Californias Child Welfare System Data Trends Child Outcomes

California’s Child Welfare System: Data Trends & Child Outcomes Center for Social Services Research University of California at Berkeley September 2007 The Performance Indicators Project at CSSR is supported by the California Department of Social Services and the Stuart Foundation CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

California’s Child Welfare Data State supervised, county administered child welfare system 58 Diverse Counties Longstanding Interagency Agreement Quarterly Data Reports to State and County officials Funding from CDSS and Stuart Foundation Data Publicly Available… CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

3 Key Samples of Data Entry Cohorts Data Point in Time CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Exit Cohorts

Point in Time Measures Can be Misleading: Example: How long do children stay in foster care? 1/1/2005 CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley 7/1/05 1/1/2006 Source: Aron Shlonsky, University of Toronto (formerly at CSSR)

California Example: Age of Children in Foster Care (2003 first entries, 2003 exits, July 1 2004 caseload) Entries % CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

California Example: Age of Children in Foster Care (2003 first entries, 2003 exits, July 1 2004 caseload) Entries Exits % CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

California Example: Age of Children in Foster Care (2003 first entries, 2003 exits, July 1 2004 caseload) Entries Exits Point in Time % CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

1998 to December 2006 California: First Entries by First Placement Type (children in care for 8 or more days) TOTAL Foster Kinship Group/Shelter FFA 1998 1999 2000 CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

1998 to January 2007 California: Foster Care Caseload by Placement Type TOTAL Kinship FFA Foster Group/Shelter 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

2006 California: Ethnicity and Path through the Child Welfare System (Missing Values Excluded from % Calculations) CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

2006 California: Ethnicity and Path through the Child Welfare System (Missing Values Excluded from % Calculations) CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

2006 California: Ethnicity and Path through the Child Welfare System (Missing Values Excluded from % Calculations) CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

2006 California: Ethnicity and Path through the Child Welfare System (Missing Values Excluded from % Calculations) CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

2006 California: Ethnicity and Path through the Child Welfare System (Missing Values Excluded from % Calculations) CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

2006 California: Referrals per 1, 000 by Age and Ethnicity *Series Total CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

2006 California: Substantiated Referrals per 1, 000 by Age and Ethnicity *Series Total CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

2006 California: Entries to Foster Care per 1, 000 by Age and Ethnicity *Series Total CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

2006 California: Children in Foster Care per 1, 000 by Age and Ethnicity *Series Total CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

2006 California: Referrals, Substantiated Referrals, Entries, & In Care Rates per 1, 000 by Age Black Children Native American Children White Children Hispanic Children Asian/PI Children CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

1998 First Entries California: Placement Stability Over 72 Months Kin Months CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Non-Kin Months

1999 First Entries California: Percent by Status 60 Months From Entry 56 62 87 16 17 15 8 Months CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Months 81

Tracking Child Welfare Outcomes Rate of Referrals/ Substantiated Referrals Reentry to Care Permanency Through Reunification, Adoption, or Guardianship Counterbalanced Indicators of System Performance Length of Stay Stability of Care Home-Based Services vs. Out of Home Care Use of Least Restrictive Form of Care Positive Attachments to Family, Friends, and Neighbors CENTERC. L. , FOR SOCIAL SERVICES Source: Usher, Wildfire, J. B. , RESEARCH Gogan, H. C. & Brown, E. L. (2002). Measuring Outcomes in Child School of Social UC Institute Berkeley Welfare. Chapel Hill: Welfare, Jordan for Families,

Public Data: Putting it All Out There • PROS: – Greater performance accountability – Community awareness and involvement, encourages public-private partnerships – Ability to track improvement over time, identify areas where programmatic adjustments are needed - County/County and County/State collaboration • CONS: – – Potential for misuse, misinterpretation, and misrepresentation Available to those with agendas or looking to create a sensational headline Misunderstood data can lead to the wrong policy decisions “Torture numbers, and they’ll confess to anything” Gregg Easterbrook CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

“Foster Children in Fresno County are three times more likely to remain in foster care for more than a year than in Sacramento. ” SF Chronicle, “Accidents of Geography”, March 8, 2006 CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

“Foster Children in Fresno County are three times more likely to remain in foster care for more than a year than in Sacramento. ” 1. Different families and children served? 2. Different related outcomes? • First entry rates in Fresno are consistently lower • Re-entries in Fresno are also lower… 3. Other considerations… • Resources available, resource allocation choices • Performance trends over time CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

California’s Response to Data Misuse? • CA has had the will to weather the storm(s)… • Continued efforts to frame the data, educate interested media, policymakers, and others – What do these findings mean? – How can these data be used to gain insight into where improvements are needed? • Counties have been proactive in discussing both the “good” and the “bad” (be first, but be right). – Be transparent – If not playing offense…playing defense • Data still public!! (Thank you to the CWDA for these bullets!) CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

Barbara Needell bneedell@berkeley. edu Emily Putnam-Hornstein eputnamhornstein@berkeley. edu CSSR. BERKELEY. EDU/UCB_CHILDWELFARE Needell, B. , Webster, D. , Armijo, M. , Lee, S. , Cuccaro-Alamin, S. , Shaw, T. , Dawson, W. , Piccus, W. , Magruder, J. , Exel, M. , Conley, A. , Smith, J. , Dunn, A. , Frerer, K. , & Putnam Hornstein, E. , (2007). Child Welfare Services Reports for California. Retrieved [month day, year], from University of California at Berkeley Center for Social Services Research website. URL: <http: //cssr. berkeley. edu/UCB_CHILDWELFARE/> CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley