The effect of the ZERO TO THREE Court Teams initiative on types of exits from the foster care system — A competing risks analysis

Abstract

ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families developed the Court Teams for Maltreated Infants and Toddlers initiative to accelerate the time to permanency for young children in the child welfare system. This paper considers how the Court Teams children exit the child welfare system. Court Teams children from the four initial sites (n = 298) are compared to a group of similar cases from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) (n = 511). Propensity score weights are combined with a competing risks analysis to isolate program effect on types of foster care exits. Findings indicate that Court Teams cases experience a different pattern of exits from the foster care system. Reunification is the most common type of exit for Court Teams cases (38%) while adoption is the most prevalent for the comparison group (41%). Descriptive data suggest that Court Teams children exit the foster care system faster regardless of the type of exit. The competing risks analysis shows that Court Teams children are significantly more likely to exit foster care for reunification, relative custodianship, and non-relative legal guardianship rather than stay in foster care.