CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley California’s Child Welfare Performance Indicators Project: “irresistible information” presented to (and thanks to) the Stuart Foundation Barbara Needell, MSW, PhD Center for Social Services Research University of California at Berkeley The Performance Indicators Project is a collaboration of the California Department of Social Services and the University of California at Berkeley, and is supported by the California Department of Social Services and the Stuart Foundation

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley agenda 1.a (brief) history 2.tracking outcomes/data samples 3.data on allegations and foster care 4.example measure: C1.3 5.AOC reports 6.public data use (and misuse) 7.next steps…

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley california child welfare performance indicators project 1994: first Performance Indicators Report with 1992 data : Yearly Performance Indicators Reports 1998: State data changed from FCIS to CWS/CMS 2000: CFSR final rule 2001: AB636 passed into law 2001: Data on web 2004: AB636 quarterly outcomes reports 2007: Move to dynamic site 2008: continued expansion of measures and views ongoing: data analysis, data linkage, publications & presentations

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley counterbalanced indicators of system performance permanency through reunification, adoption, or guardianship length of stay stability of care rate of referrals/ substantiated referrals home-based services vs. out of home care positive attachments to family, friends, and neighbors use of least restrictive form of care Source: Usher, C.L., Wildfire, J.B., Gogan, H.C. & Brown, E.L. (2002). Measuring Outcomes in Child Welfare. Chapel Hill: Jordan Institute for Families, reentry to care tracking child welfare outcomes

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley data samples entry cohorts exit cohorts point in time data

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley How long do children stay in foster care? January 1, 2008December 31, 2008July 1, 2008 child 1 child 2 child 3 child 4 child 5 child 6 child 7 child 8 child 9 child 10

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley July 1, 2006-December 31, 2006 California: Recurrence of Allegations By Disposition Type

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley California: Foster Care Entries, Exits, and Caseload

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley composite 1, measure 3 (C1.3) C1.3: Of all children entering foster care for the first time in the 6-month period who remained in foster care for 8 days or longer, what percent were discharged from foster care to reunification in less than 12 months from the date of latest removal from home? extensions: 1.variables: age, gender, placement type, removal reason, episode count, agency type, days in care 2.exit status (3m – 120m) 3.alternative exit types (adoption, guardianship, etc.) 4.filters 5.multiple report types And off to the site…

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley July –December 2000 First Entries California: Percent Exited to Permanency 96 Months From Entry 87%

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley July –December 2000 First Entries California: Percent Exited to Permanency 96 Months From Entry 83% 90%

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley =93%89%= =86% 78%=

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Percent Exited to Permanency Over Time: First Entry Cohorts, 8 days or more in care

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley administrative office of the courts data restricted to court dependent children when possible data from child welfare and court sources (filings) custom data views as requested by AOC (e.g., combination of family maintenance and foster care caseloads in one view, custom in care placement type groupings) county/state and county/county table and graph comparisons % change between time frames provides links to source reports on cws/cms website to allow users to further explore data

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley static and dynamic versions –(dynamic) presents all available time frames in four views (intervals) –(dynamic) % change between user-selected time frames –(dynamic) selected time frames are dynamically marked on tables and charts Demo… administrative office of the courts

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley 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 data misuse/abuse

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

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley maltreatment allegations

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley entries to foster care

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley policy "Our collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley on the Child Welfare Dynamic Report System allows the State of California to make data accessible for analysis by the general public, stakeholders, and policy-makers. The availability of this information permits us to make informed public policy to improve outcomes for children and youth in foster care." John Wagner Director California Department of Social Services

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley legislation “As a county administrator, I am fully in support of public access to county level child welfare data for many reasons. One in particular that has been most effective for me in my role as a legislative advocate is to be able to cite data on the CSSR when arguing for or against a particular bill impacting child welfare. The fact that we can drill down to a particular population the bill addresses and help inform the debate on both policy and fiscal impacts results in data driven legislation; data that all the stakeholders can view and understand leads to consensus on the facts. This is a major breakthrough in the legislative process that before had to operate on inaccessible data or data embedded in paper reports at the local level that were a challenge to gather and analyze.” Kathy Watkins Legislative Program Manager/Legislation and Research Unit San Bernardino County Human Services System

