UT Family Foster Care Project

Foster Parent Assessment Tools

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 Foster Applicant Inventory (CFAI) and the Casey Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP). These tools 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 specifically, the CFAI and the CHAP were developed to identify foster families’ strengths and service needs, in order to promote the quality of care for foster children, and enhance foster family outcomes. These tools and manuals describing how to use these tools can be obtained below.

If using any of these assessement tools in your agency, please let us know how you are using the tools and what you think. Send your feedback to John Orme (jorme@utk.edu) or Kelly Sim (ksim@casey.org).

Casey Foster Applicant Inventory (CFAI) - Foster Mothers

The Casey Foster Applicant Inventory (CFAI) is a standardized assessment tool that is used with foster family applicants during the licensing process. Its primary purpose is to help foster care workers and applicants identify their strengths and areas for needed development and support, with the ultimate goal of promoting the quality of care for foster children.

There are two versions of the CFAI – one for applicants (CFAI-A) and one for workers (CFAI-W). The items in the CFAI-A ask applicants to comment on their personal beliefs, feelings, or behaviors and family characteristics [for example, I can help my foster child continue a relationship with birth parent(s)]. The items in the CFAI-W ask the worker to comment on the applicant [for example, She/he will help a foster child continue a relationship with birth parent(s)]. The CFAI-A has 74 items and the CFAI-W has 82 items. Most items apply to all applicants. There are a few items that apply only to married or otherwise partnered applicants, a few items that apply only to applicants who already have children, and a few that apply only to applicants who plan to provide kinship or relative care. The CFAI is completed in about 30 minutes.

The CFAI 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. In the CFAI User's Manual we introduce the CFAI, explain how to score and administer it, and answer frequently asked questions. Everything you need to administer the CFAI well and interpret scores accurately is in this part of the manual. Before using the CFAI you should read and study this manual. This preparation helps ensure that CFAI scores accurately represent the potential to foster successfully and aren’t influenced by extraneous, irrelevant, or unfair factors, and that the information you gather is interpreted accurately.

Buehler, C., Orme, J. G., Cuddeback, G. S., Le Prohn, N. Cox, M. E. (2006). Casey Foster Applicant Inventory (CFAI): User's manual, (2nd ed.). Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee, Children's Mental Health Services Research Center. [View manual]

Orme, J. G., Cuddeback, G. S., Buehler, C., Cox, M. E., & Le Prohn, N. (2006). Casey Foster Applicant Inventory (CFAI) Technical manual, (2nd ed.). Knoxville, TN : University of Tennessee, Children's Mental Health Services Research Center. [View manual]

The CFAI assessment tools were originally written in Microsoft Excel. However, the CFAI assessment tools are now web-based and are available on the Casey Family Programs’ Web site at www.fosterfamilyassessments.org. Questions about these on-line tools and requests for Excel scoring programs should be sent to cffa@casey.org.

If you would like to print out paper and pencil copies of the CFAI assessment tools, they can be easily downloaded here>>> [Download CFAI-W] [Download CFAI-A].

Casey Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP) - Foster Mothers

The Casey Home Assessment Protocol (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 area 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.

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. In the CHAP User's Manual we introduce the CHAP, explain how to score and administer it, and answer frequently asked questions. Everything you need to administer the CHAP well and interpret scores accurately is in this part of the manual. Before using the CHAP you should read and study this manual. This preparation helps ensure that the information you gather using the CHAP is interpreted accurately.

The CHAP assessment tools were originally written in Microsoft Excel. However, the CHAP assessment tools are now web-based and are available on the Casey Family Programs’ Web site at www.fosterfamilyassessments.org. Questions about these on-line tools and requests for Excel scoring programs should be sent to cffa@casey.org.

Rhodes, K. W., Cox, M. E., Orme, J. G., Coakley, T., Buehler, C., Cuddeback, G. S. (2006). Casey Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP): User's manual, (2nd ed.). Knoxville ,TN: University of Tennessee, Children's Mental Health Services Research Center. [View manual]

Orme, J. G. Cox, M. E., Rhodes, K. W., Coakley, T., Cuddeback, G. S., & Buehler, C. (2006), (2nd ed.). Casey Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP): Technical manual. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee, Children's Mental Health Services Research Center. [View manual]

Download paper and pencil copies of the CHAP measures. [Download CHAP measures] (in .zip format)

CFAI and CHAP - Foster Fathers

The CFAI and the CHAP for foster fathers are identical to those for foster mothers. The only difference is that at this time only the applicant version of the CFAI, and the self-report version of the the CHAP, have been tested.

Orme, J. G., Cherry, D. J., & Cox, M. E. (2006). Foster fathers' CFAI-A and CHAP-SR Technical manual. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee, Childrens' Mental Health Services Research Center. [View manual]