Permanency through Group Work: A Pilot Intensive Reunification Program

Reunification of foster children with their birth parents is a critical focus of child welfare services, and the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 has intensified the effort to reunify families. A large child welfare agency in a mid-western state developed an evidence-based treatment reunification model, that is based on the practices and principles that have been found to most predictive of a safe, timely and successful return home. This model is intensive, home-based, and incorporates an innovative support group for birth parents. A comparative evaluation of this model after 1 year finds that its reunification rates are double that of comparable cases receiving the agency’s conventional reunification services.     

Improving child welfare services with family team meetings: A mixed methods analysis of caseworkers' perceived challenges

Various forms of family team meetings have been increasingly employed in child welfare systems to empower families and provide effective individualized services through community partnerships. However, many family team meetings often fail to achieve their intended goals mainly due to ongoing challenges that team members face. Using data from a survey of caseworkers, this study examined dynamic processes of family team meetings to improve child welfare service outcomes, specifically focusing on caseworkers' perceived challenges. Also, responses to an open ended question were reviewed using content analysis to identify similar or different challenges encountered by diverse team members. Survey data were analyzed using path analysis and found that logistical barriers tended to decrease both family and stakeholder engagements, which in turn made child welfare services less accessible, less utilized, and less effective for children and families. Content analysis revealed that caseworkers perceived disagreement/conflict and knowledge deficits about child welfare as common challenges for all team members. This paper concludes with practice implications suggesting ways to minimize challenges identified and maximize the effectiveness of a family team meeting.     

An innovative child welfare pilot initiative: Results and outcomes

Successful family reunification is achieved only about 50% of the time when children are in foster care. Parents' ability to access and complete court ordered services are paramount in determining whether the family can achieve reunification. However, the research on how to best facilitate service access and utilization are sparse. A matched sample of 100 families with no prior child welfare involvement and at least one child in out of home care were selected from Department of Children and Family closed administrative case files. This study compared 48 families who received traditional child welfare services to 48 families who received a Family First model intervention (PFFP) from a large urban public child welfare agency. The independent variables were the elements that distinguished the Family First model from traditional child welfare services and included the number of caseworkers for the life of the case, caseload size, and service needs met through community partnerships. The dependent variables were the stability of the children's out of home placement, the time to reunification, the length of agency involvement, the stability of reunification at one year follow up, subsequent substantiated child maltreatment reports one year after the cases were closed, the distance a placement location was from the home of the family at intake, the match between identified needs and the timely access of services. Hierarchal regression and survival models were constructed to examine elements of the intervention for their impact on family outcomes. The results suggested that a community partnership model that incorporated family engagement, enhanced service provider accessibility, reduced caseloads, one caseworker for each family, are associated with successful reunification outcomes. Moreover, the intervention families were more likely to have their needs met with clinical or economic services, experienced fewer days in out-of-home placement, shorter involvement with the agency, reduced placement moves and were more likely to be reunified sooner compared to the group who received standard child welfare services. At one year follow up, the intervention families also had fewer substantiated child maltreatment reports and children were more likely to be living in the parental home. Implications for policy, research and practice are presented.     

Child welfare caseworkers' perspectives on the challenges of addressing mental health problems in early childhood

Although nearly half of child maltreatment victims are under the age of five and at high risk for developing serious emotional or behavioral problems, few young children involved in the child welfare system receive treatment. As the first point of service contact, child welfare caseworkers can play a key role in quickly identifying children with mental health problems and linking them to services. This study examines caseworkers' perspectives on the challenges of addressing mental health problems in early childhood. Based on five focus groups conducted with 50 caseworkers from an urban, public child welfare agency, results suggest that although workers acknowledge the importance of early intervention, difficulty identifying mental health needs in early childhood and workplace barriers impede linkage to services. Given the lasting impacts of early experiences on children's development, it is imperative that these challenges be addressed. Implications for systematic mental health screening and caseworker training are discussed.     

Does fathers' involvement in services affect mothers' likelihood of reunification with children placed in foster care?