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley training “The publicly available data provided by CSSR/CDSS is invaluable for the training system. All of the statewide and regional training systems can integrate actual data into their curricula - this brings training alive for the participants, and reinforces practice that is informed by outcomes.” Barrett Johnson Director Child Welfare In-Service Training Project California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC) “As a trainer in child welfare, the accessible public data base provides current information to support many of the topics we offer in our Regional Training Academy. We refer to it frequently and are grateful for the gifted folks who created this resource and made it open to those of us who are peripheral but important to supporting good child welfare practice.” Liz Quinnett Program Coordinator Public Child Welfare Training Academy (PCWTA)

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley program evaluation “I use the data from the UCB/CDSS site almost every week in my job as principal analyst in the Program Evaluation & Research unit. The data is invaluable for analysis of trends over time, answering specific questions posed by Children & Family Services managers, and for routine program monitoring reports. I frequently respond to requests for ad-hoc analyses by working directly with the staff person and showing them how to create reports from the website - following the principle of ‘teach them how to fish’. I also refer staff from community based agencies who ask for data for grant proposals to the website and often show them how to extract data. Tom Clancy Program Evaluation & Research Alameda County Social Services Agency

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley administration "We commend Dr. Needell and the work of her staff at UCB/CDSS in creating and refining the child welfare services data posted on the public website. From an administrative perspective, the information has been instrumental in identifying trends, program adjustments and training needs. Being available to the public, the data has supported our efforts in program transparency as well as serving to educate the community on client needs and agency services." Ken Jensen Deputy Director Santa Barbara County Dept. of Social Services

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley …irresistible information “...your website has been extremely useful to me in my small county. There was a report that was provided to the press a couple of years ago and our local newspaper picked up on the fact that Calaveras County was doing worse than the State overall in many areas. I was able to refer them to your website where they could see exactly where Calaveras County ranked amongst all of the counties, not the state (because let's face it, that's pretty much Los Angeles County). Further, I was able to point out those areas where we are exceeding the Federal threshold and doing better than most other counties. It was extremely beneficial. I have since referred folks from our Citizen's Review Panel, Grand Jury and Juvenile Justice Commission to your website when I'm asked for statistical information. Not only is it a real timesaver, but provides solid, non-biased statistics.” Mikey Habbestad Program Manager II Calaveras Works and Human Services Agency

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley continued work/next steps collaboration with other states moving to public sites preparation of the next generation of researchers and practitioners –doctoral students/dissertation research –pilot program with SJSU MSW students…growing momentum for UCB course linkages with EDD, birth, death, emergency department, and hospitalization records continued work with AOC/courts enhanced online graphic capability child welfare council/data linkage subcommittee

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley January 2004-July 2009 California CWS Outcomes System: AB636 Measures, % IMPROVEMENT (+) or (–) indicates direction of desired change Decline in Performance Improvement in Performance

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley January 2004-July 2009 California CWS Outcomes System: Federal Measures, % IMPROVEMENT (+) or (–) indicates direction of desired change Decline in Performance Improvement in Performance ///110.4%

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Thank you to the Stuart Foundation for all your support over the years! We could not have done this work without you.

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley CSSR.BERKELEY.EDU/UCB_CHILDWELFARE Needell, B., Webster, D., Armijo, M., Lee, S., Dawson, W., Magruder, J., Exel, M., Glasser, T., Williams, D., Zimmerman, K., Simon, V., Putnam-Hornstein, E., Frerer, K., Cuccaro-Alamin, S., Winn, A., Lou, C., & Peng, C. (2009). Child Welfare Services Reports for California. Retrieved July 1, 2009, from University of California at Berkeley Center for Social Services Research website. URL: Barbara Needell Presentation Developed by Emily Putnam-Hornstein and Christine Wei-Mien Lou