partner to complete the
CHAP and then discuss your different answers and scores to see how the CHAP can
be used as a communication device for married or otherwise partnered foster parent
applicants.

Instructions for the Foster Parent Applicant

Following is an example of a handout you might provide to foster parent applicants
who plan to complete the CHAP online
As part of your application process, you have been asked to complete the Casey
Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP). This is a free Web-based tool that you can
complete wherever you have an Internet connection.
To take the CHAP:
Go to www.fosterfamilyassessments.org.
1. Hover the cursor over the Take Assessment tab at the top of the page, and
then click CHAP Assessments on the menu that expands.
2. Or you can click the Take Assessment tab, and then click Casey Home
Assessment Protocol (CHAP) on the page that opens.
3. On the page that opens, click the Begin Assessment button in the Casey
Home Assessment Protocol box.
In order for the agency worker to receive your completed CHAP, you will need to
enter the following information when you go to the Web site:
Case ID: __________________________________________________________
Worker E-mail Address: ______________________________________________
Agency Name: ______________________________________________________
First Name: ________________________________________________________
Date of Birth: ______________________________________________________
Please take extra care in entering all information correctly. Your First Name, your
Date of Birth, and the Case ID must exactly match the information that your worker
enters about you.
When get to the following page, select the following CHAP measures:
__________________________________________________________________

39
Your honest responses are appreciated. Thank you!

40
 Chapter 4: Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the CFFA? The CFFA (Casey Foster Family Assessments)
consists of the Casey Foster Applicant Inventory (CFAI) and the Casey Home
Assessment Protocol (CHAP).
2. Where can I go to find the CFFA? Log on to the internet and go to
www.fosterfamilyassessments.org.
3. Where can I go for updates about the CFFA? Visit the CFFA
home page at http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org. Also, you can join our
listserv to receive CFFA information and updates automatically by e-mail. Find
the link for Join the Foster Family Assessments listserv on the left-hand column of
the home page (http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org), then click on the
button and complete the requested information. You’ll receive an e-mail
confirming that you want to join the listserv.
4. Who can use the CFFA? Any worker who trains foster family applicants
or who does home studies with applicants can use the CFFA to assess foster
parent applicants.
5. Can I get training in how to use the CFFA? Yes. Please familiarize
yourself with the CFFA before you use it with applicants. Self-tutorial learning
modules are available
(http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org/pages/aboutassess/aboutassess_ind
ex.htm), and we’re continually updating online and in-person training
(http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org/pages/train/train_index.htm). Also,
the CFAI and CHAP User’s Manuals describes several exercises that we think
will help familiarize you with the CFFA.
6. If I want to practice using the online version of the CFFA
what should I use for the CASE ID? Use TEST.
7. Is the CFFA compatible with self-selection pre-service
training models such as MAPP, PATH, and PRIDE? Yes. The
CFFA is designed to help applicants and workers assess the applicant’s
strengths as a foster parent and to identity the types of services and support an
applicant will need to develop as a foster parent.
8. How should information from CFFA to be used in selection
and licensure decisions? The CFFA should not be used to decide if an
applicant is licensed or not. The CFFA does not replace agency requirements
for fostering. Also, it doesn’t assess some relevant dimensions of fostering
(e.g., criminal background, substance abuse, financial ability, psychopathology,
medical limitations, potential for abuse or neglect, structural safety of the
home). In addition, if the CFFA is used to make licensing decisions some
prospective foster parents might not be as forthcoming as they otherwise
might be in answering the CFFA questions.
9. Can the CFFFA be used with adoptive parents who don’t
intend to foster? Yes, although the CFFA was designed primarily for

41
 families who provide temporary out-of-home care for children in foster care.
In addition, the normative comparisons are based on data from foster parents
10. Can the CFFA be used with parents who plan to provide
guardianship? Yes. The CFFA can be used with all types of families who
provide temporary out-of-home care for children in foster care. This can
include families who provide short-term, long-term, therapeutic, and
emergency placements for children.
11. Can the CFFA be used with kinship families? Yes. The CFFA can
be used with all types of families who provide temporary out-of-home care for
children in foster care. This can include families who provide short-term, long-
term, therapeutic, and emergency placements for children.
12. Can the CFFA be used with same-sex couples? Yes.
13. Can the CFFA be used with licensed foster families? Yes, but it
was designed primarily for use with foster family applicants.
14. How well do applicants need to read to complete the CFFA?
Applicants need to have a 6th-grade reading level in order to complete the
CFFA without reading assistance.
15. What is the best way to help an applicant who doesn’t
read? You can read the items to applicants who can’t read at least at a 6th-
grade reading level, although at present we don’t know how this might
influence the results.
16. What if some questions on a self-report measure don’t
apply to an applicant? Some scales on the CFAI and the CHAP don’t
apply to every applicant. However, for the scales that apply, encourage
applicants to answer all questions to the best of the applicant’s ability.
17. Why should married or otherwise partnered applicants
complete the CFAI-A and CHAP separately from their
spouse or partner? This is important so that each person is comfortable
answering as honestly as possible, and so that each person’s perspective is
represented in the assessment.
18. What can I do if I sense that an applicant is answering for
his or her spouse or partner? Emphasize that you want each person
to complete the CFFA independently because even if their perspectives are
different, both are very important. Indeed, differences might be especially
important. Also, acknowledge that most couples have a natural curiosity about
how their partner will answer. If partners agree, they can compare answers
after completing the measures. Probably this will satisfy their curiosity and
increase the chance that they complete it independently. More important, when
partners compare answers it can help identify and resolve differences of
opinion concerning fostering and stimulate important discussion.

