Public Child Welfare System Research Articles

Trauma-informed care and the public child welfare system: the challenges of shifting paradigms: introduction to the special issue on trauma-informed care

ABSTRACTGiven the prevalence of trauma and traumatic stress reactions among child welfare system-involved children, families, caregivers, professionals, and other stakeholders, it is critical that child welfare professionals integrate an understanding of trauma into their own practice and link families with trauma-informed treatment and services, which are essential elements of a trauma-informed child welfare systems. This introductory article provides an overview of the trauma-informed paradigm shift occurring in public child welfare and discusses the importance of moving from a trauma-informed framework to a trauma-responsive organizational culture in order to create and sustain trauma-resilient organizations and communities. In this special issue, readers will discover articles that include research findings relevant for multiple stakeholders engaging in trauma-informed care. Contributions provide insight that is relevant for understanding and engaging in trauma-informed practice across three levels within the socio-ecological model: individual (children and families), organizational (agency leaders and workforce), and community (university-state partnerships).

Effective workload management in child welfare: Understanding the relationship between caseload and workload

AbstractA common assumption in public social service organizations is that workload may be positively associated with caseload. However, few empirical studies have examined what specific characteristics of caseload affect caseworkers' workloads in the child welfare system. This study attempts to address this gap by identifying specific individual and regional factors that influence both subjective and objective dimensions of workloads. Survey data were collected from 1,244 caseworkers at one public child welfare agency in a Midwestern state in the United States. The data indicated that both perceptions of unmanageable workloads and self‐reported overtime work were significantly higher when caseworkers had a greater number of cases than the state caseload standard for the investigations units and worked with at least two different types of cases simultaneously (e.g., working with both investigation and ongoing service cases). Additionally, sufficient staffing numbers to meet caseload demands at the regional level significantly decreased the odds ratio of having to do overtime work. The major findings suggest that the objective and subjective dimensions of workload vary by individual‐ and regional‐level variables. Practice implications are discussed for effective and efficient workload management in the public child welfare system.

The Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare Studies: Reducing disparities through indigenous social work education

This research addresses one of the most pressing and controversial issues facing child welfare policymakers and practitioners today: the dramatic overrepresentation of Indigenous families in North American public child welfare systems. Effective, inclusive education is one necessary component of efforts to reduce such disparities. Yet recruiting students from various cultural communities to the field and educating white social work students and professionals to practice in culturally responsive ways are ongoing challenges. In this ethnography, we examine an apparently successful model of inclusive education: the Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare Studies (the Center) at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, School of Social Work. For over a decade, the Center has graduated Indigenous and non-Indigenous child welfare workers with MSWs now practicing within tribal communities, as well as provided continuing education for child welfare professionals. At the Center, Indigenous scholars and social workers, tribal leaders and their allies design and sustain a model of honoring and integrating Indigenous worldviews with Western social work. Experiential learning – engaging the “heart and head” – is a cornerstone of the Center's educational practices. Students and professional colleagues are approached with a “good heart” as “relatives” with positive intentions. They learn about the spirituality, language, culture and history of Indigenous people. The strengths-based curriculum also includes challenging content on the legacy of genocide and historical trauma on Indigenous families and communities, as well as contemporary laws and policies such as the Indian Child Welfare Act. The educational worldview and practices of the Center provide understanding for social work, generally, and child welfare, specifically, that supports effective practice and policy within diverse communities.

Implementation Science and Prevention in Action: Application in a Post-Permanency World

ABSTRACTThis article describes how implementation science and intervention research guided the process of selecting and implementing an evidence-informed intervention (Tuning in to Teens; TINT). TINT was provided as a selective prevention effort offered to families with youth aged 10 to 13 years old, with characteristics that suggest an elevated risk for post-permanency discontinuity. Usability testing findings: Contact was made with 54% of families, and 12% participated in the intervention. Multivariate results found no statistically significant differences between families who responded to outreach efforts and those who did not; families who participated in TINT and those who did not. Implications: Large public child welfare systems wanting to implement evidence-informed interventions can follow the steps detailed in this paper for selecting, adapting and implementing an intervention. Further, providers that seek to offer post adoption and guardianship services, a growing service need, may gain some insights into activities that promote service usage with this population.

Investigating the Child Trauma Knowledge of Adoptive Parents: An Exploratory Study

Veritably, many adoptees have experienced trauma. In fact, the very nature of being adopted can be traumatic for some young people. While it is imperative that adoptive parents have the requisite knowledge about trauma to help adoptees deal with this issue, studies that examine this knowledge are nominal, at best. This exploratory cross-sectional study investigated adoptive parents’ (N = 206) perceived and actual knowledge about child trauma. All participants had adopted at least one child from the public child welfare system. Results indicate dissonance between participants’ perceived trauma knowledge and actual trauma knowledge. Further, data suggest that individuals who have had trauma training are more likely to inaccurately assess their actual knowledge about trauma. After a brief review of literature, this paper will explicate findings from this study and discuss salient implications derived from the findings.

