Welfare Reform and Child Fostering: Pinpointing Affected Child Populations*

Abstract

Objective. The objective of our research is to examine the impact of New Jersey's welfare reform called the Family Development Program (FDP) on child fostering among children on welfare.Methods. The research and analytical methods we use include an experimental design and probit regressions.Results. Our results show that FDP impacts are confined to children of short‐term welfare recipients (new cases) but affects both African‐American and white children in this welfare group. Among new cases, FDP decreases the probability of African‐American children living in foster families, resulting in a 28 percent change from the baseline prevalence rate of 7.2 percent. In contrast, FDP increases the likelihood of white children living in foster families, leading to a 70 percent change from the baseline occurrence rate of 1.4 percent.Conclusions. We conclude by discussing the policy implications of such segmented impacts of welfare reform for vulnerable child populations.