Commentary on Using State Wide Child and Family Services Review Data to Analyze Policies to Improve Educational Outcomes of Children in Foster Care

“Using State Wide Child and Family Service Review Data to Analyze Policies to Improve Educational Outcomes of Children in Foster Care” suggests that States could use data from their Child and Family Services Review processes to focus attention on the changes needed to improve educational outcomes for foster youth. This is an interesting idea that deserves further deliberation

Improving Family Functioning Through Family Preservation Services: Results of the Los Angeles Experiment

This article describes a study of the outcomes of home-based family preservation services for abusive and neglectful families in Los Angeles County. It focuses on changes in family functioning during the 3 month service period and one year after case closing. Families known to the public child welfare agency were referred to the project based on caseworker judgement of the need for services rather than on the criteria of imminent risk of placement. Two hundred forty families were randomly assigned to either the service group receiving family preservation services from two non-profit agencies or to the comparison group receiving regular public agency services. Both caseworkers and families reported small but significant improvements in family functioning for the service group families, but not for the comparison group families. Study findings also suggest the aspects of family functioning most changed by services, the characteristics of families most affected by services, and variables which predicted service success

Commentary on Partnering with Parents: Promising Approaches to Improve Reunification Outcomes for Children in Foster Care

In “Partnering with Parents: Promising Approaches to Improve Reunification Outcomes for Children in Foster Care,” authors J. D. Berrick, Edward Cohen and Elizabeth Anthony describe promising outcomes from a quasi-experimental study of reunification outcomes associated with the Parent Partner program in one western count

Behavior Problems of Maltreated Children Receiving In-Home Child Welfare Services

This study evaluates the level of behavior problems in a previously little studied group—children with founded cases of abuse and neglect receiving child welfare services in their own homes. A sample of 149 maltreated children, living at home, were evaluated on the CBCL as they entered a service program to which they were referred by a large public child protective service system. These children were found to have elevated levels of behavior problems, with 43.6% scoring in the problematic range, a rate similar to children entering foster care. Practice and policy implications of these findings are discussed and highlighted

Can Public Child Welfare Help to Prevent Child Maltreatment? Promising Findings from Los Angeles

This article describes promising findings from the Los Angeles County Prevention Initiative Demonstration Project, a systems change approach to developing relationships between public child welfare, allied public agencies, and community-based networks that offer family-centered services, economic assistance and capacity building to support all kinds of families. It describes the conceptual underpinnings and unique structure of the initiative, the evaluation methods used to assess results, and a pattern of promising results

The Children’s Data Network

The Children's Data Network (CDN) is a data and research collaborative focused on the linkage and analysis of administrative records. In partnership with public agencies, philanthropic funders, affiliated researchers, and community stakeholders, we seek to generate knowledge and advance evidence-rich policies that improve the health, safety, and well-being of the children of California. Given our experience negotiating access to and working with existing administrative data (and importantly, data stewards), the CDN has demonstrated its ability to perform cost-effective and rigorous record linkage, answer time-sensitive policy- and program-related questions, and build the public sector's capacity to do the same. Owing to steadfast and generous infrastructure and project support, close collaboration with public partners, and strategic analyses and engagements, the CDN has promoted a person-level and longitudinal understanding of children and families in California and in so doing, informed policy and program development nationwide. We sincerely hope that our experience—and lessons learned—can advance and inform work in other fields and jurisdictions

The Future of Social Work in Child Welfare

Child welfare has been a volatile and dynamic field of social work practice where policy and practice are continually shaped by attitudes, perceptions and expectations. New developments likely to shift the current balance in the field of child welfare over the next quarter century include: focus on results and performance measures, focus on child and family well-being, and increasing attention to evidence based practice

Using Child and Family Indicators to Influence Communities and Policy in Los Angeles County

Children's Planning Council, children's scorecard, data and community action, using social indicators,