CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley 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 Data 3 Key Samples of Data

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

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

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

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

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) Group/Shelter Kinship FFA Foster TOTAL 2006

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley 1998 to January 2007 California: Foster Care Caseload by Placement Type Group/Shelter Kinship FFA Foster TOTAL

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: 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 Asian/PI Children Hispanic Children White Children Native American Children

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

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Months First Entries California: Percent by Status 60 Months From Entry

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley Tracking Child Welfare Outcomes Counterbalanced Indicators of SystemPerformance PermanencyThroughReunification, 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

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

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 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: Barbara Needell Emily Putnam-Hornstein