42
19. What if I never feel like I know the family well enough to fill
out a questionnaire on them? You’ll get to know a family only so
well during training, but do the best you can.
20. Can you explain to me again what the mean score actually
means? It’s the mean of the item responses for a particular scale.
21. Can you explain to me again what “standardized” means?
Standardization refers to uniformity of procedures when administering and
scoring a measure.
22. Can you explain to me again what “reliable” means? The
reliability of a measure indicates how consistently it measures whatever it is
that is measured. So, for example, do two foster care workers who both assess
the same foster family come to the same conclusions about that family?
23. Can you explain to me again what “valid” means? The validity
of a measure indicates whether and how well it measures what it was designed
to measure. So, for example, if a measure was designed to measure depression,
does it really measure depression and how well does it measure depression?
24. Why are there fewer foster fathers than mothers in the
normative sample? Of 238 participating mothers who were married or
cohabitating, 148 reported that their partners would be interested in
participating in the research, and 111 participated (74%).
25. I feel like I’m judging an applicant. Isn’t that what I’m
doing with the CFAI-W? In some ways you are; this is part of the
licensing process.
26. How do I get foster parents to agree to do this? Develop
rapport and mutual trust with the applicant, as you would with any assessment.
Explain the content and purposes of the CFFA and what it will and will not be
used for. Explain clearly how to complete the CFFA, answer any questions the
applicant might have, and don’t rush the applicant. Be sensitive to the
applicant’s educational, social, and cultural background. In particular,
determine as sensitively as possible if the applicant can read well enough to
understand and complete the CFFA accurately. If you believe that the CFFA is
a useful part of the licensing process present it with confidence. Make it clear
that the CFFA is an integral part of the licensing process and that you have a
legitimate right to have this information.
27. I know the questions to ask. Why do I need this structure?
Do you, especially if you are a relatively new family foster care worker? Look
through the CFFA and ask yourself whether you would think to get all of this
information without the structure of the CFFA.
28. Assessment is about my clinical wisdom. Why can’t I just
use my own instincts? The CFFA provides only one method of
collecting information within the larger framework of an assessment of a foster
family applicant. CFFA results should be considered seriously, but they

43
 shouldn’t necessarily override other sources of information you have about
applicants, and they shouldn’t be interpreted in isolation from such
information. CFFA scores should be interpreted in the context of the wealth of
other information you have about an applicant, such as: observations during
training and home visits, other written information provided by applicants, and
information from references and other third parties. Use this information to
consider alternative explanations for CFFA scores. Given your familiarity with
your community, agency, and foster parent applicants, you’re in the best
position to integrate the information you collect for each applicant from
various sources to form an overall assessment of a particular applicant.
29. What happens if the applicant and I don’t agree with the
results? Try to get additional information to reconcile or clarify such
discrepancies. Remember that there are a lot of different reasons for such
discrepancies. For example, it might be that your home visit occurred right
after a couple had an argument not related to fostering, or that the applicant
simply didn’t realize the difficulties involved in coparenting. In such cases you
need to collect as much information as possible and practical and use your best
professional judgment. Of course, this is what you do whether or not you use
the CFFA.
30. I’m not sure that these measures ask the best questions.
Why were these measures chosen? We selected areas for assessment
based on reviews of best practice recommendations, state selection processes,
pre-service training programs, and foster care research. We reviewed, selected,
and developed initial measures, and experts in foster care critiqued the initial
set of measures. The measures also were reviewed by foster care workers who
develop foster homes, foster parents, and to some extent, former foster
children. Focus groups of foster care workers who develop foster homes for
public and private agencies provided feedback to us concerning the usefulness,
clarity, and ease of administering the measures.
31. What is the problem with approving a foster parent who is
diagnosed with a major mental illness? Considerable research
exists indicating that this can negatively influence developmental outcomes for
children.
32. Some of the tools measure problems, not strengths. How
are the CFFA tools strengths-based? Some do measure problems
and others measure strengths.
33. I’m really concerned about the liability issues tied to the
information collected with the CFFA that will be in the file.
What about liability? To some extent CFFA results are based on
information you already know about the applicant. Not documenting it does
not mean you don’t know it. If you fail to ask important questions, that is even
worse.
34. Can applicants discuss the Fostering Challenge vignettes as
a group with other applicants as part of pre-service

