Ted Cross, PhD
[He / Him / His]
The Children & Family Research Center
School of Social Work, University of Illinois
1010 W. Nevada, Suite 2080
(781) 640-4532
The Children & Family Research Center
School of Social Work, University of Illinois
1010 W. Nevada, Suite 2080
(781) 640-4532
Ted Cross has a Ph.D. in Psychology from Boston University.
Dr. Cross’ overarching interest is in developing effective systemic responses to victims of child maltreatment. His current interests include a) well-being and mental health services for children involved with protective services, and b) investigation, prosecution and service delivery in response to child sexual abuse. Among his specific topics of interest are children's advocacy centers, child forensic interviewing, substantiation of child maltreatment, and polygraph testing in child abuse cases. He has served as an expert witness on polygraph testing and maintains a small private practice in child and adult psychotherapy.
Dr. Cross served as the Principal Investigator on the Illinois Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, a statewide longitudinal probability study of child well-being, service delivery and child welfare outcomes for children involved with the Illinois Department of Children and Families. He is also working with Dr. Chiu on the evaluation of the Simulation Training for child welfare caseworkers in Illinois. And, he is part of the CFRC team that will be evaluating child healthcare services in Illinois.
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 provide an overview of the issue’s 11 research articles and additional commentary. These works provide crucial new knowledge on gaining information from child victims involved in the legal system, on the law enforcement and prosecution response to child maltreatment, and on the legal framework supporting child protection.
When children are removed from their home because of maltreatment, the goal of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is to return them to a loving, safe, stable, and permanent home as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the most recent statistics show that 47.3% of children and youth who entered substitute care from DCFS in 2018 were not placed in a permanent home within three years, and the permanency rate is worse for Black children. This is one of a series of reports from a research program exploring subsidized guardianship, one rarely used but promising permanency option that might help both increase permanency rates and reduce racial disparity. In subsidized guardianship, a family member such as a grandmother or aunt typically becomes the child’s permanent caregiver, but the child’s birthparents retain many of their parental rights. This report presents results from interviews with 40 Illinois professionals doing permanency work, including caseworkers, casework supervisors, DCFS attorneys, guardians ad litem, and judges. The interviews examine professionals’ experience with and opinions about subsidized guardianship and adoption, its chief alternative. The interviews also explore professionals’ perceptions regarding the role of race in permanency work. This research was supported by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, through its Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program; and by funding by DCFS to the Translational Research Team of the Office of Research and Child Well-Being.
The mission of Adult Protection Services (APS) of the Illinois Department on Aging (IDOA) is to investigate possible abuse, neglect, and/or financial exploitation of older adults and adults with disabilities and provide post-investigation services. IDOA is the first adult protective state agency in the nation to employ simulation training for adult protection investigators. Trainees engage in a two-day simulation training that is designed to enhance caseworkers’ capabilities and confidence in their adult protection work and to improve the quality of their work. This research brief provides an overview of IDOA’s simulation training curriculum and its preliminary evaluation results.
When children are removed from their home because of maltreatment, the goal of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is to return them to a loving, safe, stable, and permanent home as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the most recent statistics show that 47.3% of children and youth who entered substitute care from DCFS in 2018 were not placed in a permanent home within three years, and the permanency rate is worse for Black children. This brief reports on research on subsidized guardianship, one rarely used but promising permanency option that might help both increase permanency rates and reduce racial disparity. In subsidized guardianship, a family member such as a grandmother or aunt typically becomes the child’s permanent caregiver, but the child’s birthparents retain many of their parental rights. This research was supported by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, through its Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program; and by funding by DCFS to the Translational Research Team of the Office of Research and Child Well-Being. A poster and Powerpoint presentation resulting from this research are also available on this website.
