Ted Cross, Cady Landa, Heather Fox, Robin LaSota, Magdelene Thebaud, Diamond Hines, Tachauna Parsons, Eunjee (Isu) Song, Sharva Hampton-Campbell, Soonhyung Kwon, and Mary Jane Steiner

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 supporting families amidst staffing shortages and turnover; 3) ongoing engagement and personalized support with caregivers on trauma-informed parenting strategies; 4) increased representation of Black professionals in family support and permanency work, alongside deep work to build race equity practice in permanency planning. Presented on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, at the Illinois DCFS Office of Parent and Caregiver Support Statewide Meeting in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

Heather Fox, Theodore Cross, and Magdelene Thebaud

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 neglect or child maltreatment. Presented on Thursday, May 25, 2023, at the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children’s 30th Colloquium in Denver, Colorado.

Kirsten Havig, Yu-Ling Chiu, and Steve Tran

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 moment, and openness to learning.

Heather Fox, Theodore Cross, Robin LaSota, Cady Landa and Eunjee Song

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 alternative for finding permanent homes for children in foster care. Our aim is to inform efforts to use guardianship wisely to increase the number of children placed in loving, stable, permanent homes, especially Black children.

Ted Cross, Michael Johnson, and Meera Kypta

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 present an evidence-based, best practice, multidisciplinary framework for implementing effective and trauma-informed child sexual abuse investigations.

CFRC

Do you need data on topics such as Child Safety, Substitute Care, Legal Permanence or other indicators? The CFRC’s Data Center page has all of that information! The data can be accessed 24/7 and no logins or passwords are needed. We invite you to watch as CFRC’s web designer, Dan Phillips, walks us through certain features of the Data Center. The quick 4-minute video shows how you can view data for various indicators in charts or tables formats. Data is available for the whole state, or you can select specific regions and subregions. Specific demographics can be selected for each chart or table as well. Most indicators have 7 years’ worth of data available and data is updated quarterly.

Ted Cross, Cady Landa, Heather Fox, Robin LaSota, Magdelene Thebaud, Diamond Hines, Tachauna Parsons, EunJee Song, Sharva Hampton-Campbell, Soonhyung Kwon, and Mary Jane Steiner

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.

Theodore Cross, Megan Alderden, Laura Siller, Maja Vlajnic, and Alex Wagner

Many people have read about cases or seen TV shows in which DNA evidence helped convict a rapist. But surprisingly little research examines the effect of DNA on arresting and prosecuting sexual offenders. The DNA “hit” on a police procedural TV show is not necessarily typical. This brief describes findings on the role of DNA in the criminal justice response to sexual assault from research by the Children and Family Research Center’s (CFRC) Ted Cross and his colleagues.

Yu-Ling Chiu and Ted Cross

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.

CFRC

In this issue: Governor appoints CFRC Director Dr. Tamara Fuller to serve on disproportionality advisory committee, a new project examining subsidized guardianship disparities, a new report addressing racial disproportionality, new faces at the Center, and much more! Read all about it here.

Ted Cross, Cady Landa, Heather L. Fox, Robin LaSota, Magdelene Thebaud, Diamond Hines, Tachauna Parsons, EunJee Song, Sharva Hampton-Campbell, Soonhyung Kwon, and Mary Jane Steiner

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.

Tamara Fuller, Satomi Wakita, Kyle Adams, Martin Nieto, Stacey Shipe, Shufen Wang, and Yu-Ling Chiu

HB2914 requires the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to submit an annual report regarding racial disproportionality for children involved in the Illinois child welfare system. The report, which is due on December 31 of each year, must examine the following indicators: children and families involved in a safety plan, protective custodies, investigations and indicated investigations of each type of abuse and neglect, court filings for each allegation type, substitute care entries, placement settings, lengths of stay in foster care, and permanency outcomes. This first report includes data on racial disproportionalities in the Illinois child welfare system during FY2022 (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022).

Tamara Fuller, Cady Landa, Satomi Wakita, and Kyle Adams III

Serious concerns about the over-representation of Black children in the Illinois child welfare system have led to urgent calls to action to address the issue. In order to develop effective interventions, reliable and ongoing data about racial disproportionality are needed that provide administrators and policymakers with information about which segments of the system are most critically impacted. As part of our ongoing work of monitoring the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Families Services under the B.H. Consent Decree, the Children and Family Research Center produces an annual report that measures racial disproportionality over time at both the regional and state level. This brief highlights key findings from the FY2022 report related to the disproportionality among Black children in the Illinois child welfare system and suggests some areas where additional study and intervention are needed.

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Kyle Adams, Yu-Ling Chiu, Cady Landa, Steve Tran, Satomi Wakita, and Shufen Wang

Since its inception in 1996, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual report that monitors the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being. The FY2022 monitoring report uses child welfare administrative data through December 31, 2021 to describe the conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Following an introductory chapter, the results are presented in four chapters that examine critical child welfare outcomes, including child safety, continuity and stability in care, legal permanence, and racial disproportionality.

Tamara Fuller, Cady Landa, Satomi Wakita, and Kyle Adams

Child welfare systems across the nation share the concern that children from some racial and ethnic groups may be disproportionately represented in the child welfare system compared to their representation in the general population. This report examines racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system at six critical decision points during 2015–2021, including: 1) screened-in maltreatment reports/investigations, 2) protective custodies, 3) indicated maltreatment reports, 4) child welfare case openings (intact family services), 5) substitute care entries, and 6) timely exits from substitute care. The results are presented for the entire state as well as by region.

Ted Cross, Cady Landa, Heather Fox, Robin LaSota, Magdelene Thebaud, Diamond Hines, Tachauna Parsons, Eunjee (Isu) Song, Sharva Hampton-Campbell, Soonhyung Kwon, and Mary Jane Steiner

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.

Ted Cross, Cady Landa, Heather Fox, Robin LaSota, Magdelene Thebaud, Diamond Hines, Tachauna Parsons, Eunjee (Isu) Song, Sharva Hampton-Campbell, Soonhyung Kwon, and Mary Jane Steiner

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.

Tamara Fuller

CFRC Director Tamara Fuller presented highlights from the FY2022 Racial Disproportionality in the Illinois Child Welfare System Report to the Advisory Commission on Reducing the Disproportionate Representation of African-American Children in Foster Care. Four key findings include: 1) Black children are over represented at every decision point in the Illinois child welfare system when compared to their representation in the Illinois child population; 2) There are large regional differences in the degree to which Black children are over represented in the Illinois child welfare system; 3) Most, but not all, of the over representation of Black children in the Illinois child welfare system is introduced at the hotline, and 4) The amount of over representation of Black children in child welfare has been decreasing over the past few years at some decision points.

Tamara Fuller, Steve Tran, Yu-Ling Chiu, Kirsten Havig, and Cady Landa

This report presents the results of the 2022 annual stakeholder survey that was administered to system of care stakeholders in the five CMHI 3.0 communities. The stakeholder survey assesses the degree to which various implementation supports and activities have been implemented and fidelity to the systems of care principles in the service delivery system, including the extent to which services are individualized, family-driven, youth-guided, coordinated, culturally and linguistically competent, based on evidence-informed and promising practices, least restrictive, and comprehensive. In addition, the survey measures several system-level outcomes, including availability of specific services, coordination among various child- and family-serving systems (child welfare, education, public health, juvenile justice, primary health, substance abuse, and mental and behavioral health); and commitment to the SOC philosophy and approach.

Tamara Fuller, Kirsten Havig, Cady Landa, Theodore Cross, and Yu-Ling Chiu

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:

• Participants’ understandings of their sites’ major goals, objectives, and interventions for changing or improving the children’s mental health system of care
• Progress made in implementing children’s mental health systems of care during the first two years of implementation
• The implementation infrastructure and processes that guided and supported implementation, such as leadership, planning and decision-making, and communication within the implementation teams and to the wider community
• The role of parents and youth in the implementation process
• Barriers and facilitators of implementation

Tamara Fuller, Steve Tran, Yu-Ling Chiu, and Kirsten Havig

This report presents the results of the 2022 annual stakeholder survey that was administered to system of care stakeholders in the five CMHI 2.0 communities. The stakeholder survey assesses the degree to which various implementation supports and activities have been implemented and fidelity to the systems of care principles in the service delivery system, including the extent to which services are individualized, family-driven, youth-guided, coordinated, culturally and linguistically competent, based on evidence-informed and promising practices, least restrictive, and comprehensive. In addition, the survey measures several system-level outcomes, including availability of specific services, coordination among various child- and family-serving systems (child welfare, education, public health, juvenile justice, primary health, substance abuse, and mental and behavioral health); and commitment to the SOC philosophy and approach.

Ted Cross, Yu-Ling Chiu, Kirsten Havig, and Steve Tran

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.

CFRC

In this issue we welcome new Research Specialist Dr. Stacey Shipe, announce a new grant with the Illinois Department on Aging, describe the Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation's visit to Champaign, and much more!

Ted Cross and Yu-Ling Chiu

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.

Theodore P. Cross, Debra Whitcomb, and Emi Maren

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) are central to the response to child sexual abuse and other child maltreatment in the United States. CACs coordinate the investigative and service response to child victimization, and support child survivors and their families to reduce the stress that follows a child maltreatment allegation. Multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) are the mechanism CACs use to coordinate investigation and service delivery in a centralized, child-friendly setting. CACs use forensic interviewers specially trained to work with children; and offer children and families medical, therapeutic, advocacy services, and other services. Presenting results from a U.S. survey of CAC directors, this research brief focuses on the composition of MDTs and the forms of assistance CACs provide. Compared to previous studies, this brief provides more detailed information on the kinds of help that CACs provide and the range of agencies that participate in CACs

Theodore Cross, Steve Tran, Eliza Betteridge, Robert Hjertquist, Tawny Spinelli, Jennifer Prior, Neil Jordan, and Soonhyung Kwon

Screening children who are entering out-of-home care is widely implemented but not thoroughly studied. Using a sample from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, we examined whether emotional and behavioral needs identified by an Integrated Assessment (IA) at entry predict needs and services while in care. This research brief is reproduced from Chapter 5 of the 2021 Monitoring Report for the B.H. Consent Decree and adapted from a journal article by the authors. Data from the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) measure completed in the IA were combined with data from a point-in-time study of the well-being of children in out-of-home care. Having a behavioral or emotional need identified at entry predicted having a similar need and receiving mental health services during out-of-home c are. The relationship did not diminish with length of time in care; IA CANS predicted needs and services even for children in substitute care for an extended period. These results provide evidence for the validity of the IA CANS for screening for children’s needs in out-of-home care. The persistence of problems suggests the value of baseline screening as a guide for service delivery throughout children’s stay in care, and the need for more effective mental health services specially tailored for children in substitute care.

Ted Cross and Yu-Ling Chiu

Child Advocacy Studies Training (CAST) of the Zero Abuse Project 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. CFRC has completed a final report from a mixed methods program evaluation of Mississippi’s CAST Initiative. The program evaluation features multiple components. It included a study of the implementation, development, and student and faculty experiences of CAST programs based on interviews with faculty and CAST graduates. The program evaluation also included an outcome study assessing students’ experience of their CAST courses, and comparing CAST and non-CAST students on their knowledge and judgment about child maltreatment. CAST is firmly established and highly valued in a range of different colleges and universities in Mississippi. Most CAST students rated their CAST courses highly on multiple dimensions. Mississippi CAST students had knowledge and skills that were superior to non-CAST students. CAST students’ knowledge and skills positions them to respond more effectively to child maltreatment in their young careers.