Social science literature shows associations between fathers' involvement with their children and beneficial developmental outcomes of those children. A related but smaller body of research in the child welfare services arena has found measures of father involvement to be positively associated with beneficial child welfare outcomes, including child's reunification with parent after placement in foster care. However, the pathway by which father involvement affects reunification likelihood has not been determined. This study builds on the existing body of literature by testing a theoretical basis for the relationship between father involvement (measured as service use) and mothers' reunification in a model controlling for family structure. I find that fathers' involvement in services improves mothers' likelihood of reunification, independently of family structure. Results suggest that agency efforts to involve fathers in services make sense both when the aim is to prepare the father for possible custody, and when the aim is to reunify the mother.     

Caseworkers' perspective on risk factors in the family environment influencing mothers' difficulties in meeting children's needs

ObjectivesThis study examines, from the caseworkers' point of view, which needs of children are the most difficult for parents in neglectful contexts to respond to and which risk factors make this response more difficult.MethodA sample of 55 parents being followed by child protection services for neglect or high risk of neglect accepted to participate in the study. Their caseworker filled out a grid regarding the response provided to the children's needs and the risk factors in the family environment.ResultsThe results indicate that the children's age is related to the difficulties of responding to their needs. The caseworkers are particularly concerned about guidance and boundaries provided to preschool-age children, but less so about that provided to school-age children. When the children's age is controlled for, parents' mental health problems explains a significant proportion of the variance in parents' response to their children's need for stimulation, emotional warmth, and guidance and boundaries. Caseworkers' worries about drug and alcohol misuse also explain a significant proportion of their concerns about the mothers' ability to ensure their child's safety.ConclusionCaseworkers are more worried about the parental response offered to preschool children than to school-age ones. However, a constant and coherent response to growing children is still important for their developmental trajectories. Moreover, mental health and substance abuse explain caseworkers' concerns about mothers' engagement toward their child. These data raise questions about which type of services to offer, because intervening in families where parents deal with personal issues while addressing child neglect is complex.     

The Perceptions of Welfare Reform by Michigan Families Whose Children Have Disabilities and Welfare Caseworkers

Abstract

This article examines family and caseworker perceptions of welfare reform and services as they relate to families who have a child with a disability. Interviews were conducted with 39 families and 77 caseworkers. Family questions addressed their perceptions of the welfare system, factors impacting their self-sufficiency, and their perceptions of needed program changes. Caseworker questions addressed their perceptions of welfare practices and policies and their education needs related to serving families who have children with disabilities. Familial perceptions of the welfare system were validated by caseworker reports. Implications for service improvement are discussed.     

Characteristics and factors impacting reunification outcomes among Vietnamese immigrant families in the child welfare system

Using a mixed methods approach, this study examined reunification processes and outcomes among Vietnamese immigrant families involved in the child welfare system. A quantitative design was used to describe characteristics and reunification outcomes of Vietnamese immigrant children and families who are involved in family reunification services. Qualitative methods were used to explore factors that may influence reunification outcomes among Vietnamese families.The quantitative portion of the study included an exploratory design using administrative data from one county in the Northern California. The quantitative sample (N = 32) included children entering the foster care system for 8 or more days between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2007 from child welfare administrative data (CWS/CMS) which was merged with eligibility data (CalWIN) in order to obtain parent and child place of birth to determine country of origin. The qualitative study included an exploratory design using interview data from child welfare workers (N = 8) and Vietnamese immigrant parents who had successfully reunified (N = 7).Quantitative results indicated that the most common type of maltreatment leading to entry into care was caretaker absence or incapacity, an abuse category that is often used in cases of parental substance abuse. 53.8% of Vietnamese immigrant children in the quantitative sample reunified with their parents, which is close to the national rate of reunification. Qualitative findings pointed to the importance of the following factors within reunification: acculturation-related issues, parental substance abuse, child welfare worker cultural competency and issues related to service availability and effectiveness. Implications for social work practice and policy are discussed.     

