Category Archives: CA&N Resources

Home Visiting Toolkit for Children in Child Care

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As home visiting programs have gained popularity over the past few years, attention is now moving to the children who spend substantial time being cared for by adults other than their parents. In response to the growing interest, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) created a toolkit for State policymakers and advocates, offering tips and strategies for expanding access to State and federally funded home visiting models via coordination with family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) child care providers. Link to pdf Toolkit

Comparing CA&N in Rural and Urban Areas

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Certain child and family characteristics make cases of abuse and neglect more likely to be substantiated—or confirmed—by child protective services (CPS) in rural versus urban settings, according to a new issue brief by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Using data collected in 2008 and 2009 for the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW II), researchers found many similarities in confirmed cases across settings. However, cases of abuse and neglect with the following three characteristics were more likely to be confirmed in rural than in urban areas:

  • Children      age 11 or older (35 percent of rural cases confirmed versus 23 percent of      urban cases)
  • Parents      experiencing cognitive impairments or domestic violence (72 percent of      rural versus 54 percent of urban cases)
  • Families      with income greater than 200 percent of the Federal poverty level (36      percent of rural versus 26 percent of urban cases)

The authors explain that abuse and neglect confirmation often affects whether families will receive support services, but that most children with reported cases experience the same outcomes regardless of confirmation. Therefore, professionals should strive to provide similar services to families with unconfirmed cases in order to improve child outcomes and reduce risks for another report. Because CPS agencies in rural settings often are challenged by finding and keeping skilled workers and providing services across long distances, the issue brief concludes with recommendations for service providers in those areas. Link to Issue Brief

Evaluation Designs for Assessing Practice Models

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When nonprofit agencies, counties, and States embark on implementation of a practice model, it is important to plan the evaluation of its effectiveness right from the beginning. Indeed, one of the first objectives for the team should be a decision about the evaluation design. It is imperative that the organization choose the most rigorous evaluation design that it can accommodate. This brief article describes a few rigorous evaluation designs that could be or have been utilized in assessing child welfare practice models. Link to Article

Housing for Newly Independent Youth

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research, recently published a literature review on housing needs and outcomes common among youth who age out of foster care. These youth face unique housing challenges; they often quickly transition from being dependents of the State to being independent young adults. Because of these fast transitions, many have difficulties finding and maintaining suitable housing, and they often have little to no support from family members or the State. The review gives a detailed summary of the issue and focuses on programmatic initiatives geared toward tackling the problem. Link to Literature Review