A scoping study of Indigenous child welfare: The long emergency and preparations for the next seven generations

This scoping study yielded 37 empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals addressing one of the most pressing, sensitive, and controversial issues facing child welfare policymakers and practitioners today: the dramatic overrepresentation of Indigenous families in North American public child welfare systems. These studies indicate that relative to other child welfare-involved families, Indigenous families typically experience intense social challenges in the face of few available services. They also may experience racism when accessing available county, state and provincial child welfare services that undermines trust and engagement. Some promising research suggests that partnerships between government child welfare systems and Indigenous tribes and communities may improve services to struggling families. Given the seriousness of the social justice issues, as well as the sheer volume of empirical research in child welfare, the question of how to strengthen child welfare with Indigenous families clearly is under-researched. Notable gaps in the existing literature include the voices of Indigenous children and parents involved in the child welfare system and attention to cultural variation in child protection beliefs and practices across the many Indigenous communities of North America. More work also is needed to design, implement, and evaluate culturally-based child welfare practices; and examine how to build capacity at the tribal level.

Trying to bridge the worlds of home visitation and child welfare: Lessons learned from a formative evaluation

Young children in families contacting the child welfare system are at high risk of recurrent maltreatment and poor developmental outcomes. Home visitation programs to support parenting may offer hope as a preventive resource but these programs are rarely linked with child welfare. This article describes findings from a formative evaluation of a program designed to connect child welfare-involved families to an existing evidence-supported home visitation program. The program, Early Childhood Connections (ECC), was developed by a field-university partnership including leaders from a public state child welfare system, regional early childhood education systems, and several local agencies providing family support services. Despite extensive and rigorous planning by the workgroup and collaborative refining of the intervention approach as agency needs changed, the continued structural and policy changes within both the home visitation agency and the child welfare agencies created significant ongoing barriers to implementation. On the other hand, child welfare-involved families were receptive to engaging with home visitation. Implications of lessons learned for ongoing program development in this area are discussed.

Relationship between Disabilities and Adoption Outcomes in African American Children

Although many children adopted from the public child welfare system have special needs, little is known about the experiences of African American adopted children with disabilities and their families. The purpose of this study is to explore different categories of disabilities, including chronic health issues; emotional, mental, or behavioral (EMB) disorders; and intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDDs) on adoption outcomes in a sample of African American children. Data were from the Post-Permanency Round II Survey collected in 2008. A random sample of 412 adoptive parents or legal guardians self-reported their children’s disability diagnoses and family caregiving experiences. Hierarchical regression modelling was used to investigate the relationship between child disability and child and parental outcomes. Results indicated that chronic health issues (β = .10, p < .05), EMB disorders (β = .16, p < .01), and IDDs (β = .12, p < .05) were positively associated with parental burden. In addition, asthma (β = .10, p < .05), from the larger physical health issue category, was also associated with parental burden. However, none of the disability categories was significantly related with caregiver commitment or adoption dissolution. Future research should disentangle the definitions of special needs or disabilities.

Finding “Health” and “Meaning” in Texas-Sized Turnover: Application of Seminal Management Principles for Administration and Research in U.S. Public Child Welfare Agencies

Public child welfare agencies in the United States have struggled with high turnover rates, especially among caseworkers. Research has explored turnover in terms of negative organizational outcomes, and efforts have been developed to reduce overall turnover rates. However, there has been little change in turnover rates in the last 30 years. The public child welfare system is inclined to higher turnover due to the unique nature of the work. Efforts to reduce the overall turnover rate fail to recognize the heterogeneity and healthy aspects of turnover unique to public child welfare organizations, which present challenges for both practice and research. By critically questioning how turnover is socially constructed, measured, and addressed, and integrating seminal management principles, a more meaningful metric can be developed. These challenges are explored, and recommendations are proposed for administration and research that include reconstructing and applying a new perspective on turnover to inform and evaluate initiatives that can reduce the impact of dysfunctional turnover within public child welfare organizations.

Development of a Quality Assurance and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Model in Public Child Welfare Systems

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is to review the development and implementation of a revised quality assurance and continuous quality improvement (CQI) model for the child welfare system in one Mid-Atlantic state, and the contribution of this new process to measuring the quality of child welfare practices. This revised CQI model in the state includes a broader scope of assessing practice and outcomes, as well as compliance, and engages internal and external partners in the process. This study is the first to describe the state’s revised CQI implementation process and examine preliminary outcomes in a statewide child welfare system. Findings indicate that the revised model was able to identify the factors that contributed to improving outcomes for children and families and to develop a greater understanding of the aggregate data across the state. This study will contribute to the comprehensive understanding of the model and provide implications for future quality assurance practices.

