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Kinship care, both formal and informal, is a practice that has received more attention in the past two decades due to the benefits found for children paced with kin, rather than in foster care with strangers. Placements with kin are often facilitated by utilizing intensive family search and engagement programs to identify and engage relatives.
Methods:
Using a retrospective longitudinal quasi-experimental design the present study evaluates the effectiveness of BLINDED intervention, an intervention that utilizes family search and engagement practices to place…
From 2021 to 2023, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has taken administrative actions to prioritize the implementation of Family First prevention services. These actions minimize traumatic deployments of CPS, reduce the use of family separations, and bolster support for families providing kinship care. In this brief, the authors highlight where progress has been made—and where the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) could still take additional steps in 2024.
The child welfare system has disproportionately failed AIAN, Black, and Latinx children and…
Women represent a growing proportion of the global prison population of 11·5 million people. No reliable estimates exist of the number of pregnant women or number of children born in or living in prison with a primary caregiver. Permitting a child to stay in prison with a primary caregiver for any duration has advantages and disadvantages for both the caregiver and the child.
Global consensus on the age at which child confinement inhibits healthy development has not been reached. Human rights violations worldwide illustrate the failures of prison systems to consider the needs of children…
The perceptions of 145 incarcerated mothers of minor children in a large Midwestern jail were examined to understand the correlation between where their children are living during their incarceration and the mothers’ feelings about these placements and relationships with their children. Mothers were most satisfied if children lived with maternal grandparents, and least satisfied if children were in foster care. Women with higher scores for the relationship with close relatives, those having contact with their child(ren) while incarcerated, and mothers with no children in foster care reported…
Background
Although the child welfare field has initiated efforts to use standardized screening for trauma and behavioral health needs, research has rarely examined whether these screenings have influenced permanency outcomes.
Objective
Using data from three states' federal demonstration projects, we examined whether receipt of trauma and behavioral health screening and results of screening were associated with placement stability (i.e., fewer placements). Our inquiry focused on whether similar patterns of statistical associations would be observed in three distinct state settings…
Abstract
Children entering custody within the child welfare system have been found to have high levels of trauma and significant behavioral health needs. In this paper, authors demonstrate how a structured functional well-being assessment can be used with the custody population to promote an understanding of behavioral health needs, inform case planning, and measure functional improvement over time. Specifically, this paper will: (a) briefly describe how two states implemented a common standardized assessment of functioning to inform case planning and measure well-being progress of…
Abstract
Background
Cross-sectional analyses have identified factors associated with the decision to provide continued child welfare services. Determinations that children are at risk of maltreatment have been found to influence investigative decision-making in Ontario, over and above all other family and case characteristics.
Purpose
This study uses longitudinal administrative data to assess the decision to transfer a family to ongoing child welfare services within twelve months of an initial investigation.
Methods
We developed an entry cohort from administrative data held…
Abstract
Child welfare standards of care emphasize service planning that provides an opportunity for meaningful participation of youth, caregivers, and family members. For youth who are at high risk for multiple moves while in foster care, participatory service planning can be difficult to achieve. This research focused on a statewide program that uses team decision-making meetings to identify needs and plan services for youth who are at risk for instability while in foster care. Results from meetings held for 364 children and adolescents over a six-week period affirm that use of team…
Abstract
Two parenting capacity assessment (PCA) protocols, with a short parent-child intervention embedded in each protocol, evaluated the potential for enhanced parenting to orient child placement decision. Parents (n = 69), with substantiated reports of maltreatment by child protective services, and their children (0–6) were randomly assigned to one of two PCAs with either the Attachment Video-feedback (PCA-AVI) or a psychoeducational intervention (PCA-PI) as the embedded intervention component. The PCA-AVI group showed the highest increases in parent-child interaction…
Abstract
It has long been recognized that youth entering out-of-home care have traumatic experiences and their associated effects on emotional and behavioral wellbeing may be unrecognized, overlooked, or untreated. An assessment to identify youth needs is vital as an initial step to youth in out-of-home care receiving needed treatment. Standardized assessments in particular can serve as an effective starting point in addressing the needs of these youth. This study explored if domains of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths assessment were associated with a prescribed trauma-focused…