Recovery coaches and the stability of reunification for substance abusing families in child welfare

Substance abuse is a long-standing challenge for child welfare systems. Parental substance abuse disrupts family stability, family cohesion, and jeopardizes the well-being of children. In the current study we test an intervention to improve child welfare outcomes for substance abusing families, specifically the probability of families achieving a stable (at least 12 months) reunification. The intervention was an integrated case management model where recovery coaches were appointed to substance abusing parents associated with an open foster care placement. A diverse group of families (n = 1623) were randomly assigned to either a control group (services as usual) or an experimental group (services as usual plus a recovery coach). Multinomial logistic regression indicated that substance abusing parents associated with a recovery coach were significantly more likely to achieve a stable reunification as compared with similar families in the control group.     

A Three-Pronged Approach to Addressing Racial Disproportionality and Disparities in Child Welfare: The Santa Clara County Example of Leadership, Collaboration and Data-Driven Decisions

Disproportionality and disparities in the treatment of children of color has been a growing concern in the child welfare system. System stakeholders have begun to recognize the problem through data, which help identify discrepancies within their jurisdictions. Nationally, the primary concern is the overrepresentation of African American children within the child welfare system, where African Americans represent proportions of the foster population at a level more than twice as high as they are represented in the community at large. In some jurisdictions, however, this is only one piece of the disproportionality concern. San Jose, for example, has both an overrepresentation of African American and an overrepresentation of Hispanic children in the child welfare system. Because San Jose’s child welfare population is unique, they have had to take a unique approach to addressing these concerns. This article outlines strategies and tools used to begin reducing disproportionality within the child welfare and juvenile dependency court system, using San Jose’s experience as an example. Some of the key approaches to addressing disproportionality include ensuring a systems approach (creating a Cross Agency Systems Team that prioritizes services for parents and children in various systems, e.g., mental health, substance abuse, etc.); addressing disproportionality from multiple perspectives and examining the roles’ of caseworkers, supervisors, service providers, judges, and attorneys; gaining community and system stakeholder buy-in by maintaining momentum and providing opportunities for dialogue about the complex issues facing families of color; using a data-driven approach to inform ongoing initiatives and changes in policy and practice (e.g., closely examining policies and practices such as the frequency of recommendations to by-pass reunification services); and implementing changes in practice at multiple levels including child welfare and on the bench. The examination of San Jose’s approach reveals challenges, successes, and lessons learned.     

Reducing turnover is not enough: The need for proficient organizational cultures to support positive youth outcomes in child welfare

Objective

High caseworker turnover has been identified as a factor in the poor outcomes of child welfare services. However, almost no empirical research has examined the relationship between caseworker turnover and youth outcomes in child welfare systems and there is an important knowledge gap regarding whether, and how, caseworker turnover relates to outcomes for youth. We hypothesized that the effects of caseworker turnover are moderated by organizational culture such that reduced caseworker turnover is only associated with improved youth outcomes in organizations with proficient cultures.

Methods

The study applied hierarchical linear models (HLM) analysis to the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW II) with a U.S. nationwide sample of 2346 youth aged 1.5- to 18-years-old and 1544 caseworkers in 73 child welfare agencies. Proficient organizational culture was measured by caseworkers' responses to the Organizational Social Context (OSC) measure; staff turnover was reported by the agencies' directors; and youth outcomes were measured as total problems in psychosocial functioning with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) completed by the youths' caregivers at intake and at 18-month follow-up.

Results

The association between caseworker turnover and youth outcomes was moderated by organizational culture. Youth outcomes were improved with lower staff turnover in proficient organizational cultures and the best outcomes occurred in organizations with low turnover and high proficiency.

Conclusions

To be successful, efforts to improve child welfare services by lowering staff turnover must also create proficient cultures that expect caseworkers to be competent and responsive to the needs of the youth and families they serve.     