A national movement has been developed in the last decade to use simulation training to train child welfare workers. This article reports on a practical measurement method, Daily Experience of Simulation Training (DEST), that the authors have used since 2018 to evaluate every cohort in a week-long statewide simulation training program for new child protection investigators. The DEST measures daily changes in trainees’ self-report confidence, solicits feedback on the training team, and offers trainees the opportunity to reflect on their experience. Trainees report substantially increased confidence in 13 child protection skills, provided positive feedback to the training team, and offered a number of suggestions for improvement. We discuss methods for implementing a measurement system like the DEST, even for programs with limited resources. DEST results demonstrated considerable consistency across 27 training cohorts. Copies of the article are available from the first author at chiu22@illinois.edu.
When children are removed from their home because of maltreatment, the goal of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is to return them to a loving, safe, stable, and permanent home as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the most recent statistics show that 47.3% of children and youth who entered substitute care from DCFS in 2018 were not placed in a permanent home within three years, and the permanency rate is worse for Black children. This symposium presentation reports on research on subsidized guardianship, one rarely used but promising permanency option that might help both increase permanency rates and reduce racial disparity. In subsidized guardianship, a family member such as a grandmother or aunt typically becomes the child’s permanent caregiver, but the child’s birthparents retain many of their parental rights. This research was supported by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, through its Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program. A companion poster about the study is also available on this website.
When children are removed from their home because of maltreatment, the goal of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is to return them to a loving, safe, stable, and permanent home as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the most recent statistics show that 47.3% of children and youth who entered substitute care from DCFS in 2018 were not placed in a permanent home within three years, and the permanency rate is worse for Black children. This symposium presentation reports on research on subsidized guardianship, one rarely used but promising permanency option that might help both increase permanency rates and reduce racial disparity. In subsidized guardianship, a family member such as a grandmother or aunt typically becomes the child’s permanent caregiver, but the child’s birthparents retain many of their parental rights. This research was supported by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, through its Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program. A companion oral presentation about the study is also available on this website.
This report provides information from the second round of site visits that were conducted in each of the five CMHI 2.0 communities at the end of the second year of their implementation grants. During the site visits, qualitative data were collected through interviews and focus groups with project staff, service providers, parents, and youth who were involved in the implementation efforts in each community. The following topics were examined in the report:
This year, the Children and Family Research Center’s (CFRC) evaluation team again used multiple sub-studies to examine the implementation and outcomes of FY2022 simulation training for new child protection investigators in the Illinois Department of Children and Family Service. FY2022 has been a fiscal year of transition for the Child Protection Training Academy (CPTA). Northern Illinois University became a partner in FY2022. The Chicago and Springfield training laboratories began FY2022 providing simulation training virtually but the simulation training was transitioned back in person in March 2022 at the laboratory of University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) and in May 2022 at the Chicago laboratory. At the end of fiscal year, the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS), the creator of the CPTA model and the founding university for the simulation training partnership with DCFS, ended its involvement in the program. Chapter 1 highlights the important development in the simulation training and evaluation activities in FY2022 and provides an overview of previous program evaluation results. Chapter 2 presents results from the Daily Experience of Simulation Training (DEST) measure of change in trainees’ confidence over the course of simulation training. Chapter 3 presents a new study that used a meta-competence framework to analyze open-ended responses on the DEST, looking at how simulation training assists in the development of skills that enable trainees to use their classroom training effectively. Chapter 4 analyzes data on simulation training from the FY2022 post-training survey to assess trainees’ experience of simulation training. Chapter 5 presents a historical analysis examining consistency and change in trainee satisfaction from FY2016 to FY2022.
Child Advocacy Studies Training (CAST) is a national program responding to the deficit in education in child maltreatment. Colleges and universities throughout the United States provide CAST courses and certificate or minor programs to educate undergraduate and graduate students in child maltreatment and help prepare many for careers in child-serving professions. Through the effort of Children's Advocacy Centers of MississippiTM (CACM), Mississippi implemented CAST across a wide range of the state’s institutions of higher education. This presentation presents highlights from CFRC's evaluation of the Mississippi's CAST Initiative.
