MSW 513 Week 5 Kin Licensing Testimony Draft Example

Policy II: Soc Pol & Soc Just Chamberlain University Free custom sample in 24 to 48h

This MSW 513 Week 5 sample paper is written testimony supporting a state bill that directs the child welfare department to write a separate licensing standard for relatives, delivered by a kinship navigator intern. Chamberlain MSW 513 (MSW-513), Policy II: Social Policy and Social Justice, requires Master of Social Work (MSW) students to draft testimony that can be read aloud within a time limit. The draft states the speaker's standing in the opening lines, puts the ask early, gives the federal funding gap before any story, shares one grandparent's account with permission, answers the lower standard objection with the Winokur review and repeats the ask unchanged at the close.

CourseMSW 513 Policy II: Soc Pol & Soc Just
Week5
Paper typeLegislative testimony draft
LengthAbout 490 words, 5 pages
FormatAPA 7 student paper
SchoolChamberlain University
ProgramMaster of Social Work (MSW)
UpdatedOctober 2026

Free sample paper for MSW 513 Week 5

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Written Testimony on House Bill 1182 Before the Joint Committee on Human Services: Three Minutes From a Kinship Navigator Intern on Why the Department Should Set Its Own Licensing Standard for Kin

Student Name

Chamberlain University

MSW 513: Policy II: Soc Pol & Soc Just

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

What this page is doingThe title names the bill, the committee and the speaker's standing, which is what a clerk files and a legislator scans.
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Written Testimony on House Bill 1182 Before the Joint Committee on Human Services: Three Minutes From a Kinship Navigator Intern on Why the Department Should Set Its Own Licensing Standard for Kin

Who Is Speaking

Chair Okafor, Vice Chair Lund, committee members: good morning, and thank you for hearing me. I am Jordan Reyes, a Master of Social Work student placed at the kinship navigator program in Brennan County. I am here in support of House Bill 1182.

What this page is doingOpening with the name, the role and the bill places the speaker before any argument begins.
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The Ask

I ask you to pass House Bill 1182. It directs the department to adopt a licensing standard of its own for relatives and kin. It keeps every background check. It keeps every safety inspection.

What I See From My Desk

I help grandparents, aunts and family friends who take children in, often the same night. I sit with them as they fill in licensing forms. This fall I tracked where families stop. More than half of the families who started stopped at one of two points. One was a bedroom measurement. The other was a 30-hour training course, held on weeknights, far from home. Not one family stopped at a background check. Not one stopped at a safety finding.

A Pattern Before a Person

This is not only our county. In 2019, about one in four children placed with relatives was in a federally funded placement. For other foster homes, it was almost one in two. The federal government said nearly all of that gap comes from using one standard for both (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2023).

What this page is doingGiving the pattern before any story keeps the committee from dismissing the account as unusual.
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One Account, With Permission

One grandparent agreed to let me tell you this. They took two grandchildren in a two-bedroom apartment. The children are safe and doing well in school. The home study said the older child will soon need a separate room. The grandparent stopped. The family now gets a child-only cash grant, a fraction of what a licensed home receives. The grandparent took a weekend job.

The Objection

Some members may worry that a separate standard means a lower standard. It does not. Federal rules still require background checks and safety standards for every home. What changes is room size, training schedules and similar rules that do not decide whether a child is safe. Children placed with kin, across many studies, show fewer behavior problems and fewer placement moves than children placed with strangers (Winokur et al., 2014).

What this page is doingMeeting the strongest objection before questions shows the speaker expected it and has an answer.
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The Ask Again

Please pass House Bill 1182. It keeps every safety check, and it lets the state pay grandparents what it already pays strangers. Thank you for your time; I will answer whatever you ask.

References

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2023). Separate licensing or approval standards for relative or kinship foster family homes (Final rule, 88 FR 66700). Federal Register.

