Child Welfare in Georgia:How Effective Are We?

Andrew Barclay, Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic (Founder), Emory University School of Law

Major Points

• Measuring outcomes in child welfare is hard

• Staff have an inherent conflict of interest; we must have independent evaluation

• Case practice across the state is extremely inconsistent

• Pay attention to the trends over time

How effective are the state’s efforts to ...

… keep children safely in their homes?

… identify and support families at risk for abuse?

… recruit and train foster parents?

… meet the educational needs of children in care?

… involve parents in case planning?

… train its child welfare workforce?

… consult with external community stakeholders?

• Georgia’s 2001 Federal Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) asked these questions again and again. Again and again, the answer was: We don’t know.

Shouldn’t we know?

• The CFSR measures the implementation of the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)

• Effectiveness is often difficult to measure• Technical advisors to the CFSR have all tackled

difficult measurement problems• Safety Example:

– How do we know a child is safe at home?– Since 1992 we have had the data to measure the 6 month

recurrence of substantiated maltreatment– Prior to the 2001 CFSR this had not been calculated– About 4-6% of Georgia’s children who are abused are

abused a second time within 6 months

Outcomes That Change Children’s Lives

• Outcomes, the things that make real change in children’s lives, are, generally, difficult things to measure.

• The child protection balancing act: Balancing our collective need to keep families together against the child’s need to grow up in a safe, permanent home.

• We need simple outcome measures that help us all to understand, appreciate, and participate in the tough choices that someone has to make to protect children from abuse.

• Does the State do anything more important?

Outline

• Basic DFCS Process

• Simple Measurement Framework

• Inconsistency of Practice

• Time Trends

• Case for Independent Evaluation

Big Picture View:Case Process

AbuseReport(127,000)

Screening(70,000)

InvestigationAssessments

(24,000)

Removal(4,500)

CPSOngoing

Ch

ild P

rotective S

ervices (CP

S)

Court

AssessmentFoster Home

Services(13,000)

Reunify(3,600)

OtherPermanency

(1,100)

Fo

ster Care

Big Picture View:Functional Framework

CPSKeep the child safe at home

with the family, remove if necessary

Foster CareTemporarily care for the child,

try to fix the family

PermanencyReunite or put the child into

another family

A Measurement Frameworkfor Child Welfare

• Simple• Based on what we already report• Useful only if we understand the process and

recognize the data limitations• Safety

– Recurrence, Reunification, Re-entry, Fatalities

• Foster Care & Permanency– Children in care, stability, adoption speed

Georgia - Safety, the 3 R’s:Recurrence, Reunification, Re-entries

Illinois - Safety, the 3 R’s:Recurrence, Reunification, Re-entries

Georgia - Foster Care/Permanency:Children in Care, Speed of Adoption

Illinois - Foster Care/Permanency:Children in Care, Speed of Adoption

State-to-State Comparisons:Georgia to Illinois

• State-to-state practice differences make comparisons problematic, so look at time trends, trajectories.

• Illinois had the worst performing child welfare system in the country in 1996, but it has made more progress than any other state, the “Illinois Miracle”.

• Georgia’s trajectory over the last 6 years isn’t good, but there are some real bright spots in our 159 counties.

• The state office needs to get organized to follow their lead, and standardize around best practices.

Statewide Practice Variation:Rates of Sexual Abuse

Statewide Practice Variation:Speed of Reunification

Statewide Practice Variation:Foster Care Expenditures

Temporal Practice Variation:Removals into Foster Care

Temporal Practice Variation:Douglas County Case Openings

• Tie this to current events …

• Caleb Woods died in Douglas County on July 12, 2003.

• Major news coverage of Caleb’s death came on August 15, 2003 with the death of Kyshawn Punter in DeKalb County.

Final Numbers ...

• 51 children died of abuse in 2002.• We heard about 2 of them: Alexis &

Rhiannon.• DFCS deals with tragedy daily, but when 1 or

2 are publicized, it sways a whole lot of public opinion.

• This type of information is a volatile substance -- bottle it up and it will explode.

Independent Accountability

• Barton: 3 years on the child protection budget, now accountability.

• Professionals who know the territory, have a plan, and know how to implement it will welcome honest, independent measurement of the agency’s performance and the children’s outcomes.

• The alternative is our de-facto accountability system: press, investigate caseworkers, heads roll.

Major Points

• Measuring outcomes in child welfare is hard

• Staff have an inherent conflict of interest; we must have independent evaluation

• Case practice across the state is extremely inconsistent

• Pay attention to the trends over time