Ted Cross and Yu-Ling Chiu

Child Advocacy Studies Training (CAST) of the Zero Abuse Project 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 at Mississippi’s annual One Loud Voice conference provides highlights from a two-year mixed methods program evaluation of Mississippi’s CAST Initiative that CFRC conducted.

Tamara Fuller, Cady Landa, Satomi Wakita, and Kyle Adams

Child welfare systems across the nation share the concern that children from some racial and ethnic groups may be disproportionately represented in the child welfare system compared to their representation in the general population. This report examines racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system at five critical decision points during 2014–2020, including: 1) screened-in maltreatment reports/investigations, 2) protective custodies, 3) indicated maltreatment reports, 4) child welfare case openings (intact family services), 5) substitute care entries, and 6) timely exits from substitute care. The results are presented for the entire state as well as by region.

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Kyle Adams, Yu-Ling Chiu, Theodore Cross, Cady Landa, Laura Lee, Steve Tran, Satomi Wakita, and Shufen Wang

Since its inception in 1996, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual report that monitors the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being. The FY2021 monitoring report uses child welfare administrative data through December 31, 2020 to describe the conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Following an introductory chapter, the results are presented in five chapters that examine critical child welfare outcomes, including child safety, continuity and stability in care, legal permanence, racial disproportionality, and child well-being.

Ted Cross, Yu-Ling Chiu, Shufen Wang, Laura Lee, Steve Tran, and Kirsten Havig

In FY2021, the Children and Family Research Center’s (CFRC) evaluation team again used multiple sub-studies to examine the implementation and outcomes of simulation training for new child protection investigators in the Illinois Department of Children and Family Service. This is an important time historically to study simulation training because of the effect of COVID-19 on trainees, their work and the training itself. Chapter 1 summarizes CTPA’s implementation in 2021: adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic through virtual methods, training supervisors in problem-based learning, and re-formatting investigator training. Chapter 2 presents results from the Daily Experience of Simulation Training (DEST) measure. The measure was designed to examine change in trainees’ confidence over the course of simulation training. This is an important time to assess DEST results, because of changes in simulation training during FY2021, as discussed in the Introduction. Chapter 3 offers updated results from a post-training satisfaction survey. The chapter reports trainees’ satisfaction ratings for simulation training over this time period. It also provides qualitative results from the analysis of open-ended items in the post-training satisfaction survey. Chapter 4 examines whether simulation training is related to employee turnover. Using two different analytic methods, it asks whether investigators trained using simulation training have stayed in their jobs longer than investigators who were not provided simulation training. Chapter 5 examines the relationship of simulation training to child safety. We compared sim-trained and non-sim-trained investigators on the likelihood that children in their investigations were involved in re-reports to DCFS. The last chapter provides the conclusion of this year’s evaluation and recommendations for improving the program.

Tamara Fuller, Theodore Cross, Yu-ling Chiu, Cady Landa, Kirsten Havig, and Steven Tran

This report presents the results of the first annual stakeholder survey that was administered to system of care stakeholders in the five CMHI 3.0 communities. The stakeholder survey is an important component of the evaluation of the Children's Mental Health Initiative that assesses the degree to which various implementation supports and activities have been implemented, such as a strategic plan that guides implementation and a steering committee that meets frequently. The survey also assesses fidelity to the systems of care principles in the service delivery system, including the extent to which services are individualized, family-driven, youth-guided, coordinated, culturally and linguistically competent, based on evidence-informed and promising practices, least restrictive, and comprehensive. Finally, the Stakeholder Survey includes sections that measure several system-level outcomes, including availability of specific home- and community-based services, residential and non-residential treatment services, and evidence-based mental health interventions; coordination among various child- and family-serving systems (child welfare, education, public health, juvenile justice, primary health, substance abuse, and mental and behavioral health); and commitment to the SOC philosophy and approach.

Steve Tran and Tamara Fuller

This research brief highlights the findings from the most recent CDRT annual report on child deaths that occurred in Illinois in 2019. The brief presents summary information about child deaths in Illinois by age, race, and by the category and manner of death, as well as examples of CDRT recommendations to prevent child deaths.

Steve Tran and Tamara Fuller

This research brief uses data from the annual CDRT reports to examine trends in child deaths between 2010 and 2019. The brief describes trends in total child deaths by child age, manner and category of death, as well as programs and initiatives in the state to prevent and reduce child deaths.

Steve Tran and Bernadette Emery

Many of the reviews conducted by the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs) involve unsafe sleep, and for the past several years they have has sought to bring increased attention to infant deaths due to unsafe sleep. The Illinois Child Death Review conducted a detailed examination of these deaths by child race/ethnicity, gender, age, sleeping position, and the locations and environments of the deaths. This brief highlights the findings of these analyses.

Tamara Fuller, Steve Tran, Theodore Cross, Yu-ling Chiu, Cady Landa, and Kirsten Havig

This report presents the results of the 2021 annual stakeholder survey that was administered to system of care stakeholders in the five CMHI 2.0 communities. The stakeholder survey is an important component of the evaluation of the Children's Mental Health Initiative that assesses the degree to which various implementation supports and activities have been implemented, such as a strategic plan that guides implementation and a steering committee that meets frequently. The survey also assesses fidelity to the systems of care principles in the service delivery system, including the extent to which services are individualized, family-driven, youth-guided, coordinated, culturally and linguistically competent, based on evidence-informed and promising practices, least restrictive, and comprehensive. Finally, the Stakeholder Survey includes sections that measure several system-level outcomes, including availability of specific home- and community-based services, residential and non-residential treatment services, and evidence-based mental health interventions; coordination among various child- and family-serving systems (child welfare, education, public health, juvenile justice, primary health, substance abuse, and mental and behavioral health); and commitment to the SOC philosophy and approach.

CFRC

In this issue: An interview with the Executive Director of Children's Advocacy Centers of Mississippi on training college students about child abuse and neglect, new Center Researcher Kirsten Having, a letter from our Director on the Center's and School's ongoing projects involving social justice...and much more!

Steve Tran, Soonhyung Kwon, and Theodore Cross

The 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study found that many children and youth in out-of-home care in the state have significant developmental, physical, emotional, behavioral and/or educational challenges. However, some children in the study are capable of functioning well at home and school, despite the trauma of abuse and neglect and the difficulties of living in out-of-home care. We used measures from the study to examine how frequently children and youth functioned well across multiple measures. We found that many Illinois children and youth in out-of-home care demonstrated behavioral, emotional and educational resilience across multiple measures of functioning. Child welfare practice needs to take into account children and youth’s resilience and build on their strengths.

CFRC

In this issue: A profile on new CFRC researcher Cady Landa, the Maltreatment in Care Dashboard, welcoming our latest Faculty Affiliates, and more!

Laura Lee, Steve Tran, Michael Braun, Robin LaSota, and Tamara Fuller

Public Act 100-0879, enacted in August 2018, created a bi-partisan task force to: 1) study the compensation and workload of child welfare workers, 2) determine the role that these factors play in the recruitment and retention of the child welfare workers, and 3) determine the role that staff turnover plays in achieving safety and timely permanence for children. The Children and Family Research Center assisted the task force by conducting a literature review of the factors that impact child welfare worker retention and implementing a survey of all child welfare employers within Illinois to examine the role that compensation and other factors have on retention. This report contains the findings of the literature review and survey, as well as the recommendations that the task force made to improve child welfare retention.

Ted Cross, Steve Tran, and Soonhyung Kwon

Considerable research has shown that early childhood education can contribute to children’s school readiness and later academic achievement and well-being. Early childhood education is particularly important for children in out-of-home care. Many young Illinois children in out-of-home care through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services lag in development and many older children in out-of-home care have problems succeeding at school. This brief examines how frequently children in this age group in IDCFS care receive early childhood education, using data from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study.

Tamara Fuller, Michael Braun, Satomi Wakita, and Kyle Adams

Child welfare systems across the nation share the concern that children from some racial minority groups may be disproportionately represented in the child welfare system compared to their representation in the general population. One of the goals in the Department’s Child Welfare Transformation Strategic Plan is to track racial equity at critical decision points to help inform planning and decision-making. This report provides information relevant to that goal by examining racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system at five critical decision points (see Figure 1) during 2013–2019, including: 1) investigated/screened-in maltreatment reports, 2) protective custodies, 3) indicated maltreatment reports, 4) post-investigation service provision, including substitute care and intact family services, and 5) timely exits from substitute care.

CFRC

In this issue: A “Spotlight on Practice” focusing on changes to Simulation Training Evaluations, an announcement about the 14th Annual Brieland Visiting Scholar Lecture, our recent publications on child deaths in Illinois, and much more.

Theodore Cross, Soonhyung Kwon, and Steve Tran

Studies have found that a substantial proportion of youth in out-of-home care have been the victims of sexual violence, and that troubling percentages of these youth engage in risky sexual behaviors. This brief uses data from the 2017 Illinois Study of Child Well-Being to examine the sexual experiences of Illinois youth in out-of-home care. In this brief, we focus on the following variables: having sexual intercourse, having non-consensual sexual intercourse (and age at first intercourse), using protection while having sex, becoming pregnant (for girls) or getting someone pregnant (for boys), having children, and receiving family planning services. The results underlines the need for foster parents and child welfare workers to be aware of youths’ sexual behavior and make sure that youth have the knowledge to deal with their sexuality responsibly.

Theodore Cross and Yu-Ling Chiu

This report presents interim results from the program evaluation of Mississippi’s Child Advocacy Studies Training (CAST) initiative, the first statewide effort to increase undergraduate and graduate students’ knowledge and skills for responding to child maltreatment. Colleges and universities throughout Mississippi provide CAST courses and certificate or minor programs to educate undergraduate and graduate students about child maltreatment and help prepare many for careers in child-serving professions, especially child protection. CFRC is conducting a mixed methods evaluation that includes both an implementation study based on interviews with faculty and an outcome study using surveys assessing CAST students’ experience, knowledge and judgment.

Steve Tran and Bernadette Emery

Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths were the 3rd leading cause of death of children in Illinois in 2018, and many of the deaths reviewed by the CDRTs were sleep related. The CDRT Executive Council and CDRTs therefore requested additional information on these deaths in the 2018 Child Death Review Teams annual report. This brief highlights findings from the special chapter on Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths During Sleep from the 2018 annual report.

Tamara Fuller and Steve Tran

This research brief, the third in a series that highlights the important work of the CDRTs in Illinois, uses data from the annual CDRT reports to examine trends in child deaths over the past decade. The brief describes trends in total child deaths and trends in the number of deaths by child age, manner of death, and category and death.

Steve Tran and Tamara Fuller

This research brief, the second in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs) in Illinois, highlights the findings from the most recent CDRT annual report on child deaths that occurred in Illinois in 2018. The brief presents summary information about child deaths in Illinois by age, race, and by the manner and category of death, as well as examples of CDRT recommendations to prevent child deaths.

Tamara Fuller and Steve Tran

This research brief, the first in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs), provides an introduction and overview of the CDRT process in Illinois. The brief discusses the circumstances in which the CDRTs will review a child’s death, the review process, and the impact of child death reviews.

