Preparing social workers for child welfare practice: lessons from an historical review of the literature

Patterns of movement in foster care: an optimal matching analysis

Placement instability remains a vexing problem for child welfare agencies across the country. This study uses child welfare administrative data to retrospectively follow the entire placement histories (birth to age 17.5) of 474 foster youth who reached the age of majority in the state of Illinois and to search for patterns in their movement through the child welfare system. Patterns are identified through optimal matching and hierarchical cluster analyses. Multiple logistic regression is used to analyze administrative and survey data in order to examine covariates related to patterns. Five distinct patterns of movement are differentiated: Late Movers, Settled with Kin, Community Care, Institutionalized, and Early Entry. These patterns suggest high but variable rates of movement. Implications for child welfare policy and service provision are discussed.

Evaluating federally-funded child welfare training partnerships: a worthwhile challenge

This article assesses the state of evaluation research on federally-funded child welfare training, including both Section 426 and Title IV-E partnerships. The article discusses the need for stronger evaluations of child welfare training and describes some factors which may have impeded past evaluation efforts. It recommends strengthening evaluations of federally-funded child welfare training through well-targeted questions, strong research designs, strong research methods, innovative methods, and theory-driven studies. The article concludes by promoting the development of child welfare research and training centers.