44
 training? The Fostering Challenge Interview was designed to be given to
applicants individually after they have completed pre-service training. While
discussing responses to these types of situations can be helpful, talking about
how to respond to the Challenges as a group does not say how an individual
might respond on their own.
35. Can I select the Fostering Challenge vignettes I want to
use? There are three Fostering Challenge Interviews comprised of seven
Challenge vignettes. You can choose any one of the three interviews. Based on
our study with licensed foster mothers, the Interviews are comparable. In order
to compare applicants’ scores with the scores of licensed foster parents, you
have to use the vignettes as they are grouped currently. Contact Dr. Kathryn
W. Rhodes (kwrhodes@mindspring.com) for current information about the
Fostering Challenge vignettes.
36. Can applicants complete the Fostering Challenge vignettes
online? Not right now. Contact Dr. Kathryn W. Rhodes
(kwrhodes@mindspring.com) for current information about the Fostering
Challenge vignettes.
37. Why does the CHAP include self-report information and an
interview? The CHAP takes two approaches for assessing foster parents.
The self-report measures ask applicants to rate themselves. The home study
interview asks workers to rate applicants’ responses. Having information from
both sources provides for a more comprehensive assessment.
38. Can the self-report measures and the Fostering Challenge
vignettes be used separately? Yes. Though we designed the self-
report and the Fostering Challenges to be used together, your agency can elect
to use all or part of the protocol.
39. Can I get a paper copy of the CHAP-SR measures? You can
download a free paper-and-pencil version of any of the CHAP measures. Go
to http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org, click Take Assessment, CHAP
Assessments, and click on any one of the CHAP measures.
40. What if a worker’s sense of a family differs from ratings on
the CHAP? Workers should rely on their knowledge of foster care, the
applicant, and the situation. We still need to learn much about foster parents.
Keep a log of situations where your judgment differs from CHAP results to
discuss with your supervisor.

45
 Chapter 5: Planned Revisions
You can join our listserv to receive CFFA information and updates automatically by
e-mail. Find the link for Join the Foster Family Assessments listserv on the left-hand
column of the home page (http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org), then click on
the button and complete the requested information. You will receive an e-mail
confirming that you want to join the listserv.
We have several things planned for the CFFA in the near future. First, the CFAI-A
and CFAI-W will be available in Spanish by the end of 2006, and the CHAP will be
available in Spanish in 2007. Second, automated aggregate data reports and raw data
for organizations will be available by the end of 2006. Finally, we are continually
updating online and in-person CFFA training
(http://www.fosterfamilyassessments.org/pages/train/train_index.htm).
We also have longer range plans for the CFFA. In particular, we are working on a
Development Plan functionality. More specifically, once the workers get the score
reports, they’ll be able to create a development plan for their foster families specific
to their individual needs. We will identify existing curricula and other resources
available so workers and families can choose a development plan that is catered
specifically for their needs. Also, we are in the process of collecting CFFA data for a
large sample of foster mothers and fathers, including foster parent applicants and
licensed foster parents; these data will be used to further examine and refine the
CFFA.
Finally, we hope that you will contact us with your feedback about how we can
improve the CFFA. Also, if you use the CFFA we would appreciate knowing how
you are using it and about your experiences in using it. Please e-mail us at
cffa@casey.org. Or, contact Casey Family Programs at 1300 Dexter Avenue North,
Floor 3, Seattle, WA 98109. We encourage you to visit the Casey Family Programs
web site at www.casey.org. We also invite you to visit the University of Tennessee
Family Foster Care Project home page at
http://utcmhsrc.csw.utk.edu/caseyproject/.

46
 References
Allen, M. J., & Yen, W. M. (1979). Introduction to measurement theory. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, &
National Council on Measurement in Education (1999). Standards for educational
and psychological testing (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Educational
Research Association.
Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Child Welfare Institute (1987). MAPP: Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting.
Atlanta, GA: Child Welfare Institute, Center for Foster and Residential Care.
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. (1993). PRIDE: Parent resources
for information, development, and education. Washington, DC: Child Welfare League
of America.
Jackson, R. P. & Wasserman, K. (1997). PATH: Parents as Tender Healers. Southfield,
MI: Spaulding for Children.

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 Appendix 1: Sample Reports
CHAP Summary Report (Applicants)
Following is an example of the first five pages of the CHAP Summary Report
(Applicants).

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CHAP Summary Report (Workers)
Following is an example of the first five pages of the CHAP Summary Report
(Workers).

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