Promoting birth parents' relationships with their toddlers upon reunification: Results from Promoting First Relationships® home visiting program

Birth parents, once reunified with their child after a foster care placement, are in need of in-home support services to prevent reoccurrence of maltreatment and reentry into foster care, establish a strong relationship with their child, and enhance child well-being. Few studies have addressed the efficacy of home visiting services for reunified birth parents of toddlers. This study reports on the findings from a randomized control trial of a 10-week home visiting program, Promoting First Relationships® (Kelly, Sandoval, Zuckerman, & Buehlman, 2008), for a subsample of 43 reunified birth parents that were part of the larger trial. We describe how the elements of the intervention align with the needs of parents and children in child welfare. Although the sample size was small and most of the estimates of intervention effects were not statistically significant, the effect sizes and the pattern of results suggest that the intervention may have improved both observed parenting sensitivity and observed child behaviors as well as decreased parent report of child behavior problems. Implications are that providing in-home services soon after a reunification may be efficacious in strengthening birth parents' capacity to respond sensitively to their children as well as improving child social and emotional outcomes and well-being.     

Setting Performance Goals for Adoption Services

ABSTRACT

Adoption is one of the several goals for child welfare services when children cannot remain at home. Adoption does not, however, become a goal of child welfare services unless family reunification cannot occur. Further, adoption is also not always the appropriate goal when children are living with relatives available to reunify. Yet, President Clinton's Adoption 2002 initiative offers incentives for adoptions that only depend on the number of adoptions, not on their relationship to reunifications. California's adoption initiative takes a different but also oversimplified approach to setting adoption standards by basing them on the number of adoptions per adoption worker. Under these approaches, agencies that increase their reunifications and keep their adoptions constant are not rewarded and agencies that decrease their reunifications and increase their adoptions are rewarded. This can create a misunderstanding of the program as antifamily and resentment toward adoptions. Agencies' adoption rates should be rewarded only after estimating the pool of adoptable children and taking the likelihood of reunification into account. A model for estimating these factors is presented.     

The impact of worker and agency characteristics on FGC referrals in child welfare

Guided by the Decision Making Ecology framework, this study examined data from a large urban child welfare jurisdiction consisting of two neighboring counties to explore reasons behind substantial variation in caseworkers' rates of referrals to Family Group Conferences (FGC), a common practice in child welfare both nationally and internationally. The results indicate that time in current position and perceptions of supervisor competence and leadership support were significantly associated with a worker's propensity to refer to FGC. Specifically, caseworkers with fewer years in their current position and those who reported lower ratings on their supervisor's competence and leadership's support made a higher number of referrals. The results reinforce the notion that even in the presence of policy mandates, such factors should be monitored and addressed by agencies concerned with consistent program implementation. Future studies should seek to replicate these findings in other jurisdictions and test for effective interventions to mitigate the impact of individual worker characteristics on actual implementation of mandated practices.     

Forgotten children: A critical review of the reunification of American Indian children in the child welfare system

Reunification is the preferred permanency path experienced by children following out-of-home placement (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2011, 2012). Emerging literature suggests a number of child, parent, family, and child welfare case characteristics predict the likelihood of reunification. However, research on the reunification of American Indians in child welfare system is limited. Given the unique historical and cultural context of American Indian families, a need exists to better understand what contributes to achieving permanency through reunification for these families. To develop a better understanding of reunification research, this article provides a critical review of the literature on predictors of reunification that is inclusive of American Indians. A search of the literature resulted in the inclusion of 17 articles. Findings suggest that although awareness of the factors associated with reunification for American Indian families is helpful, without consistent inclusion of child, parent, family, and case-related variables across statistical analyses, limited conclusions can be drawn. It is significant to note that a level that is not currently considered in literature is the tribe or band and what is done to assist the child in reunification from the tribal level.     

Child safety at reunification: A case-control study of maltreatment recurrence following return home from substitute care

When considering reunification, child welfare caseworkers are faced with the difficult challenge of predicting which caretakers will be able to provide a safe environment for their children once they return home. Unfortunately, although an increasing number of studies have examined maltreatment recurrence during investigation and following case opening, little is known about the factors that predict maltreatment recurrence following reunification. Using a case-control design and information gathered from a child welfare administrative database and client case records, the current study examined the factors that predict short-term (i.e., within 60 days) maltreatment recurrence among 174 families with children returning home from their first stay in substitute care. From a variety of child, caretaker, placement, family environment, and service provision characteristics, seven variables uniquely added to the prediction of maltreatment recurrence: 1) child age, 2) caretaker mental illness, 3) number of placements, 4) type of placement, 5) length of time in placement, 6) number of children in the home at reunification, and 7) the interaction between household structure at reunification and the presence of siblings returned home with the index child. The implications of these findings for child welfare practice and future research are discussed in detail.     

