Private vs public child welfare systems: A comparative analysis of national safety outcome performance

BACKGROUND

Ensuring the safety of American children is one of the chief mandates of the U.S. Child Welfare System. Yet system differences, including privatization remain an area of concern for whether safety of children is achieved.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the effect of privatization policy on the performance of state child welfare systems in terms of achieving national safety outcome standards.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

N₁ = 10 states systems (5 privatized and 5 public systems) with N₂ = 118,761 foster care cases located throughout the U.S.

METHOD

Using data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), safety outcome performance measures were assessed, as were child-/case factors to predict the likelihood of the system types meeting the national safety outcome standards.

RESULTS

Logistic regression models of child, case, and system factors predicting the likelihood state systems met national safety outcome performance standards were statistically significant. Private systems, compared to non-private systems, were found to have lower odds of meeting the safety outcome 1 standard (OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.40-0.42), but greater odds of meeting the safety outcome 2 standard (OR = 6.79, 95% CI = 6.56-7.02).

CONCLUSIONS

The implementation of privatization policy in state child welfare/foster care service delivery was found to have mixed results in terms of the national safety outcome standards.

Ain't nobody got time for dad? Racial-ethnic disproportionalities in child welfare casework practice with nonresident fathers

BACKGROUND

Given fathers' potential role in bringing about desired child welfare case outcomes, researchers have begun to identify factors that impact agency efforts to identify and involve fathers. Racial-ethnic inequality and bias are not among factors studied, despite longstanding evidence that racial-ethnic minority children make up a disproportionate share of the child welfare population.

OBJECTIVE

We set out to identify racial-ethnic patterns in initial casework activity with nonresident fathers and explore whether select factors explain racial-ethnic differentials.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Caseworkers of 1,754 children in foster care in four U.S. states were surveyed.

METHODS

Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with whether agencies identified, located, and contacted nonresident fathers.

RESULTS

Agencies were less likely to identify nonresident fathers of Black, Latinx, and Multiracial children, relative to those of White children. Among fathers whom agencies identified, Black and Latinx fathers were less likely to be located. Among fathers whom agencies located, Black and Latinx fathers were less likely to be contacted. Whereas greater rates of international mobility among Latinx fathers explained agencies' disproportionately low rates of contact, no other factor explained racial-ethnic differentials.

CONCLUSION

We find evidence of historical racial-ethnic disproportionalities across the three initial stages of casework practice with nonresident fathers in U.S. child welfare systems. Though more recent data are needed, this research suggests that racial-ethnic minority foster children are more likely than White foster children to be denied the benefits of agency-father contact, whether due to societal or systemic racial inequalities.