Tamara Fuller, Satomi Wakita, Martin Nieto, and Laura Lee

The FY2020 CERAP evaluation uses the most recently available administrative data to re-examine the predictive validity of the CERAP by analyzing the relationship between CERAP completion at the conclusion of the investigation and a future criterion measure of child safety (i.e., short-term maltreatment recurrence). The analyses examined the relationship between indicated investigations that did and did not have a safety assessment at the conclusion of the investigation and the rates of maltreatment recurrence within 30, 60, and 90 days of the investigation close date for each fiscal year between 2014 and 2019. The results are inconsistent across the years and therefore difficult to interpret.

Ted Cross, Steve Tran, and Soonhyung Kwon

Research has shown that youth in out-of-home care have high rates of alcohol and illegal substance use. It is important then to track alcohol and substance use as part of monitoring the well-being of Illinois children and youth in out-of-home care. The 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study provided the first estimates of alcohol and substance use for these children and youth in a decade. This research brief provides results on alcohol and substance use from this study, including results not included in the main study report. The results suggest that most Illinois youth age 15 to 17 in out-of-home care have used alcohol and illegal substances in their life. Over a third in this age group had used alcohol or illegal substances in the last 30 days. Few caregivers reported that their child had an alcohol or substance abuse problem, and small numbers of youth reported using alcohol or illegal substances frequently in the past month. Nevertheless, we cannot be certain what proportion of these youth have a problem with alcohol and/or substance abuse, because caregivers may not know the extent of their child’s alcohol and substance use, and youth may be under-reporting their use.

Ted Cross, Steve Tran, and Soonhyung Kwon

Several studies nationally and in Illinois have found that children in out-of-home care are at increased risk for delinquency. This brief uses data from the 2017 Illinois study of Child Well-Being to examine the frequency of delinquent behaviors among Illinois youth in out-of-home care—the first such analysis in a decade. Overall 40.3% of youth aged 11 to 17 reported engaging in at least one delinquent act in the last six months. This proportion increased to two-thirds when we focused on older adolescents aged 15 to 17. The rate of delinquent behavior is lower than the 52% found in a 2005 study of Illinois youth in out-of-home care. More research is needed to assess the severity of delinquency. Nevertheless, these results suggest that there is an ongoing need to monitor these youth’s behavior and take steps to prevent delinquency.

Ted Cross, Steve Tran, and Soonhyung Kwon

A substantial proportion of children in out-of-home care through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS) have emotional and behavioral problems. Given this substantial need, it is especially important to track whether children in out-of-home care are receiving the behavioral health services they need. Through interviews with caregivers, the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study of Illinois children in out-of-home care examined what behavioral health services children and youth were currently receiving and had ever received. This brief presents results on the frequency of receiving different behavioral health services. Most children and youth with emotional or behavioral problems were receiving a behavioral health service, though much remains unknown about the type and quality of behavioral health services they receive.

Steve Tran, Theodore Cross, and Soonhyung Kwon

Decades of research have shown that many children and adolescents in out-of-home care through child protective services have emotional and behavioral problems. This research brief reports on the emotional and behavioral health among children in out-of-home care through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), using data from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study. Both caregiver and child reports suggest that large percentages of children and youth in out-of-home care have emotional and behavioral problems, with especially high rates among children and youth in specialized foster care, group homes, and residential treatment; even children in traditional and kinship foster care had rates of emotional and behavioral problems that exceed those of children and youth in general.

Yu-Ling Chiu, Laura Lee, and Theodore P. Cross

The FY2020 evaluation report of the Child Protection Training Academy presents an array of data on implementation and impacts. Chapter 1 focuses on the implementation of a second simulation laboratory for new investigators that opened in Chicago in April 2019. The results suggest that the Chicago laboratory is a modest re-invention of the Springfield laboratory, using Rogers’ terminology on diffusion of innovations. The combined work of DCFS, UIUC and UIS aimed at producing programs that were comparable clearly had an effect, and the extra work and travel of UIS trainers to help make this happen are noteworthy. Chapter 2 presents results from the Daily Experience of Simulation Training (DEST) measure. As in previous years, the DEST in FY2020 shows that the confidence that trainees report increased substantially from the beginning to the end of the simulation training week. Chapter 3 offers new quantitative results from a post-training satisfaction survey. Results corroborate the satisfaction that trainees reported on the DEST. Across eight satisfaction items, trainees gave simulation training positive to very positive ratings. Chapter 4 presents a content analysis of responses on the post-training satisfaction survey in which trainees describe their simulation training experience and offer suggestions for program improvement. The survey respondents reported that the training provided realistic simulation and increased their knowledge about what they will face in the field. They described positive emotional effects on increasing confidence and decreasing self-doubt. Chapter 5 discusses the implications for understanding and developing the simulation training program and recommendations for program improvement.

Children and Family Research Center

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is responsible for assuring the safety, family permanence, and well-being of the children who have been investigated for abuse or neglect or who have been removed from their homes and placed into substitute care. For over two decades, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual monitoring report that tracks the performance of the Illinois child welfare system on over 40 measures of child safety, family continuity, placement stability, permanence, as well as new indicators involving racial disproportionality. The full report, which is available on the CFRC website, examines each measure over the past seven years and provides detailed tables and figures that examine differences among child age and racial groups. This brief highlights five noteworthy findings from the most recent report, which tracks performance through FY2019.

Theodore P. Cross, Soonhyung Kwon, and Steve Tran

Many children in out-of-home care have emotional and behavioral problems, so it is not surprising that many receive psychiatric medication. This research brief reports on the use of psychiatric medication among children in out-of-home care through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), using data from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study. This is a new analysis with findings that are not available in the study final report. Based on data from caregivers about their child, just over one-fifth of children and youth were receiving psychiatric medication, but rates were much higher among youth age 15 to 17 and youth in specialized foster care, group homes and residential treatment.

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Kyle A. Adams III, Michael Braun, Yu-Ling Chiu, Laura Lee, Steve Tran, Satomi Wakita, Shufen Wang

Since its inception in 1996, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual report that monitors the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being. The FY2020 monitoring report uses child welfare administrative data through December 31, 2019 to describe the conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Following an introductory chapter, the results are presented in four chapters that examine critical child welfare outcomes, including child safety, continuity and stability in care, legal permanence, and racial disproportionality.

CFRC

In this issue: Completion of the 2020 B.H. Report, an update on Simulation Training Evaluations, an Inside CFRC on Dr. Braun’s recent research into patterns of restraints used in residential treatment facilities, and more.

Betsy Goulet , Ted Cross , Yu-Ling Chiu, and Susan Evans

In FY 2015 the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services partnered with the University of Illinois Springfield to develop the Child Protection Training Academy in order to redesign the six-week classroom training for new investigators and create an experiential component. This paper chronicles the goals of the partnership and the planning and implementation of the Academy.

Betsy P. Goulet , Theodore P. Cross , Yu-Ling Chiu & Susan Evans (2020): Moving from procedure to practice: a statewide child protection simulation training model. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 15(5), 597-616. https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2020.1777247

CFRC

In this issue: Child Protetcion During the Pandemic, Research Briefs from the Well-Being Study, A Trip to Birmingham, and more!

Ted Cross, Steve Tran, and Aide Hernandez

Most children in out-of-home care because of child maltreatment remain attached to their birth parents despite the abuse or neglect they have suffered from them. This research brief reports on relationships with birth parents for children in out-of- home care through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), using data from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study. Contact with birth parents was a positive experience for many children in out-of-home care, but not enough children had the positive contact with birth parents they needed.

Ted Cross, Aide Hernandez, and Steve Tran

Disproportionate percentages of children in out-of-home care have poor outcomes on child development, health, behavioral health, and education. Yet some children in out-of-home care are resilient and do well even if they have been placed out of home because they were maltreated. In this brief, we use data from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study to learn about the resilience of Illinois children in out-of-home care. Most children and youth reported positive relationships with adults and positive activities such as sports and hobbies. Most had positive expectations for their future. These results suggest that many children and youth have strengths to count on to deal with the stresses and difficulties of experiencing child maltreatment, being removed from their home, and not yet having a permanent home to return to.

Ted Cross, Megan Alderden, Alex Wagner, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, and Kaitlin Lounsbury

This study examined the timing of the crime laboratory report relative to arrests in sexual assault cases and explored the relationship between biological evidence and arrest in those cases in which the crime laboratory report came first and thus could have influenced the arrest decision. A random sample (N = 528) of cases that occurred between 2008 and 2010 and included a report to police was drawn from a Massachusetts statewide database of medical reports on sexual assault cases. Data from medical providers were merged with data abstracted from crime laboratory reports and with data requested from police departments. The vast majority (91.5%) of arrests took place before crime laboratory analysis could be conducted. The crime laboratory report was available before or near in time to the arrest in 11 cases. These cases were significantly more likely than other cases to have DNA profiles of the assailant, DNA matches to the suspect, and a match to another investigation in the FBI’s CODIS DNA database. Given that the probable cause needed to make an arrest in these cases was presumably established only after crime laboratory analysis was available, DNA may have helped lead to the arrest in these cases. However, these results should be interpreted very cautiously, because statistically significant results in early, small studies can have inflated effect sizes and often do not replicate in future studies. Because most arrests occur well before biological evidence is available, improvements in recovering biological evidence may have modest effects on arrest rates, though they may impact arrest rates by identifying more serial offenders. Future research on the relationship of biological evidence to arrest should use methods to increase sample size of relevant cases, such as oversampling cases with later arrests and using case control study designs. Future studies should also use case abstraction and interview methods to explore how police use biological evidence to make arrests.

Cross, T.P., Alderden, M.A, Wagner, A., Sampson, L., Peters, B. & Lounsbury, K. (2020). Biological evidence in adult and adolescent sexual assault cases: Timing and relationship to arrest. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 7/8, 1828-1939.

Victor Vieth, Betsy Goulet, Michele Knox, Jennifer Parker, Lisa Johnson, and Ted Cross

This article documents the growth of the Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) movement to improve education on child abuse for undergraduates and graduates training in child-serving professions. CAST programs provide instruction on a range of topics on child maltreatment and experiential learning using simulations of child protection professional encounters with families. CAST courses and programs have been implemented in 73 institutions of higher education in twenty states. CAST is a promising approach to improving the skills of child-serving professionals across the country in dealing with child abuse and neglect.

Vieth, Victor I.; Goulet, Betsy; Knox, Michele; Parker, Jennifer; Johnson, Lisa B.; Tye, Karla Steckler; and Cross, Theodore P. (2019) "Child Advocacy Studies (CAST): A National Movement to Improve the Undergraduate and Graduate Training of Child Protection Professionals," Mitchell Hamline Law Review: Vol. 45 : Iss. 4 , Article 5.

Aide Hernandez, Steve Tran, and Ted Cross

Considerable research shows that many children in out-of-home care have serious health problems. This research brief profiles the health of Illinois children in out-of-home care, using data from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study. Caregivers’ responses suggested that nearly half of children had a serious or chronic health condition, and almost a third of youths interviewed reported a serious or chronic health problem. More than a quarter of youth reported that they had seen a doctor or nurse for an injury in the previous year. The good news is that high rates of children were receiving preventative health and dental services, according to caseworkers. The high rates of health problems and injuries among children in out-of-home care means that we need to be vigilant about understanding and responding to their health care needs.

Michael Braun, Yu-ling Chiu, Theodore Cross, Tamara Fuller, and Steve Tran

This report provides information from the first round of site visits conducted in each of the five sites at the end of the 13-month planning period. During the planning period, sites were expected to “build the local infrastructure necessary to fully implement their CMHI 2.0 plan.” They were expected to develop an organizational structure and project leadership, and engage a community planning team in which 25% of its members were self-identified consumers (parents and youth). They also needed to conduct an analysis of the community’s strengths (assets) and weaknesses (gaps in services), and of the current system of care in the community. Finally, they had to develop a strategic plan to implement a CMHI 2.0 project that is consistent with CASSP principles and address each of the 11 outcome goals. Given these expectations for the planning period, this report provides information to address the following topics and questions:

1. What is the current status of the system of care in each community?
2. Describe the leadership that was in place during the planning period. What activities or strategies did the leaders use? Did the participants feel that the leadership was effective?
3. Describe the community planning team. How were people recruited? How did meetings work? What was accomplished during them? What role did the community planning team have in developing the strategic plan?
4. What role did parents and youth play on the community planning team? How were parents and youth recruited? How were they kept engaged? How was their participation shaped?
5. How were activities in the strategic plan selected? What did this process look like? Did the community planning team or executive team play a role in this?
6. What are the next steps for implementing systems of care in the sites? Are they ready to begin implementing now that the funding has arrived, or is there more planning to do?

CFRC

In this issue: An Inside CFRC feature on our independent review of the Illinois DCFS Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline, an update on simulation training, What We're Reading and more!

Ted Cross, Aide Hernandez, and Steve Tran

Having a good relationship with a foster caregiver contributes substantially to children’s well-being in foster care. Assessing this relationship for Illinois children helps us understand and potentially help improve their quality of life. This research brief updates the assessment of Illinois children’s relationship with their foster caregivers using data collected in 2017-2018. This brief is one in a series that presents capsule summaries of results from the 2017 Illinois Child-Well-Being Study in different domains of well-being.

Tamara Fuller, Laura Lee, and Robin LaSota

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services released CFRC's findings after their five-month review of the agency's Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline. The DCFS announced that it will adopt all recommendations from the Center's report, and has already started efforts to address key recommendations, particularly increasing staffing and upgrading technology.

Children and Family Research Center

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is responsible for assuring the safety, family permanency, and well-being of the children who have been investigated for abuse or neglect or who have been removed from their homes and placed into substitute care. For over two decades, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual monitoring report that tracks the performance of the Illinois child welfare system on over 40 different measures of safety, placement restrictiveness, placement stability, and timely, stable, and permanent family relationships. The full report, which is available on the CFRC website, examines each measure over the past seven years and provides detailed tables and figures that examine differences among child age and racial groups. This brief highlights five noteworthy findings from the most recent report, which tracks performance through June 2018.

J. Helton, M. Vaughn, J. Carbone, and Ted Cross

For children who have been sexually abused, emergency department (ED) professionals provide immediate medical care, including testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, prophylaxis for potential HIV exposure, and emergency contraception.¹ In some cases, ED clinicians conduct forensic examinations to assist with child protection and criminal investigations.² Physicians and nurses in EDs are among the first to recognize the signs of sexual abuse and identify patients who are currently being abused, such as children being exploited in sex trafficking.³ Despite the medical, criminal justice, and protective roles that ED professionals serve in caring for vulnerable children, few data are available regarding the frequency with which children are admitted to the ED for sexual abuse. Therefore, this analysis observed patterns among children admitted to the ED for sexual abuse across the United States and examined important subgroup characteristics based on demographic and primary payer data.

Helton, J., Vaughn, M., Carbone, J. & Cross T.P. (2019). Emergency department admissions of child sexual abuse: Recent national trends and correlates. JAMA Pediatrics. Nov 04, 1-3

Ted Cross, Aide Hernandez, and Steve Tran

Children’s relationships with their siblings may be the one source of familial love that they can count on when they are placed in out-of-home care. Yet, placement in out-of-home care can separate children from their siblings. Illinois state law requires siblings who are in out-of-home care to be placed together whenever it is in their best interest and not in violation of other rules of the Department of Children and Family Services. This brief presents findings from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study on siblings of children in out-of-home care.. The study conducted interviews with caseworker, caregivers and children themselves to assess the well-being of a sample of 700 children in out-of-home care in the state. Many children in out-of-home care were placed with siblings, but a number of children had siblings in other placements, especially if there were three or more siblings in the family. Often children had limited contact with their siblings and wished for more interaction with them. These findings suggest the need for more progress to enable siblings in out-of-home care to live together and to strengthen the connections between siblings who must live apart.

Steve Tran, Ted Cross, and Aide Hernandez

National research indicates that children in out-of-home care because of abuse or neglect are at significant risk for developmental difficulties, but to date we have limited information on the development of children in out-of-home care in Illinois. This brief presents findings on child development from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study. The study conducted interviews with caseworker, caregivers and children themselves to assess the well-being of a sample of 700 children in out-of-home care in the state. On a caregiver checklist, more than one-fifth of young children had scores on a caregiver checklist that indicated possible developmental delay or a level of developmental risk that needed to be monitored, but many of these children were not receiving a developmental intervention. Children’s likelihood of receiving a development intervention they needed differed by type of placement and by region. These finding indicate the need to develop a better understanding of what developmental interventions children in out-of-home care receive and the obstacles that keep children from receiving the help they need.

Aide Hernandez, Ted Cross, and Steve Tran

An infographic presenting some of the major findings from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study.

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Shufen Wang, Kyle A. Adams III, Satomi Wakita, Steve Tran, Yu-Ling Chiu, Michael Braun, Theodore P. Cross, Laura Lee, Aaron Burnett, Heidi Meyer

Since its inception in 1996, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual report that monitors the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being. The FY2019 monitoring report uses child welfare administrative data through December 31, 2018 to describe the conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Following an introductory chapter, the results are presented in five chapters that examine critical child welfare outcomes, including child safety, continuity and stability in care, legal permanence, racial disproportionality, and child well-being.

Ted Cross, Aide Hernandez, and Steve Tran

Children are placed in out-of-home care through the Illinois Department of Children and Family services to protect their safety, so it especially important to assess their safety while in substitute care. This brief presents findings on child safety from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study. The study conducted interviews with caseworker, caregivers and children themselves to assess the well-being of a sample of 700 children in out-of-home care in the state. Substantial proportions of children in out-of-home care have witnessed and/or experienced violence in their life, but children and youth were much less likely to experience threats to their safety in their current placement. Substantial proportion of older adolescents and youth in group homes and residential treatment reported by physically hurt by someone in the past year. Overall, these findings suggest that placement in out-of-home care leads to greater safety. But continued vigilance about children’s safety is still needed, particularly for older adolescents and youth in group homes and residential treatment.

Aide Hernandez, Steve Tran, and Ted Cross

Children placed in out-of-home care because of abuse or neglect often have cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and health problems that can make it difficult to succeed at school. But we have limited data on the educational well-being of Illinois children in out-of-home care through the Department of Children and Family Services. This brief presents findings on education from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study. The study conducted interviews with caseworker, caregivers and children themselves to assess the well-being of a sample of 700 children in out-of-home care in the state. Most children and youth were was performing adequately or better in school, but many children faced obstacles to school success. The brief presents an overview of results and discusses the need for increased efforts to help children in out-of-home care with their education.

CFRC

In this issue: Details on this year's B.H. Report (coming soon to the public!), an interview with Dr. Ted Cross and Dr. Steve Tran about the Illinois Study of Child Well-Being, an updated racial disproportionality report, "What We're Reading" and much more!

Yu-Ling Chiu and Theodore P. Cross

The FY2019 evaluation report of CPTA's simulation training included the following sections: 1) description of CPTA's updated training model; 2) daily experience of simulation training (DEST) that measured trainees’ daily changes in confidence on thirteen child protection work skills over the course of the simulation training week; 3) post-training satisfaction survey regarding trainees’ experience of the certificate training ; 4) simulation training and investigator turnover using DCFS employment data. The findings show that the positive results over three years of the program evaluation support the value of CPTA and suggest the potential of its current expansion. It is encouraging that investigators hired since February 2016 are staying on the job longer than investigators hired prior to that date. Data can be used both to advocate for the value of CPTA and to inform efforts at program improvement.

Tamara L. Fuller, Satomi Wakita, Yu-Ling Chiu, Martin Nieto, and Laura Lee

CERAP procedures specify when a safety assessment is supposed to be completed during investigations, prevention services cases, intact family service cases, and placement cases. Recent CERAP evaluations have focused on caseworker completion at each of the milestones for intact family cases, with the exception of milestone three, which specifies that the a safety assessment should be completed “whenever evidence or circumstances suggest that a child’s safety may be in jeopardy.” The FY2019 CERAP evaluation focused on CERAP safety assessments that were completed for this milestone three among intact family cases that were opened during 2014-2018. The main findings revealed that between 8-10% of the intact family cases opened each year had a CERAP completed for this milestone (MS3). When a MS3 CERAP was completed, about 36% did not have any safety threats identified, about 40-45% had one safety threat identified, and 16-17% had two safety threats identified. Additional analyses are included in the report.

Yu-Ling Chiu, Theodore P. Cross, Betsy P. Goulet, Susan Oppegard Evans, and Monico Whittington-Eskridge

The CFRC evaluation team collaborated with the CPTA at the University of Illinois Springfield and the DCFS Office of Learning & Professional Development on a presentation at the 2019 National Child Welfare Evaluation Summit on August 20th. The presentation included discussion of the CPTA simulation training model, the main evaluation findings between 2017 and 2019, and the simulation training expansion at the Chicago site.

Ted Cross, Steve Tran, Aide Hernandez, and Emily Rhodes

The 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study provides a snapshot of the well-being of children and youth in out-of-home care in Illinois in 2017. The Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) drew a stratified random sample of 700 children and youth from the population of children and youth in the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in October 2017. The Survey Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois at Chicago conducted interviews with caseworkers, foster care providers, and children age seven and older between December 2017 and July 2018. Interviews included questions developed for the study as well as a number of standardized scales measuring child functioning and well-being.

The report documents the progress many children and youth are making, but also the disproportionate number of children who lag in development, deal with physical and behavioral health challenges, struggle in school, or face threats to their safety. The well-being data can be used to advocate for children’s needs, inform the development of DCFS policy and practice, and guide in-depth well-being research.

Martin Nieto, Satomi Wakita, Tamara Fuller, and Shufen Wang

In 2017, media attention in Illinois focused on a perceived increase in the number of child deaths following the “privatization” of Intact Family Services (IFS), meaning that cases were being served by private child welfare agencies through contractual relationships with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) rather than through DCFS itself. Following a request by the B.H. Expert Panel, the CFRC conducted an independent analysis to examine if the privatization of intact family services (IFS) was associated with an increase in child deaths due to maltreatment. The results suggest that Intact Family Services have been provided by both DCFS and private child welfare agencies since 2000, and that complete privatization of IFS did not occur, even after 2014. In addition, when all maltreatment reports involving child deaths are examined, only a small percentage (between 10-15%) have been involved with IFS within the past year or at the time of the reported death. When the child deaths that were involved with IFS were examined, there were no differences in the risk of either investigated child deaths or indicated child deaths among children served by DCFS and those served by private child welfare agencies.

CFRC

Child welfare systems across the nation share the concern that children from some racial minority groups may be disproportionately represented in the child welfare system compared to their representation in the general population. One of the goals in the Department’s Child Welfare Transformation Strategic Plan is to track racial equity at critical decision points to help inform planning and decision making. With special concerns about children age 0 to 5, the Children and Family Research Center per a request from Illinois DCFS prepared this report by examining racial disproportionality specifically for this population in the Illinois child welfare system at critical decision points during 2012-2018.