Outcomes of family centered meetings for families referred to Child Protective Services

In order to address the number of children entering the foster care system each year and to promote the family's participation in the decision-making process, family-centered meetings have been widely adopted throughout the United States as well as in other countries. Since 1989, Family Group Conferencing, Family Group Decision Making, and Family Team Meetings have all been introduced into public child welfare systems. This paper will refer to all three approaches as family-centered meetings. However, little empirical research has been done to test the impact of these meetings on families referred to Child Protective Services (CPS). This paper examines literature on the impact of family-centered meetings with families referred to CPS on child and family functioning outcomes. The results suggest that more research is needed to examine fidelity models and specific types of interventions being implemented. However, all of these three appear to increase kinship care placements. More research is needed, specifically regarding the contexts where family-centered interventions could be appropriate. Implications for practice are also discussed, with special consideration of integrating family-centered interventions with other interventions to promote both family participation and child safety.

Investing in the Child Welfare Workforce

Responding to David Stoesz’s invited article criticizing the Children’s Bureau and the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI), the author’s inaccurate assertions are challenged, and new information is provided about the significant work underway to support the child welfare workforce. The Children’s Bureau has made historic investments in workforce capacity building, which bring multiple universities, public, and tribal child welfare systems into a partnership designed to support a multilevel approach to workforce development. Information that counters the author’s spurious claims is provided with regard to the structure of NCWWI and the evaluation protocol being implemented.

Improving Access to Trauma-Informed Adoption Services: Applying a Developmental Trauma Framework.

Foster and adopted children often experience multiple traumatic and adverse experiences. A growing body of literature indicates the negative impact of trauma on developmental milestones and brain development, which supports the need to address complex trauma among this vulnerable population of foster and adopted youth. This paper presents an overview of the unique needs of children adopted from the foster care system from the perspective of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), complex trauma, and developmental trauma disorder (DTD). There is an increasing number of evidence-based trauma-focused services and interventions for children and youth. However, many adoptive parents have limited trauma-informed training and limited access to trauma-informed and adoption-competent professionals, particularly long-term supports across developmental stages, making them ill-prepared to meet the needs of children in their care. This paper contributes to the understanding of how access to these trauma-focused services can be increased through new technologies, to better prepare and empower adoptive parents to deal effectively with difficult adoption issues when they arise and to improve outcomes for children and youth adopted from the public child welfare system. Several innovative approaches toward this end include harnessing technology to: (1) improve access to suitable adoption resources, (2) improve mechanisms to track critical events, behaviors, emotions, functional abilities, strengths, etc., in order to determine timely, on-demand contextual services, and (3) extend professional, supportive environments beyond the adoptive family context by proposing the use of technology to build interdisciplinary, virtual community partners.

Leadership Development: A Pathway to Transforming the Public Child Welfare System

Calls for systemic reform within public child welfare have been consistent, yet the system has struggled to respond adequately. This article discusses the issue of system reform by examining perspectives of caseworkers and supervisors on organizational readiness for change. It presents data from semistructured qualitative interviews with 29 public child welfare employees. The findings indicate that organizational leadership is the core determining condition for employees' perceptions of readiness for change. The article discusses practice and policy recommendations for child welfare leadership in order to effect organizational transformation and, ultimately, meaningful and long-term change for the families served by the system.

Contact with birth family in adoptive families headed by lesbian, gay male, and heterosexual parents

In this study, we examined the extent and type of contact with birth family in adoptive families headed by sexual minority and heterosexual parents prior to or at the time of placement, following placement, and currently. Data were drawn from the Modern Adoptive Families project, a nationwide, non-random survey of adoptive parents' beliefs and experiences that was conducted from 2012 to 2013. The current sample consisted of 671 families headed by heterosexual parents, 111 families headed by lesbian parents, and 98 families headed by gay male parents whose oldest adopted child was less than 18years old and who was placed domestically either from the public child welfare system or from a private agency or independent adoption facilitator. For child welfare adoptions, sexual minority parents reported higher levels of contact and tended to have more positive relationships with birth family compared to heterosexual parents. Fewer differences by family type were found for private agency adoptions. Higher rates of contact and more positive relationships with birth family were found for private domestic placements compared to those from foster care. Secondary analyses suggest that family demographic and adoption placement differences between sexual minority- and heterosexual-parent families do not account for family type differences in contact with birth family. Policy and practice implications are discussed.