Elevating financial capability in child welfare services: Early efforts in the Grand Challenge

The great majority of families involved in the child welfare system are economically vulnerable, have limited incomes, and face a high risk of financial exploitation. Limited opportunities to participate meaningfully in the financial sector, along with poor decision making, can lead to overwhelming debt, eviction, and poverty that compromise child safety and wellbeing and can cripple efforts to reunify families. This article discusses the need to elevate financial capability–which scholars and practitioners define as knowledge of financial matters and means to exercise that knowledge. It addresses nascent research examining financial capability and asset building, the expanding role of the topic in human services, and efforts in Missouri to integrate an understanding of financial capability in work with families involved in the child welfare system. Such integration holds the promise of fulfilling the safety, permanence, and wellbeing goals of the child welfare system; involving a wider set of community partners; and achieving the federally mandated ‘normalcy’ in foster care.     

Family Reunification of Youth in Foster Care with Complex Mental Health Needs: Barriers and Recommendations

This study presents findings of a formative evaluation of an innovative pilot program designed to reunify and reintegrate foster youth with complex mental and behavioral needs in residential treatment centers or therapeutic foster care with their families in the community. Data collection methods included in-depth structured case file reviews and semi-structured interviews with the youth, as well as their caregivers, Child Protective Services caseworkers, and pilot program staff. The participants provided important insights regarding system, program, and case-level barriers to the successful reunification of these youth back into the community. Training, practice, and policy recommendations are discussed.     

A qualitative study of collaboration between guardians ad litem and caseworkers in the child welfare system

Various agencies and professionals in the child welfare system work together to prevent and treat child maltreatment. Prior research suggests their ability to collaborate is related to outcomes for children and families and agencies often implement strategies to improve collaboration. However, a review of the literature indicated a lack of research on collaboration between Guardians ad litem (GALs) and child protective services caseworkers. Examination of this relationship is warranted considering federal law mandates GALs be appointed for children in all court-involved child protection cases. This qualitative study begins to address this gap by exploring the GAL perspective on factors that promote or inhibit collaboration between themselves and caseworkers. Interviews were conducted with 12 GALs in a mountain region state. Participants emphasized five individual-level factors that impact the frequency and quality of collaboration with caseworkers. These include frequent and open communication, mutual respect, understanding the other's role and responsibilities, having an open mind, and valuing collaboration. Participants described in detail how these factors facilitate collaboration despite the organizational and systemic obstacles to working together. The findings may help explain why collaboration does not necessarily occur in frontline practice despite the presence of organizational policies and procedures intending to improve collaboration. These findings have several implications for improving GAL–caseworker collaboration in order to better serve children and families in the child welfare system.     

A typology of supervision in child welfare: Multilevel latent class and confirmatory analyses of caseworker–supervisor relationship type

Based on survey data collected from 1460 public- and private-agency child welfare caseworkers in Illinois, this study examines the nature of child welfare supervisory relationships by empirically identifying a discrete set of modal caseworker–supervisor relationship types as defined by a combination of positive and negative supervisory support. This study also examines the degree to which differences in the nature of caseworker–supervisor relationships are attributable, respectively, to supervisors, supervisor–caseworker dyads, and agency settings. Results suggest the existence of qualitatively distinct caseworker–supervisor relationship types that coalesce into discrete mixtures of relationship types at the supervisory team level. In contrast, results suggest that little, if any, of the overall variability in supervisory relationship type is attributable to the agency level. Findings concerning the interrelationships among relationship type and caseworkers' job satisfaction and perceptions of their work environment underscore the salience of individual caseworker–supervisor dyads, and suggest the importance of relationship building as means to improve the effectiveness of supervision.