Ted Cross and Thaddeus Schmitt

In sexual assault cases, little research has examined differences in forensic medical findings and law enforcement response by victim age across the entire age range. This study addressed this gap by comparing four victim age groups: adults, adolescents over the age of consent, adolescents under the age of consent, and children under 12. Cases were randomly sampled from a statewide database of medical reports on sexual assault examinations conducted in hospital emergency departments, including only cases reported to law enforcement.

Cross, T. & Schmitt, T. (2019). Forensic medical results and law enforcement Actions following sexual assault: a comparison of child, adolescent and adult cases. Child Abuse & Neglect, 93, 103-110

Betsy Goulet, Theodore Cross, Yu-Ling Chiu

Presentation at the One Loud Voice Conference in Biloxi Mississippi, April 16, 2019

Ted Cross and Megan Alderden

Presented in Urbana at the Carle Hospital SANE Seminar, March 11, 2019.

CFRC

In this issue: An interview about the annual Continuous Quality Improvement conference, project updates, new faces at the Center, and more!

Wendy Walsh, Ted Cross, and Kaitlin Lounsbury

Presented at the 34th Annual San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment, January 29, 2019.

Ted Cross and Wendy Walsh

Presented at the 34th Annual San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment, January 29, 2019.

Yu-Ling Chiu, Theodore Cross, Betsy Goulet, Susan Oppegard Evans, Monico Whittington-Eskridge, and Amy Wheeler

The investigator survey results in the second year evaluation of the Child Protection Training Academy’s Simulation Program were presented on January 20th, 2019 at the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Annual Conference in San Francisco.

Ted Cross, Alane Shanks, Lisa Duffy, and David Rintell

In this issue: An “Inside CFRC” about our new and improved online Data Center, the recently-completed B.H. Report, project updates, what we've been reading and more!

Tamara Fuller, Steve Tran, Yu-Ling Chiu, and Michael Braun

The highlights of each chapter from the FY2018 Monitoring Report of the B.H. Consent Decree.

Tamara Fuller, Yu-Ling Chiu, Michael Braun, Martin Nieto, and Kyle Adams

Child welfare systems across the nation share the concern that children from some racial minority groups may be disproportionately represented in the child welfare system compared to their representation in the general population.One of the goals in the Department’s Child Welfare Transformation Strategic Plan is to track racial equity and disparity at critical decision points to help inform planning and decision making.This report provides information relevant to that goal by examining racial disproportionality and disparity in the Illinois child welfare system at five critical decision points over the past seven years.

Laura Siller, Ted Cross, and Megan Alderden

Presented November, 2018 at the American Society of Criminology Meeting in Atlanta.

Ted Cross, Thaddeus Schmitt, and Megan Alderden

Presented November, 2018 at the American Society of Criminology Meeting in Atlanta.

Ted Cross and Yu-Ling Chiu

The current report presents results from program evaluation activities conducted in FY2018. We used interviews and focus groups to explore the processes through which CPTA has an impact. In addition, we assessed the impact of CPTA on the experience of working DCFS investigators. We surveyed DCFS investigators and compared those investigators who have received simulation training with a group of investigators who had not received simulation training.

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Satomi Wakita, Shufen Wang, Kyle Adams, Steve Tran, Yu-Ling Chiu, and Michael Braun

Since its inception in 1996, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual report that monitors the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being. This year’s report contains several major changes that makes the results non-comparable to those in previous reports. The data source was switched from the Chapin Hall Integrated Database (IDB) to data contained in the DCFS data warehouse (Legacy Golden Copy/LGC). At the Department’s request, the Round 3 CFSR statewide data indicators were added to the report. The FY2018 monitoring report uses child welfare administrative data through March 2018 to describe the conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Following an introductory chapter, the results are presented in three chapters that examine critical child welfare outcomes of child safety, continuity and stability in care, and legal permanence.

Ted Cross, Wendy Walsh, Elizabeth Cross

This final report presents results from a program evaluation of the National TeleNursing  Center, a pilot project funded by the federal Office for Victims of Crime that uses telemedicine to support clinicians doing forensic medical examinations following sexual assault. Experienced Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) are linked by video technology to nurses in underserved communities who lack the training and experience to do effective exams. SANEs participate virtually in the examination to guide clinicians to provide quality medical care while also collecting biological evidence that may help identify and prosecute the offender.

Yu-Ling Chiu and Tamara L. Fuller

The Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) is a safety assessment protocol used in child protection investigations and child welfare services in Illinois. It is designed to provide workers with a mechanism for quickly assessing the potential for moderate to severe harm to a child in the immediate or near future and for taking quick action to protect children. Workers utilize the protocol at specified time frames throughout the life of a case, from child protection investigation to substitute care exit, to help focus their decision-making to determine whether a child is safe or unsafe with their family, and if unsafe, decide what actions must be taken to assure the child’s safety. This brief provides an overview of the CERAP, including its historical background and the specific procedures required to complete the assessments.

Tamara L. Fuller, Yu-Ling Chiu, Satomi Wakita, and Martin Nieto

The Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) is a safety assessment protocol used in child protection investigations and child welfare service cases in Illinois. It is designed to provide workers with a mechanism for quickly assessing the potential for moderate to severe harm to a child in the immediate or near future and for taking quick action to protect children. Workers utilize the protocol at specified time frames, referred to as “milestones,” throughout the life of a case to help focus their decision-making to determine whether a child is safe or unsafe with their family, and if unsafe, decide what actions must be taken to assure the child’s safety. In FY2018, due to increased scrutiny of the safety of children served in intact family cases, the CFRC completed an analysis of caseworker compliance with safety assessment procedures among intact family cases. This research brief describes the major findings of the FY2018 CERAP annual evaluation.

Tamara L. Fuller, Yu-Ling Chiu, Satomi Wakita, and Martin Nieto

In this issue: An “Inside CFRC” detailing some of our researchers’ favorite pieces from the soon-to-be-released B.H. Report, visitors from England, project updates and more!

Steve Tran and Tamara Fuller

This research brief, the second in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs) in Illinois, highlights the findings from the most recent CDRT annual report on child deaths that occurred in Illinois in 2016, which is written by the CFRC. The brief presents summary information about child deaths in Illinois by age, manner of death, and category of death, as well as examples of CDRT recommendations to prevent child deaths.

Tamara Fuller and Steve Tran

This research brief, the third in a series that highlights the important work of the CDRTs in Illinois, uses data from the annual CDRT reports to examine trends in child deaths over the past decade. The brief describes trends in total child deaths and trends in the number of deaths by child age, manner of death, and category and death.

Tamara Fuller, Satomi Wakita, Martin Nieto, and Yu-Ling Chiu

The current report examined CERAP completion by caseworkers during an intact family case between FY2014 and FY2017. Using the most stringent criteria, meaning that the caseworker not only completed a CERAP safety assessment but also checked the correct milestone, completion rates varied substantially for the different intact family case milestones: 1) between 67% and 76% of intact family cases each year had a CERAP assessment within 15 days of case opening, and the percentage has been increasing over time. 2) between 17-18% of intact family cases had a CERAP completed every 90 days during the time that the case was open. 3) between 56% and 65% of the intact family cases with an unsafe safety decision had another CERAP completed within 5 working days, and the percentage has been increasing over time. 4) between 64% and 71% of intact family cases had a CERAP completed within 30 days prior to the case close date or within 5 days after it, and the percentage has been increasing over time.

Megan Alderden, Theodore Cross, Maja Vlajnic, and Laura Siller

Little prior research has explored how prosecutors perceive and utilize biological and injury evidences in sexual assault cases. In this qualitative study, semistructured interviews were conducted with assistant district attorneys (ADAs) working in an urban district attorney’s office in the northeastern United States. ADAs were asked to describe how biological and injury evidences could be probative and their strategies for using this evidence. The interviews suggest that prosecutors perceive the probative value of biological and injury evidences on a continuum, varying based on case characteristics. Prosecutors felt that undergoing a forensic medical examination in itself supported victims’ credibility. Biological evidence bolstered victims’ credibility if it matched the victim’s account better than the defendant’s. They perceived DNA evidence as helpful when it identified unknown suspects, confirmed identification of suspects by other means, or rebutted defendants’ denial of sexual contact. DNA evidence was also helpful when victims were incapacitated, too traumatized to recall or talk about the assault, or too young to identify assailants, and when police used the information in interrogating suspects. The biggest limitation to biological evidence prosecutors cited was overcoming the consent defense. The ADAs reported they used DNA evidence even when it was not particularly probative, because it confirms the correct person is being prosecuted, it communicates the victim’s and prosecution’s seriousness, and it meets jury expectations in trials. Prosecutors found injury evidence useful because it corroborated victims’ accounts and helped refute defendant claims of consensual sex. The findings may assist in educating others about biological and injury evidences in these cases, and could inspire professionals and advocates to work to develop and support a broad range of investigative methods.

Alderden, M., Cross, T., Vlajnic, M., & Siller, L. (2018). Prosecutors’ perspectives on biological evidence and injury evidence in sexual assault cases. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1–23

Megan Alderden, Theodore Cross, Maja Vlajnic, and Laura Siller

In this issue: Reflections on Resilience, outcome monitoring folds in CFSR measures, what we’re reading, project updates and more!

Yu-Ling Chiu and Ted Cross

Since 2016, the Child Protection Training Academy (CPTA) at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) has collaborated with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to implement the Child Protection Training Academy, which adds an innovative experiential component to the training of new DCFS investigators. This brief reports results of a preliminary program evaluation that the Children and Family Research Center has conducted of the program. We describe what simulation training is, why it could be valuable, what simulation training has been implemented, and what the preliminary data on its implementation and impact suggests about its value for enhancing worker preparation to serve children and families.

Yu-Ling Chiu and Ted Cross

In this issue: ACEs Brownbag speakers announced, a look inside the “Code Club,” expansion of the BH report, and more!

Ted Cross, Gail Tittle, and Yu-Ling Chiu

Investigating child abuse and neglect is a difficult job and investigators need all the preparation they can get. Given the demands of working with families in child protections, transferring theory to practice is particularly essential. Ideally, the initial training that new child protection workers receive should give them opportunities to practice the skills they need such as engaging families and assessment and critical thinking skills for protecting child safety. The Child Protection Training Academy at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) has collaborated with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to add an innovative experiential component to the training of new DCFS investigators. All new investigators come to Child Protection Training Academy at UIS for a week at the end of their initial training to participate in simulations of real life situations that every DCFS investigator encounters. This program evaluation is consistent with the formative state of knowledge in the field and the fact that the Child Protection Training Academy is in a comparatively early stage of development. At this early stage, the program evaluation has focused on gathering data to describe the program’s objectives, methods and training theory, and examining trainees’ and other stakeholders perception of the impact of the simulation training. The goal is to inform program development and improvement, provide evidence of the program’s immediate impact on trainees, and help prepare for more rigorous program evaluation of the CPTA’s simulation training in the future.

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Satomi Wakita, Shufen Wang, Kyle Adams, Saijun Zhang, Yu-Ling Chiu, and Michael Braun

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, and permanence. In addition, this year's report adds a fourth chapter that examines racial disproportionality and disparity in the Illinois child welfare system.