Winokur, M., Holtan, A., & Batchelder, K. E. (2014). Kinship care for the safety, permanency, and well-being of children removed from the home for maltreatment. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (1), Article CD006546. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD006546.pub3

What the MSW 513 Week 5 assignment asks for

The week 5 assignment is a draft of testimony for a hearing, and it should sound spoken. Keep sentences short enough to read aloud without rehearsal and stay inside the time or word limit given. State the ask within roughly the first thirty seconds, naming the bill or provision. Establish your standing early: who you are and what your work has let you see, since that is what a legislator cannot get from a report. Give the pattern before any individual account so the account cannot be waved away as unusual. Use one account only with permission and with identifying detail removed. Meet the most likely objection before questions. End by repeating the ask in the same words you used at the start.

Inside the MSW 513 Week 5 example

The draft opens by greeting the chair and vice chair, giving the speaker's name and placement and declaring support for House Bill 1182. The ask follows in four short sentences, including that every background check and inspection stays. A section on what the speaker sees reports where families stopped during the fall, at a bedroom measurement or a weeknight course, and that none stopped at a background check. The pattern section gives the federal comparison, about one in four children with relatives in funded placements against almost one in two elsewhere. One grandparent's account appears with permission and no identifying detail. The objection section answers the worry that separate means lower and cites Winokur et al. (2014) on kin placement outcomes. The ask returns unchanged in the closing lines.

Reading the MSW 513 Week 5 grading rubric

Testimony is graded on whether it works when spoken. The first block of points goes to an ask that is specific and early, then to the speaker's standing, because that is the asset a social worker brings. Faculty look for a pattern set out before any personal story, and they check that any account from practice was used with permission and stripped of identifying detail. Answering the strongest objection shows preparation and earns credit; ignoring opposition costs it. Length matters more here than in a paper, since a speaker cut off has lost the point, so the time or word limit is enforced. Tone is assessed as well: respectful, direct and free of scolding. Sources should be few, accurate and cited in APA in the written version.

Common MSW 513 Week 5 mistakes, and how to avoid them

The testimony that loses most is an essay read aloud, long, written in sentences nobody could deliver and holding the request until the last page. Another frequent problem is letting one person's story carry the whole argument, which invites the reply that the case was unusual. Some drafts never say who the speaker is, so the committee hears a concerned citizen rather than a practitioner. Others forget to mention permission, or leave in a detail that could identify a family. If your bill is different, perhaps a state minimum wage change or a school meal provision, the structure holds: standing, ask, pattern, one account, objection, ask again. A version drafted for your bill would be timed to the limit and written for the ear, with each sentence short enough to read once and be understood.

Get a MSW-513 Week 5 example written to your instructions

Send the Week 5 instructions with the time limit and the bill or provision your section named, and a custom example is written to that limit and returned inside 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free. Whether you would stand up and say it remains entirely your own call.

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MSW 513 Week 5 questions, answered

Can I use something a service user told me?

Only with their permission, obtained for this purpose, and with everything identifying removed. Consent given for one setting does not carry across to a hearing. Where permission is not available, the pattern can still be described from what you have counted, without the account. Testimony resting on material a person did not agree to share is an ethics problem, not a style one.

Do I write testimony as myself or as a role?

Check the assignment, since sections differ. Where it is left open, a named role with a stated vantage point works better than a private citizen, because the vantage is the reason the committee should weigh what you say. Whichever is chosen, the draft says it in the first lines rather than leaving a reader to infer who is speaking.

How much should I concede to the other side?

One real thing, answered. A speaker who grants that a change costs money, and then says what the current arrangement costs instead, is heard as somebody who has thought about it. A speaker who grants nothing invites the committee to supply the objection themselves, which happens in the questions and is a much worse place to meet it.

Where can I find a free MSW 513 Week 5 sample paper?

This page shows a complete MSW 513 Week 5 testimony draft supporting a bill for a separate kin licensing standard, with margin notes on standing, pattern and objection.

How long should the MSW 513 Week 5 testimony be?

Short enough to read aloud inside the hearing limit, often three minutes, which is why the sample uses brief sentences and puts the ask in its opening lines.