New Jersey’s Historical Development of a Statewide Children’s System of Care, Including the Lessons Learned From Embedding CANS Tools

Abstract

New Jersey has made significant investments in their creation of a “statewide” reform to better serve the most vulnerable children and their families. Many states can learn from New Jersey’s statewide reform, which now celebrates completion of its first decade. This article details the historic timeline of the implementation processes as well as the structural components of a system of care. The particular role of each system entity is identified as well as their adaptation of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) assessment tool to best serve the children/youth in a statewide system of care. This article also examines the methods for effectively training and embedding the CANS tools within New Jersey’s Division of Children’s System of Care (DCSOC). As the children’s system of care (SOC) celebrates a milestone and its second decade of existence, much data have been accumulated with the next logical step being a series of reviews and systemic update. Result shows the need for planning for transitioning to adulthood especially among a population profile or 16 years and older, which we referred to as “emerging adult” population.