Children and Family Research Center

The Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) produces the annual monitoring report of the B.H. Consent Decree, which tracks the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being for children in or at risk of entering foster care. The full report, available on the CFRC website, contains information about Illinois performance on more than 40 measures over the past seven years. This brief highlights five key findings from the latest report, which tracks performance through the end of FY2016.

Wendy Walsh and Ted Cross

Ted Cross of CFRC is leading a research team conducting a program evaluation of the National TeleNursing Center, a pilot project funded by the federal Office for Victims of Crime that uses telemedicine to support clinicians doing forensic medical examinations following sexual assault. Experienced Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) are linked by video technology to nurses in underserved communities who lack the training and experience to do effective exams. SANEs participate virtually in the examination to guide clinicians to provide quality medical care while also collecting biological evidence that may help identify and prosecute the offender. Drs. Cross and Walsh presented interim results gathered from interviews with the teleSANEs and the clinicians they support. This was a presentation at the conference of the International Association of Forensic Nurses in Toronto in October 2017 and was reprised in November 2017 at the New England Rural Health Conference in Bartlett, NH.

Michael T. Braun and Yu-Ling Chiu

Disproportionality in the child welfare system refers to the over- or underrepresentation of a group involved with the system compared to that group’s representation in a base population (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2016). This research brief defines racial disproportionality in the child welfare system, including how it is measured and how disproportionality rates should be interpreted. It is the first brief in a series exploring disproportionality in the child welfare system.

Michael T. Braun and Yu-Ling Chiu

Disproportionality in the child welfare system refers to the over- or underrepresentation of a group (usually a racial/ethnic group) compared to that group’s representation in a base population. This research brief explores rates of racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system. It is the second brief in a series exploring disproportionality.

Michael T. Braun and Satomi Wakita

Cost analysis is an important consideration when deciding whether a new program or practice is sustainable. This presentation explores practical considerations of conducting cost analyses to help produce meaningful results that are useful to decision-makers and stakeholders. It was originally presented at the third annual Continuous Quality Improvement conference in Champaign, IL.

Alex Wagner, Ted Cross, Rosa Mazzeo and Dan Bibel

This presentation at the annual American Society of Criminology meeting reports final results on a study of the quality of data on arrests in the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS is one of the prime sources for research on arrests in the United States, but this study of data on four crimes suggests that NIBRS may be undercounting arrests, particularly for sexual assault cases. This an update of a May 2017 presentation (i.e., Bibel, et al., The Importance of the Quality of Arrest Data in NIBRS) also listed in CFRC’s publication webpages. These findings suggest ways to improve the recording of arrest data that may increase the accuracy of crime data and research on arrests.

Alex Wagner, Ted Cross, Rosa Mazzeo and Dan Bibel

In this issue: An “Inside CFRC” with Director Tami Fuller on the future of the B.H. Report, new faces at the Center, a recent presentation given at the Family Engagement Conference, and much more!

Michael T. Braun, Yu-Ling Chiu, Stacy Lake, Tamara Fuller, and Julie Murphy

Child welfare agencies that adopt evidence-supported interventions (ESIs) such as Differential Response (DR) may use concepts from implementation science to guide translation of ESIs into worker practice. The success of these efforts depends in part on worker support for the intervention. This presentation explores the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) staged rollout of DR and associated staff support for the program. It includes description of Oregon’s efforts to build support for DR, as well as quantitative and qualitative data collected from the Children and Family Research Center’s evaluation of Oregon’s DR implementation. The presentation aims to expand our understanding of the factors that promote or inhibit individual-level acceptance of an organizational-level effort to implement DR, and how worker attitudes affect practice change.

Ted Cross, Betsy Goulet, Susan Evans, Gail Tittle, and Yu-Ling Chiu

Given the demands of investigating child abuse and neglect, transferring knowledge gained in training into practice to bolster child protection investigators’ skills and confidence is essential. Yet studies of transfer of learning across different domains of employment have shown that only 10 to 15% of training content is transferred to the workplace. Simulation Training Laboratories at the University of Illinois at Springfield is helping to change that with an experiential training program it provides to all new child protection investigators hired by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). New investigators are trained at a Residential Simulation Laboratory in a mock house designed to simulate a family environment and a Courtroom Simulation Laboratory designed to resemble family court. This Children and Family Research Center is conducting the program evaluation of simulation training. This presentation at an international conference gives a brief overview of the program and presents initial program evaluation results.

Tamara Fuller and Yu-Ling Chiu

The results of the previous evaluations indicated that rates of CERAP completion at the two milestones immediately before and after reunification were lower than expected. The low compliance with required safety practice raised questions about how judges, attorneys, and placement workers use the information contained within the CERAP to inform their recommendations and decisions about whether to return a child home from substitute care. To gather this information, CFRC designed and administered surveys to juvenile court attorneys and child welfare placement workers; 185 placement workers and 20 attorneys completed the surveys. The results of the surveys indicate that the CERAP is rarely included in the court reports that are shared with attorneys prior to making decisions regarding returning a child home. Additionally, placement workers had mixed views regarding the usefulness of the CERAP for informing decision-making about returning a child home from substitute care: 45% felt that the CERAP was very important, 37% felt that it was somewhat important, and 18% felt that it was not at all important. Responses to the open-ended questions revealed that many placement workers felt that the information included in the CERAP was redundant with information available in other documents they completed at reunification, which may explain why the CERAP is not completed by about a third of the workers either before or after reunification.

John Fluke, Nico Trocme, Jesse Helton, Theodore Cross, Barbara Fallon & Kate Schumaker

This presentation reports results of collaboration between Canadian and American researchers to explore a new method of classifying child maltreatment cases that holds promise for improving child welfare services. Canadian researchers have previously classified child maltreatment cases into two categories: urgent cases characterized by acute harm include cases of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect of very young children, and chroniccases in which harm is thought to develop over the long-term through exposure to neglect, emotional maltreatment, and less severe forms of physical abuse. The urgent vs. chronic distinction has predicted important outcomes in Canadian data, and has important implications for providing a child protection response tailored to children’s needs. The research reported in this presentation applied the urgent vs. chronic classification to the American child welfare system for the first time. The analysis classified cases with American children into the urgent and chronic categories, using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, a national probability study of children involved in child protection investigations. One-fifth of American cases were classified as urgent, very similar to the 24% found in a Canadian sample. Urgent cases were more likely to be substantiated and lead to out-of-home placements. Chronic cases, on the other hand, were more likely to include children with special needs. The research provides preliminary evidence that the urgent-chronic dichotomy may apply to North American cases generally and suggests the value of further research on this distinction.

John Fluke, Nico Trocme, Jesse Helton, Theodore Cross, Barbara Fallon & Kate Schumaker

In this issue: Our new collaboration with Wisconsion DCF, opening of registration for the third annual CQI Conference in November, an “Inside CFRC” on racial disproportionality, and much more!

Tamara Fuller, Michael T. Braun, Yu-ling Chiu, Theodore P. Cross, Martin Nieto, Gail Tittle, and Satomi Wakita

Following a lengthy and thorough exploration and planning process, the Oregon Department of Human Services began implementing Differential Response (DR) in May 2014 as part of a broader reform effort aimed at safely and equitably reducing the number of children in foster care and more effectively addressing the needs of families being referred to Child Protective Services (CPS) for neglect. Through the implementation of DR, DHS hoped to enhance the partnerships between families reported for abuse and neglect, DHS staff, and community partners; increase the number of children who remain safely at home with their families; and reduce the disproportionate representation of children of color in the child welfare system. DHS hired the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to design and conduct a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation that would accomplish multiple goals, including carefully documenting the DR implementation process, examining the DR model that was being practiced in the districts, testing DHS workers’ fidelity to the Oregon Safety Model (OSM), comparing the outcomes of children and families involved in DR assessments with those who received traditional CPS assessments, and examining the costs associated with practicing DR. This Oregon Differential Response Final Evaluation Report contains thorough descriptions of the methodologies used and the results of the evaluation components, including the implementation, process, outcome, and cost evaluations.

Theodore Cross, Wendy Walsh

Research has made significant contributions to the development of the CAC model, but much remains to be learned and stronger empirical support is needed to develop the model further. This workshop first reviews CAC research to date, including an assessment of previous published CAC research reviews. The workshop then discusses significant research gaps in areas such as criminal investigation and prosecution, victim advocacy, service delivery and MDT functioning. The workshop concludes by discussing steps for moving CAC research forward, and reviews the development of a new NCA Research Advisory Committee formed in 2016.

Cross, T., Goulet, B., Evans, S. & Tittle, G.

The Child Protection Training Academy at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) is collaborating with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to add an innovative experiential component to the training of new DCFS investigators. The program supplements the classroom-based Foundations Training that every new investigator receives with experiential training days in a Residential Simulation Laboratory and a Courtroom Simulation Laboratory. The Children and Family Research at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is conducting the program evaluation for simulation training. This presentation describes the program, discusses its first year of development, and presents preliminary program evaluation results.

Daniel Bibel, Alex Wagner, Theodore Cross, Rosa Mazzeo

This presentation explores the quality of data on arrests in the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Hundreds of police departments across the United States contribute data on crime incidents to the NIBRS system, which is one of the chief tools nationally for monitoring and researching crime. Over one quarter of studies published using NIBRS focus on arrest issues, but recent research suggests reasons to be concerned about the reliability of arrest data in NIBRS. Ted Cross of the CFRC led a research team studying the quality of NIBRS arrest data. NIBRS arrest data were compared to data from local law enforcement agencies for a sample of 348 crime incidents that occurred in Massachusetts between 2011 and 2013. The sample focused on four crimes: sexual assault, simple assault, aggravated assault, and intimidation. A preliminary analysis suggests that NIBRS may “undercount” arrests, since 24.9% of incidents that should have been counted as arrests in NIBRS were not recorded as arrests in NIBRS data files. Additional analysis not reported in this presentation suggest two reasons for this: 1) law enforcement agencies do not always update NIBRS data files if an arrest was made after initial data were entered, and 2) contrary to instructions in the NIBRS manual, law enforcement agencies did not always record one method of apprehending suspects (issuing a summons) as an arrest. These findings have implications for crime data specialist entering NIBRS data and for researchers using NIBRS data files. A final analysis of these data will be conducted in the summer of 2017.

Daniel Bibel, Alex Wagner, Theodore Cross, Rosa Mazzeo

In this issue: Details on new social media sharing options on our website, updates on ongoing projects, and an “Inside CFRC” look at the April convening of Title IV-E Waiver evaluators in Seattle.

Yu-ling Chiu, Martin Nieto and Tamara Fuller

The Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) is a safety assessment protocol used in child protection investigations and child welfare case in Illinois. This “life-of- the case” protocol is designed to provide staff with a mechanism for quickly assessing the potential for moderate to severe harm to children in the immediate or near future and for taking quick action to protect them. Staff utilize the protocol at specified milestones throughout an investigation or child welfare case to help them determine whether a child is safe or unsafe, and if unsafe, decide what actions must be taken to assure their safety. When immediate risk to a child’s safety is identified, the protocol requires that action be taken, such as the implementation of a safety plan or protective custody.

Ted Cross

A presentation by Dr. Ted Cross from the eighth annual Conference of Upstate Child Advocacy Studies held on March 31, 2017.

