For the Good of the Kids: Three Essays about the Economics of Child Welfare

Millions of children in the United States come into contact with Child Protective Services each year and hundreds of thousands enter foster care. This dissertation uses economics, statistical methods, and national administrative and survey data to identify and address issues related to child maltreatment and evaluate potential solutions, such as extended foster care and mandatory reporting laws. Chapter 1 estimates the effect of extending foster care support and services from 18 to 21 years old on the transition to adulthood for youth that have grown up in foster care. Over 20,000 youth age-out of foster care each year and lose access to housing, social, and financial support. Subsequently, these youth face various hardships, such as homelessness, incarceration, low educational attainment, and unemployment. In response, over the past decade, states have implemented extended foster care, a program that provides access to housing, social, and financial support beyond 18 years old. I exploit the staggered roll-out of extended foster care to provide some of the earliest nationwide evidence of the causal effects of this program on the transition to adulthood. I find that extended foster care effectively reduces hardships and is cost effective. Chapter 2 evaluates how state legislation related to mandatory reporters impacts child maltreatment reporting. Child maltreatment is believed to be underreported, so mandatory reporting legislation may be a feasible and effective way for policymakers to approach the true level of maltreatment. The list of mandatory reporters varies by state and over time. I create a state panel of mandatory reporter job classifications, child maltreatment referrals and reports, and case dispositions from 2004 to 2017. Exploiting legislation changes, I find that increasing the number of jobs classified as mandatory reporters increases reporting by 4 percent. However, this increase is driven by unsubstantiated reports. Finally, chapter 3 documents the drastic decline in reporting during the pandemic in Colorado as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, pandemic-induced school closures, and stay-at-home order. This chapter estimates two counterfactuals to quantify the number of maltreatment victims that may have been missed during 2020, so that state agencies can allocate resources appropriately

Aging out of Foster Care Successfully

Annually, in Minnesota, thousands of youth transition out of foster care. The purpose of this content analysis was to explore some of the variables associated with a successful transition while aging out of foster care, and to better understand how youth define and experience this transition from their perspective and in their own words. I asked questions such as: what do youth perceive as having helped them, what do they need from formal and informal caregivers, and what might they need as they transition into the greater independence associated with young adulthood. Data were collected from online interviews, documentaries, blogs and memoirs, in order to hear youth speak in their own voices and from their perspectives about their experiences and successes in navigating this transition. Primary themes identified included: sources of resilience (internal and external), and in particular, the importance of continuity and stability. Implications for formal and informal care givers are discussed

Self-Ligating vs. Conventional Brackets as Perceived by Orthodontists

Introduction: Within the past decade, significant developments, new designs, and numerous proposed advantages of self-ligating (SL) brackets have caused them to gain great popularity among practicing orthodontists. The purpose of this study was to determine if there are significant clinical differences between SL and conventional brackets on orthodontic treatment as perceived by practicing orthodontists, and more specifically, if the proposed advantages of SL brackets are evident in clinical practice. Methods: A survey was developed to evaluate how SL brackets compare to conventional brackets when perceived by practicing orthodontists (n=430). The initial series of questions focused on individual practitioner characteristics and the clinician’s experience with SL brackets, while the second part of the survey allowed the orthodontists to indicate a preference for either SL or conventional brackets in regard to a variety of treatment factors. Results: Most of the responding orthodontists (90%) had experience using SL brackets in clinical practice. SL brackets were preferred for the majority of orthodontic treatment factors, and were most significantly indicated as having shorter adjustment appointments (P \u3c0.0001), providing faster initial treatment progress (P \u3c0.0001), and were the most preferred bracket during the initial alignment stage of treatment (P \u3c0.0001). On the other hand, practitioners reported a stronger preference for conventional brackets during the finishing and detailing stages of treatment (P \u3c0.0001), and regarded conventional brackets as being significantly more cost effective than SL brackets (P \u3c0.0001). Less emergency appointments were also reported with conventional brackets compared to SL brackets (P \u3c0.0001). Despite the perceived overall preference for SL brackets, more than one-third of practitioners no longer use or are planning on discontinuing use of SL brackets. In many circumstances, the orthodontists’ bracket preference was significantly influenced by the proportion of patients they treated with SL brackets (P \u3c0.0001), the number of cases it took them to become accustomed to SL brackets (P \u3c0.0001), and their average appointment intervals for both SL brackets (P \u3c0.0001) and conventional brackets (P = 0.0002). Conclusion: Overall, the orthodontists participating in this study reported a perceived difference between SL brackets and conventional brackets on orthodontic treatment. SL brackets were found to be preferred for the majority of the treatment factors, while there were a few situations in which conventional brackets were preferred. Ultimately, due to the lack of high-quality evidence supporting SL brackets, more objective, evidence-based research is essential in order to evaluate definitively the clinical differences of SL and conventional brackets on orthodontic treatment

Using Writing to Explore Human-Environment Interactions: An Integrated Approach

This Honors Thesis includes a literature review on integrated curriculum for a third grade class. It also includes 22 lessons which, along with the literature review, explore the idea of integrating inquiry based social studies with language arts, especially informational narrative writing in the classroom Other subjects are integrated as well, including math and science. The curriculum development was, in part, pilot tested at Edith Bowen Laboratory School. It uses McTighe\u27s Backward Design curriculum model and focuses on the settlement of the pioneers in Cache Valley

Aging out of Foster Care Successfully

Annually, in Minnesota, thousands of youth transition out of foster care. The purpose of this content analysis was to explore some of the variables associated with a successful transition while “aging out of” foster care, and to better understand how youth define and experience this transition from their perspective and in their own words. I asked questions such as: what do youth perceive as having helped them, what do they need from formal and informal caregivers, and what might they need as they transition into the greater independence associated with young adulthood. Data were collected from online interviews, documentaries, blogs and memoirs, in order to hear youth speak in their own voices and from their perspectives about their experiences and successes in navigating this transition. Primary themes identified included: sources of resilience (internal and external), and in particular, the importance of “continuity” and “stability.” Implications for formal and informal care givers are discussed