Sexual and gender minority disproportionality and disparities in child welfare: A population-based study

Empirical research is needed to support ongoing efforts to improve services for sexual and gender minority youth in foster care. Further, data on the presence of sexual and gender minority youth within the child welfare system are needed to encourage counties that have not yet begun to engage in any efforts to address the unique needs and barriers to permanency for these youth. The current study reports on the findings of the Los Angeles Foster Youth Survey (LAFYS) which was designed to assess the proportion of youth placed in the Los Angeles County public child welfare system who are LGBTQ and to examine their experiences in communities, schools, and foster care. Findings indicate that approximately 19% of Los Angeles foster youth are LGBTQ. This proportion of youth is significantly higher than estimates of adolescent and young adult sexual and gender minority identification rates in the general population. Further, analyses also indicate that sexual and gender minority youth in this study are less satisfied with their child welfare system experience, are more likely to experience homelessness, are moved around to more placements, and are experiencing higher levels of emotional distress compared to their non-LGBTQ counterparts.

Female Sexual Offenders in Child Sexual Abuse Cases: National Trends Associated with Child Protective Services System Entry, Exit, Utilization, and Socioeconomics

Up to 20% of child sexual abuse cases in the United States involve a female perpetrator in a primary role. However, less than 1% of incarcerated sex offenders in the United States are female. Female offenders appear to be systematically moving on different consequential trajectories than men when it comes to sexual offenses. This project assesses gendered disparities in the ways substantiated child sexual offenders experience the U.S. public child welfare system through an investigation of virtually every substantiated child sexual abuse case in the nation as documented by state level child protective services for 1 year (N = 66,765). Findings detail how during the time substantiated female sexual offenders are involved with child welfare agencies, they receive higher levels of mental health, substance abuse, family centered, and economic based services than comparable male sex offenders. Additional findings and implications are also discussed; including observed differential pathways for child welfare system entry and exit.

Building Analytic Capacity and Statistical Literacy Among Title IV-E MSW Students

Building and sustaining effective child welfare practice requires an infrastructure of social work professionals trained to use data to identify target populations, connect interventions to outcomes, adapt practice to varying contexts and dynamic populations, and assess their own effectiveness. Increasingly, public agencies are implementing models of self-assessment in which administrative data are used to guide and continuously evaluate the implementation of programs and policies. The research curriculum described in the article was developed to provide Title IV-E and other students interested in public child welfare systems with hands-on opportunities to become experienced and “statistically literate” users of aggregated public child welfare data from California's administrative child welfare system, attending to the often missing link between data/research and practice improvement.

Formative Evaluation: A Case Study of the Illinois Birth-to-Three IV-E Waiver

Few interventions addressing early childhood trauma have adequate evidence. The Illinois Birth-to-Three Waiver is a 5-year federal project to reduce trauma and increase permanency for young children. In this article the authors describe the explorative and formative phases, including: (a) developing a well-built research question; (b) working with purveyors of evidence-supported interventions (ESIs); (c) adapting ESIs to a large public child welfare system; (d) developing fidelity measures, assessment data and outcomes; and (e) managing the challenges of implementing a randomized controlled trial. Public and private agency staff work in conjunction with university partners to merge implementation science, program evaluation, and intervention research. The project's theory of change stipulates that working with the triad of birth parent(s), foster parent(s), and focal child is critical to achieving project outcomes. The authors articulate the importance of working closely with an interdisciplinary team to achieve these outcomes, and the challenges associated with the early stages of implementation.

Predicting re-involvement for children adopted out of a public child welfare system

Some of the approximately 400,000 children currently placed out-of-home in a public child welfare system will not reunify with their family of origin. They may instead be adopted into a new family. Adoption placements can be characterized by poor adjustment for children; some such placements even result in disruption or dissolution. We conducted a stratified Cox regression of 4,016 children from the Colorado public child welfare system. All of the children had a finalized adoption during the years 2002 through 2006. The two outcomes analyzed were new child protection and youth-in-conflict referrals and assessments for these previously adopted children. New child welfare referrals and assessments may be early indicators of poor adjustment for adopted children within the adoptive family. Study results indicate that older children and Hispanic children had higher rates of referral and assessment. Children with a pre-adoption history including longer time out-of-home or a larger number of out-of-home placements also experienced higher referral and assessment rates. Additional factors which predicted subsequent system re-involvement included presence of paid adoption assistance, adoption by a non-relative foster parent and younger adoptive parent age. Several study results were moderated by the presence or absence of an ethnic match between the child and the adoptive parents. We provide an overview of the statistical model used for analysis and we discuss implications of the study results for child welfare practice.