Theodore P. Cross and Debra Whitcomb

Despite efforts by advocates, practitioners, and legislators to alleviate the burden on child maltreatment victims in the criminal justice system, many challenges remain for prosecutors as they seek to hold offenders accountable while minimizing the emotional impact on children. More than 200 state and local prosecutors in 37 states responded to an online survey to share their perspectives on current challenges, procedures to support children in the adjudication process, and the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Crawford v. Washington (2004), sex offender registries, and "Safe Harbor" legislation to protect child sexual exploitation victims. Respondents' most pressing challenges were obtaining evidence to corroborate children's statements and the difficulties of working with child victims. Child testimony was ranked as more frequent than any other type of evidence, and least frequent were DNA, photos or videos of criminal acts, and other physical evidence. Prosecutors rely primarily on victim/witness assistants and courtroom tours to prepare children for testimony; technological alternatives are seldom used. Results suggest a real but limited impact of the Crawford opinion on the need for child testimony and on the decision to prosecute. Survey findings indicate a need for greater attention to thorough investigations with particular attention to corroboration. Doing so may strengthen the child's credibility, which is especially critical in cases lacking physical or medical evidence of maltreatment.

Cross, T.P & Whitcomb, D. (2017). The practice of prosecuting child maltreatment: Results of an online survey of prosecutors. Child Abuse & Neglect. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.04.007

Theodore P. Cross and Debra Whitcomb

In this issue: The long and the short of the newly-released B.H. Report, a talk with Dr. Braun about CFRC's Adverse Childhood Experiences brownbag, and much more!

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Xinrong Lei, Satomi Wakita, Saijun Zhang, Yu-Ling Chiu, Michael Braun, Theodore P. Cross

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, and permanence. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by child gender, race, age, and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

CFRC

This research brief describes highlights from the most recent monitoring report of the B.H. Consent Decree. Highlights include details on the use of emergency shelters, a look at the increase in maltreatment of children in care, and a comparison of runaway rates in Cook County and statewide.

Tamara Fuller, Michael T. Braun, Yu-ling Chiu, Theodore P. Cross, Martin Nieto, Gail Tittle, and Satomi Wakita

The Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) began implementing Differential Response (DR) in 2014, using a carefully planned and staged roll-out strategy that began with implementation in two districts (D5 and D11) in May 2014 and two additional districts (D4 and D16) in April 2015. The Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) conducted comprehensive process, outcome, and cost evaluations in order to answer a lengthy series of research questions related to the DR implementation process, CPS practice throughout the state, fidelity to the DR model, fidelity to the Oregon Safety Model (OSM), and the impact of DR on a variety of child, family, and child welfare system outcomes, including costs. This report describes the findings of the process and outcome evaluations as of December 2016, including chapters on CPS practice in DR and non-DR districts, fidelity to the DR model, and preliminary comparisons of the short-term and intermediate outcomes experienced by families in the two treatment groups (AR and TR) with matched comparison families in non-DR districts.

Tamara Fuller, Michael T. Braun, Yu-ling Chiu, Theodore P. Cross, Martin Nieto, Gail Tittle, and Satomi Wakita

In this issue: Pictures from our 20th anniversary celebration, completion of the 2016 B.H. Report, a new CFRC website launch, and much more!

Tamara Fuller, Michael T. Braun, Yu-ling Chiu, Theodore P. Cross, Martin Nieto, Gail Tittle, and Satomi Wakita

In this issue: Notes from a recent DCFS town hall in Springfield, an ‘Inside the CFRC’ feature on the 4th annual LGBTQ Research Symposium, updates on our Differential Response and Title IV-E waiver evaluations, and much more!

Theodore P. Cross, Betsy Goulet, Jesse J. Helton, Emily Lux, Tamara Fuller, and Michael T. Braun

All 50 states have systems for reporting suspected abuse and neglect to child protective services (CPS), and reports are made on thousands of children every year. Outcomes of reporting vary widely, ranging from screening out with no further action at one end to out-of-home placement at the other. Someone making a report to CPS might naturally wonder: What are the chances the child will be visited by child protective services workers, offered services, or even removed from his or her home? But there has been little systematic analysis of the outcomes of reporting to CPS. This brief, adapted from the authors’ chapter in a book on child maltreatment reporting, helps answer these questions using published results and new data analysis from two national data sets on children involved in reports to CPS.

Theodore P. Cross, Betsy Goulet, Jesse J. Helton, Emily Lux, Tamara Fuller, and Michael T. Braun

In this issue: Child well-being data collection, an interview with Dr. Judith Havlicek about Illlinois’ Youth Advisory Boards, a heads-up on the second CQI Conference, our ‘What We’re Reading’ feature, and much more!

Tamara Fuller, Michael T. Braun, and Saijun Zhang

This research brief, the first in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs), provides an introduction to child death review in Illinois. The brief discusses the circumstances in which the CDRTs will review a child’s death, the review process, and the impact of child death reviews.

Saijun Zhang, Tamara Fuller, and Michael T. Braun

This research brief, the second in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs), highlights key findings from the most recent CDRT annual report, which is written by the CFRC. It presents summary information about child deaths in Illinois examined by demographic characteristics such as age and race, as well as by manner and category of death.

Tamara Fuller, Michael T. Braun, and Saijun Zhang

This research brief, the third in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs), uses historical data to describe trends in child deaths in Illinois from 2004 to 2013. The brief describes trends in total child deaths and trends in the number of deaths by child age, race, manner of death, and category of death.

Ted Cross, Alane Shanks, Lisa Duffy, Mark Gorman, Susana Camposano, Tanuja Chitnis, David Rintell

This report presents findings from a study of families with a child who has pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS). Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system that impairs communication within the brain and between the brain and body, leading to a range of unpredictable and often disabling symptoms. Once thought to affect adults exclusively, pediatric-onset MS has increasingly been diagnosed in recent years. MS can cause children considerable pain and distress and impair their movement, vision, speech, and thinking. It can be extraordinarily stressful for children and their families, and cause considerable stress as children adapt to the effect of MS on learning, functioning at school, peer relationships and life in the family. Parents of children with MS were interviewed to assess the impact of the disease on the child and family, to understand families’ experience with the health care system, and to profile the ways that children and families cope. The families affected by pediatric multiple sclerosis whom we interviewed face significant challenges, but in the course of meeting these challenges, have demonstrated notable resilience.

Ted Cross

This presentation provided useful findings on forensic evidence and on sexual assault to both unit leaders and first responders in the United States Air Force, drawing from Dr. Ted Cross’ National Institute of Justices-funded research. Results from an initial study suggest that crime laboratory evidence plays a role in only a small number of arrests in sexual assault cases, because the vast majority of arrests take place soon after the reported incident, well before crime laboratory analysis. But DNA evidence was significantly more likely in the small number of arrests that took place later, after the crime laboratory analysis was completed. This suggests the potential impact of DNA in making arrests that occur well after the incident. In the second study, DNA matches were significantly related to obtaining convictions in sexual assault cases, though the DNA match could be both a cause and effect. A DNA match can identify an unknown suspect and strengthen the evidence against a known offender. But DNA matches can also be an effect of pursuing convictions, since prosecutors who were interviewed reported that, to be thorough, they always try to introduce DNA evidence in cases they carry forward, even if the case rests mostly on other evidence. Juries expect it. (Read more about Dr. Cross’ presentation in a news release here.)

Theodore P. Cross, Saijun Zhang, and Xinrong Lei

Significant percentages of youth in substitute care run away at some point during their stay. Running away can be a signal of distress or of difficulties adjusting to a placement. For these reasons alone it deserves attention. It could also disrupt foster care placements, place youth in risky environments, and decrease the chances that youth in care will find a permanent home. This brief reports on the frequency of running away from substitute care in Illinois and compares rates of running away by type of placement. It also explores the case characteristics that are associated with running away, and examines the types of placements that youth are placed in after returning to substitute care. Finally, it breaks new ground by analyzing how often runaway youth who return to the same type of setting nevertheless change specific caregivers and change institutions or group homes.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, permanence, and child and family well-being. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by child gender, race, age, and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

CFRC

In this issue: The Center’s latest monitoring report of the B.H. consent decree, an ‘Inside the CFRC’ article on the Continuous Quality Imrovement conference, an update on our Wisconsin and Oregon evaluation projects, and more!

CFRC

In this issue: An ‘Inside the CFRC’ article on the writing of Research Briefs, conference and presentation updates, a new batch of reccommended readings, and other news on Center activities and projects.

Debra Whitcomb and Theodore Cross

Prosecution of child abuse often depends on the ability of children to testify in court, but this places enormous demands on children and risks exacerbating the effects of the abuse. This presentation provides an overview of research and legal and practice development on child abuse victims in the courtroom in recent decades, and presents new survey data from prosecutors and Children's Advocacy Centers about current challenges of prosecuting child abuse and what steps professionals are taking to protect and support children in court. It was originally presented at annual conference of the Institute of Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego, CA in September 2015.

Debra Whitcomb and Theodore Cross

In this issue: Updates on B.H. and CERAP reports, a look at our website’s new Outcome Charts tool, new features including ‘What We’re Reading’ and ‘Comings and Goings,’ and much more!

Ted Cross

This presentation compares child, adolescent and adult cases receiving forensic medical examinations following sexual assault. Data come from a National Institute of Justice-funded study of 563 medical examinations conducted across Massachusetts from 2008 to 2010, which included data from medical, crime laboratory and police reports. Results suggest that adolescent victims present severe challenges that are different from those of younger victims, challenges similar to those faced by adults. Adolescents were at higher risk for injury than younger children, and for cases being dropped by police. Biological evidence was more prevalent too, which can enhance opportunities for pursuing justice but also places a premium on adolescents undergoing medical examination. The needs of the adolescents, who were as young as 12, are different from both younger children and adults, and systems and practice models have not been developed that are specifically tailored to this age group. These results could help inspire the development of enhanced models of care specifically aimed at adolescent victims of sexual assault.

Theodore Cross and Wendy Walsh

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) are multidisciplinary centers designed to coordinate all professionals involved in the investigative and service response to child abuse. They provide forensic child interviews with interviewers trained in best practice and a multidisciplinary team to coordinate the work of child protection, law enforcement, prosecution, health, mental health and other professionals. Over 700 CACs are providing services across all 50 states and in several foreign countries. This presentation presents an overview of research involving CACs. Several studies suggest the efficacy of CACs for improving several aspects of the response to children, and a number of important studies expanding knowledge on child maltreatment have been conducted in CACs. Several opportunities and challenges of doing research in CACs are discussed, and new results from a survey of CAC directors on Center practice are presented. This presentation was originally given at the One Child, Many Hands Multidisciplinary Conference on Child Welfare in Philadelphia in June 2015.

Yu-ling Chiu, Martin Nieto, Satomi Wakita, and Tamara Fuller

The Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) is a safety assessment protocol used in child protection investigations and child welfare services in Illinois. Workers utilize the protocol at specified milestones throughout the life of an investigation or child welfare case to help focus their decision-making to determine whether a child is safe or unsafe, and if unsafe, decide what actions must be taken to assure their safety. The current report examines CERAP use among placement cases in order to answer the following questions:

1. What is the compliance rate of CERAP assessment at each of the following milestones for placement cases:
• Within 5 working days after a worker receives a new or transferred case, when there are other children in the home of origin?
• Every 90 calendar days from the case opening date?
• Within 24 hours prior to return a child home?
• Within 5 working days after a child is returned home and every month thereafter until the family case is closed?
2. Do compliance rates vary by region?
3. What is the relationship between the safety decision of the CERAP completed every 90 calendar days from the case opening date and reunification date?

