Featured COIL project
Child Welfare Across Munich and Los Angeles
Social work students in Los Angeles and Munich compared how two different child welfare systems respond to many of the same questions facing children, families, and practitioners.
Project snapshot
Child Welfare
Cal State LA faculty
James Simon
School of Social Work
International partner
Andrea Nagy
Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences
Students
Approximately 20 in Los Angeles and 23 in Munich
Fall 2025
Six 75-minute international collaboration sessions
The collaboration
Students compared two systems by working across them
Students from Los Angeles and Munich were placed in international groups and asked to investigate a specific area of child welfare in both places.
They researched laws, policies, statistics, services, eligibility and intake procedures, professional practice, and lived experiences. Each group then created and presented a comparative infographic or poster together.
What students explored
The project connected course content to real systems and practice
Foster care and emergency child protection
Students compared how children enter care, how decisions are made, and how the two systems balance protection, family autonomy, and state intervention.
Prevention and early intervention
Groups examined the services available to families before problems reach the point of crisis and how access differs between the two systems.
Immigration, mental health, and family needs
Students explored how child welfare intersects with migration, parental mental health, poverty, and other circumstances affecting children and families.
Mandated reporting, rights, and professional practice
Teams compared legal responsibilities, youth voice, professional decision-making, and the assumptions built into each system.
Student perspectives
Comparing another system changed how students looked at their own
Student reflections showed that the international interaction was one of the most valued parts of the project. The comparison often pushed students beyond asking which system was “better” and toward examining the tradeoffs, assumptions, and values within both.
“There was incredible benefit to international collaboration, and it helped to expand my perspective overall about social work, because so much of our MSW program is U.S.-centered.”
Los Angeles student
“It encourages us to engage with and reflect on our own system in a different and more critical way.”
Munich student
“I still learned a lot about our system by explaining it to others that are not familiar with it.”
Munich student
“Probably one of the most unique projects I've had in grad school.”
Los Angeles student
What the faculty learned
Keep the international interaction. Simplify the project.
Student feedback helped James Simon and Andrea Nagy identify what was most valuable and what could be improved. Students strongly valued working directly with international peers, but many wanted a shorter project, more structure at the beginning, and clearer guidance about what to do with the comparisons they were making.
Fall 2025
First collaboration
- Six collaborative sessions
- Student-organized international groups
- Large comparative research project
- Comparative poster or infographic
- Students focused deeply on one topic
Fall 2026
Redesigned collaboration
- Three structured collaboration sessions
- A fourth virtual COIL showcase
- Pre-assigned international teams
- Structured comparative interviews
- One-page comparative infographic
- Quick-start orientation to both child welfare systems
- Greater emphasis on asking, “What can each system learn from the other?”
Beyond the classroom
The collaboration became a published record of the students' work
Contemporary Issues in Child and Youth Welfare: A Cross-National Collaboration Munich and Los Angeles
Edited by Andrea Nagy, the 2026 publication documents the COIL collaboration and brings together the comparative work developed through the Los Angeles and Munich student teams.
The report includes work on poverty and mental health, emergency child protection, mandatory reporting, parental mental illness, immigration, foster care, prevention and early intervention, and youth participation.
The publication was supported by the Teaching Innovation Grant Program of Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences.
The next iteration
The partnership continues
James Simon and Andrea Nagy are collaborating again in Fall 2026. The redesigned project keeps the part students valued most, direct international conversation and comparative learning, while making the experience more focused and easier to navigate.