The Children and Family Research Center, located in Urbana, Illinois, is an independent research organization created jointly in 1996 at the School of Social Work by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The goal of the Center is to identify research needs and support research that is policy and practice relevant and encourage and facilitate public child welfare research activities through collaborative relationships.
In 2022, nearly 150 caregivers of Black children and youth participated in interviews and a survey to share experiences with child welfare services in permanency planning in Illinois. Caregivers shared factors that facilitate and inhibit the use of subsidized guardianship, as well as insights on strategies for improving supports to reduce race disparities in permanency outcomes. These findings illustrate the importance of: 1) adequate, timely, and consistent information on all permanency options, including guardianship; 2) system supports to direct service staff, court personnel, and others…
Tensions in prevailing beliefs about permanency among judges, attorneys, and child welfare workers have broad implications for efforts to address racial inequities in child welfare outcomes. Findings from a study of subsidized guardianship have broad implications to the broader child welfare system. It will take concerted efforts and cultural changes among system partners including the justice system, prevention services, child welfare professionals, service professionals, and the court system to address disparities for Black children and improve outcomes for children who have experienced…
Simulation training is a form of experiential learning utilized by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services that incorporates realistic settings, trained actors, and standardized scenarios. It provides trainees the opportunity to practice essential job tasks before going into the field. This research brief reports on qualitative analysis of trainee responses to open-ended questions. Using a metacompetence framework, results and implications are discussed across four key areas including skills in action, deepening perspectives on diversity, managing affective intensity in the…
This report presents findings from a survey of Illinois permanency caseworkers and supervisors. The survey captured permanency professionals’ perspectives on the permanency process, adoption, and guardianship. This includes questions on 1) factors affecting the permanency process, 2) the comparison of adoption and guardianship, 3) circumstances supporting guardianship, 4) race disparities in the permanency process, and 5) professional development and support. The survey of permanency professionals was one component of a study of subsidized guardianship, an infrequently used but promising…
As a detective for the Plano (TX) Police Department, Michael Johnson investigated hundreds of child sexual abuse cases for 24-years. He is the founder of one of the first co-housed Children’s Advocacy Centers in the nation and trained thousands of MDT professionals nationally and internationally on the multidisciplinary response to this heinous crime. Ted Cross of the Children and Family Research Center has studied the investigation and prosecution of child sexual abuse for more than three decades. In this workshop, they teamed up with UIUC political science student Meera Kypta to…
Legal actions are perhaps the most powerful responses to child maltreatment. Criminal and child protection investigation and forensic interviewing can provide the evidence needed to support a child victim’s disclosure. Prosecution of child maltreatment can hold perpetrators accountable. Juvenile and family court actions can provide for children’s safety and oversee their care in state custody and journey to a permanent home. This commentary introduces readers to a special issue of the journal Child Maltreatment that focuses on the legal system response to child abuse and neglect. We…