OBJECTIVE Cases of child abuse and neglect that involve black children are reported to and substantiated by public child welfare agencies at a rate approximately twice that of cases that involve white children. A range of studies have been performed to assess the degree to which this racial disproportionality is attributable to racial bias in physicians, nurses, and other professionals mandated...

2015. Exploring inequities in child welfare and child protection services: Explaining the 'inverse intervention law'. Please note: Changes made as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing, formatting and page numbers may not be reflected in this version. For the definitive version of this publication, please refer to the published source. You are advised to consult the publisher's ...

An analysis of 8251 homeless children in New York City found that 18% of them received child welfare services over the five-year period following their first shelter admission, and an additional 6% had a history of having received such services before their first shelter admission. Recurrent use of public shelters, exposure to domestic violence, older age at first episode of homelessness, and l...

Alabama has a long history of providing a modest safety net for low-income families and children, supplying more limited income support than almost any other state. The state’s policies toward lowincome families have been closely linked to federal policy, with little state funding beyond that required to draw down available federal funds. Since the first round of site visits, a large influx of ...

The idea of performance contracting or performance based contracting has become increasingly popular in the child welfare arena. This isn’t surprising, in that it comes on the heels of two very powerful shifts in the provision of child welfare services since the early 1990s: a rapid growth in privatization and the emergence of major accountability efforts from the federal government in the form...

The federal child welfare performance measurement system exerts a profound influence over the design, delivery, and evaluation of child welfare services at the local level, with funding contingent upon participation in the federally mandated Child and Family Services Review. In this exploratory study the authors focus on local efforts to respond to and comply with the federal child welfare perf...

Despite the recent attention to the prevalence of parental substance use disorders among the families in child welfare services, there are few national data on the number of children in foster care due to parental substance use disorders. Studies that have examined the prevalence of substance abuse among the child welfare population have found widely varying rates. Estimates range from 40% to 8...

BACKGROUND Infants are the most likely recipients of child welfare services; however, little is known about infants and families who come into contact with the child welfare system and factors that are associated with service provision. Investigations involving infants and their families present an unparalleled opportunity for the child welfare sector to enhance infants' safety and well-being t...

OBJECTIVE This study evaluated how improved community mental health services for youths affect public expenditures in other sectors, including inpatient hospitalization, the juvenile justice system, the child welfare system, and the special education system. METHODS Participants were youths aged six to 17 years who received services through a mental health agency in one of a matched pair of c...

Sexually abused children may have poor mental health because of their victimization as well as preexisting or co-occurring family problems. However, few studies consider psychopathology in relation to both abuse and other family experiences. This study uses data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) to create latent subgroups of 553 children investigated for sexual...