Impacts of alternatives to out-of-home placement: A quasi-experimental study

Abstract

School performance, delinquency rates, cost of services and time in out-of-home placement were compared for two groups of children, aged 8 to 17. The 125 comparison-group children entered out-of-home placements: residential treatment centers, group homes, foster homes, independent living quarters. The 115 experimental-group children entered services 3 years later, following the introduction of several programs designed to prevent or reduce the risk of placement. Of these children, 72 (63%) entered alternative programs (family treatment, day treatment, specialized family foster care, specialized independent living services) and 43 (37%) entered traditional out-of-home placements. School performance in both groups was quite poor, and no large differences in school performance between the groups were observed. Time-series analyses suggested that the impacts of traditional and alternative services on delinquency were similar. The alternative programs resulted in a marked decrease in the amount of time children were in placement and in the level of restrictiveness of placements. The programs resulted in moderate cost savings.