Yu-ling Chiu, Martin Nieto, Satomi Wakita, and Tamara Fuller

In this issue: ‘CFRC begins work on the Oregon Differential Response Initiative,’ ‘Evaluating Post-Reunification Services in Wisconsin,’ ‘Monitoring Critical Child Welfare Outcomes in Illinois,’ and ‘Examining Child Fatalities in Illinois.’

Yu-Ling Chiu

Most trajectory research related to crime focuses on males and studies the offending behaviors from childhood to adulthood. Only very few studies focus on developmental trajectories of female delinquency during adolescence. Given that increasing girls appear in the juvenile justice system, given that the offending behaviors of females and males are not identical, and given that insufficient empirical studies provides good foundation to design effective interventions for delinquent girls, it is important to understand girls' offending trajectories. In order to address the needs of different types of girls in the juvenile justice system and provide suggestions of informing practice, the current study aims to answer the questions concerning how girls' offending behaviors develop over time during adolescence.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, permanence, and child and family well-being. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by child gender, race, age, and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Theodore Cross, Megan Alderden, Alex Wagner, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, Kaitlin Lounsbury, Laura Siller

The use of forensic evidence in sexual assault cases is prominent in TV crime dramas, but no studies have examined how prosecutors actually use forensic evidence in these cases and what impact it has in trials. This presentation provides preliminary qualitative results from a mixed methods study of the role of forensic evidence in sexual assault cases in an urban district attorney's office. Assistant district attorneys were interviewed about their experience in using forensic evidence on sexual assault and their observations about when and how it can be employed to effectively prosecute these crimes. They reported that forensic evidence can be effective in a variety of ways as part of a prosecution strategy with multiple forms of evidence.

Saijun Zhang, Hui Huang, and Meirong Liu

Substance abuse has been a serious problem among families involved in child welfare systems. Much effort has been devoted to improve caregivers' engagement and retention in substance abuse treatment programs for better child welfare outcomes, but there is a lack of systematic review to synthesize the effects of these programs. The current study identifies 7 studies and applies meta-analysis technique to examine, compare, and synthesize the program effects. The pooled sample consists of 2,876 subjects in the experimental groups, and 1,711 subjects in the control groups. The analysis generates a synthesized odds ratio of 2.29 (z=4.77. p<.0001), suggesting that on average, the odds for experimental groups to have the favorable outcome is 2.29 times as that for the control groups. This paper was presented at the 60th Annual Program Meeting of Council on Social Work Education in Tampa, FL.

Theodore P. Cross, Megan Alderden, Alexander Wagner, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, Meredith Spencer, and Kaitlin Lounsbury

Biological evidence like DNA can be central to the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault, as can evaluation and documentation of injuries. But data are lacking on the actual impact of these forms of forensic evidence on the criminal justice system. Through a grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), CFRC researcher Theodore Cross headed a team that examined the frequency and timing of forensic evidence and its relationship to arrest in a statewide sample of cases. Most arrests took place well before crime laboratory analysis could be conducted, but DNA profiles and matches to suspects were prominent in a small set of cases in which police had access to crime laboratory results prior to arrest. The final report to NIJ that we link to here highlights these results and many others on how often and when forensic evidence is available is a wide array of different types of sexual assault cases.

Alexander Wagner, Theodore Cross, Megan Alderden, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, and Meredith Spencer

Promising methods have emerged in the last tweny years for using DNA and other biological evidence in the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault, but there is little research on how often this type of evidence is available and what role it plays in the criminal justice response to sexual research. This presentation to the Massachusetts Association of Crime Analysts is one of a series reporting findings from of a National Institute Justice-funded study on the frequeny, use and impact of forensic evidence in criminal investigations of sexual assault. Results suggests that biological evidence and DNA does not play a role in the vast majority of arrests, which are typically made soon after the incident. But DNA is very prominent in a small number of cases in which arrests are made later, after crime laboratory analysis has been conducted.

Theodore Cross, Betsy Goulet, Jesse Helton, Emily Lux, and Tamara Fuller

Individuals considering reporting child maltreatment to protective services would naturally consider what would result from the report for the child and family. This could affect both their opinion about the value of reporting and their decision to report. This presentation profiles outcomes of reporting and considers the implications for understanding and improving the reporting situation. It briefly reviews research on the frequency and predictors of five different decisions: screening out, substantiation, CPS service delivery, child placement and providing differential response Then, using new analysis of national data, we profile the different decisions that are likely to be made for a hypothetical 100 cases. Findings suggest how modest the protective service response is in most cases, how much communities differ in outcomes of reporting, how much of a difference case factors like child age make, and how resources affect the profile of outcomes. Finally, this presentation discusses how understanding what outcomes of reporting are likely and what factors affect these outcomes could influence policy, practice and training regarding reporting.

John Fluke, Lisa Merkel-Holguin, Ying-ying Yuan, and Tamara Fuller

Presented at the 16th annual child welfare waiver demonstration project meeting in July 2014, this presentation highlights the status of Differential Response (DR) implementation in the U.S.; summarizes the results of the "first generation" of DR evaluation research on key indicators including parent engagement with CPS, child safety, and program costs; and suggests areas for the next generation of DR research.

Tamara Fuller, Theodore Cross, Vaughn Brandt, and Colleen McGroarty

As part of their Title IV-E waiver demonstration project, the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) was interested in developing a way to target post-reunification services to those families that were at highest risk of re-entry into substitute care. The CFRC used historical data to develop a predictive risk model, known as the Re-entry Prevention Model (RPM) that was implemented in each county that was part of the waiver demonstration project. The CFRC and DCF gave an overview of the RPM development and implementation process at the 16th annual child welfare waiver demonstration projects meeting, including a discussion of the lessons learned.

Tamara Fuller and Martin Nieto

The Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) is a safety assessment protocol used in child protection investigations and child welfare services in Illinois. It is designed to provide workers with a mechanism for quickly assessing the potential for moderate to severe harm to a child in the immediate or near future and for taking quick action to protect children. Workers utilize the protocol at specified milestones throughout the life of an investigation or child welfare case to help focus their decision-making to determine whether a child is safe or unsafe, and if unsafe, decide what actions must be taken to assure their safety.

Tamara Fuller, Raquel Ellis, and Julie Murphy

Jurisdictions across the country have adopted dual-track systems and there has been increasing focus on building the evidence base around this innovative approach to CPS services. In 2009, Colorado, Illinois and Ohio were selected by the National Quality Improvement Center on Differential Response in Child Protective Services (QIC-DR) to implement Differential Response and conduct rigorous, multi-year evaluations of their DR approaches. During this panel, evaluators from the three sites will discuss highlights from the outcome evaluations, focusing on outcomes related to parent perceptions of CPS and child safety. An interactive discussion of the implications of the findings for practice and future research will follow.

Tamara Fuller, Raquel Ellis, and Julie Murphy

In this issue: ‘CFRC Releases Differential Response Final Evaluation Report,’ ‘FY2013 B.H. Monitoring Report Now Available,’ ‘2nd Annual LGBT Research Symposium: Call for Papers and Presentations,’ and ‘LGBTQ Youth Ages 14 - 18 Sought for Participation in Survey.’

Judy Havlicek

Little is known about the maltreatment experiences of youth who age out of substitute care. Their late age at entry and failed attempts at reunification may nevertheless mean prolonged exposure to child maltreatment. This study involves a secondary data analysis of state child welfare administrative data. A latent variable modeling approach is used to generate profiles of maltreatment experiences based on maltreatment reports (McCutcheon, 1987). A cohort of foster youth who reached the age of majority is selected from state administrative data based upon the following criteria: 1) In out-of-home care at age 17; 2) In care for at least 1-year; 3) Turned 18-years in out-of-home care; and 4) Entered due to child abuse/neglect. There are 801 foster youth that meet sample selection criteria, and the observation period is from FY1989-2011. All unduplicated maltreatment records are included in the analysis, including substantiated and unsubstantiated findings, and records occurring prior to and during any placement spell. Four categorical indicators of maltreatment are included in the LCA: # of different maltreatment types (1-7); Predominant type (1-3); Chronicity (1-5 developmental periods); and Number of different perpetrators (1-9). Classes are differentiated on variables not used in the classification process. Analysis of the model fit statistics and visual inspection identify a 4-class model as the best fitting solution. Study findings highlight the heterogeneity of maltreatment experiences in the lives of foster youth emancipating to adulthood from one state child welfare system. Study findings draw attention to the need to raise awareness among service providers about childhood maltreatment in older youth; to enhance research on the multiple dimensionality of maltreatment; and to develop best practices for promoting the safety of older adolescents who are without permanence. This study will be published in Child Maltreatment's upcoming special issue on emerging adulthood.

Judy Havlicek and Clark Peters

Three decades of research indicates that foster youth aging out of care are poorly prepared to make the transition to adulthood (Courtney et al., 2001; Courtney et al., 2003). They are twice as likely to be ?disconnected? from employment and education (Courtney & Dworsky, 2006), and six times more likely to experience homelessness than same-aged youth in the general population (Fowler et al., 2010). Research also suggests that foster youth who remain in substitute care past the age of majority tend to fare better than those who do not. At age 19, they are more likely to be enrolled in college (Courtney & Dworsky, 2006), to receive a mental health service (Courtney et al. 2006), and to avoid homelessness (Dworsky & Courtney, 2009). Understanding who stays and who leaves has important implications for ensuring that critical protections during the transition to adulthood reach those who are in need. The goal of this study is to examine how long young adults remain in substitute care, and the factors related to increased or decreased time to exit from care. This study involves a secondary data analysis of state child welfare administrative data. The sample includes a cohort of young people who turned 18 while in out-of-home care, who were: (1) in out-of-home care at age 17; (2) in care for at least 1year; and (3) entered substitute care due to child abuse or neglect. The outcome of interest is the first exit from substitute care that occurs past age 18. The analyses focus on the timing of exits from substitute care.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, permanence, and child and family well-being. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by child gender, race, age, and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Tamara Fuller, Megan Paceley, and Jill Schreiber

Many Child Protective Services (CPS) systems have implemented Differential Response (DR) in efforts to improve child and family outcomes by providing a wider array of concrete and preventative services with a less adversarial and more supportive approach. Quantitative survey data confirms that parents who receive DR services are more engaged, receive more concrete services, and have higher overall satisfaction than those who receive a traditional investigation; yet we still have little knowledge of what occurs inside the “black box” of service provision. This qualitative study provided an in-depth analysis of parents’ perspectives of the effectiveness of the services they received through a non-investigative CPS approach.

Theodore P. Cross, Megan Alderden, Alex Wagner, A., Daniel Bibel, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, Saijun Zhang, and Meridith Spencer

This presentation reports on a study of the relationship between injury evidence and crime laboratory evidence and police unfounding and arrest in a statewide sample of Massachusetts sexual assault csaes. Most arrests took place rapidly--before crime laboratory analysis was conducted, but in the small number of cases in which arrests took place afterwards DNA evidence was common--suggesting the importance of DNA when probable cause cannot immediately be established. Arrests were more likely when there were injuries, though the causal relationship is unclear. Additional predictors of unfounding and arrest were identified.

Theodore P. Cross, Megan Alderden, Alex Wagner, A., Daniel Bibel, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, Saijun Zhang, and Meridith Spencer

In this issue: ‘New CFRC Study Examines Families with Chronic Maltreatment,’ ‘Collecting Forensic Evidence in Child Sexual Abuse Cases,’ and ‘Post-Reunification Services to Prevent Re-entry into Substitute Care.’

Theodore P. Cross, Megan Alderden, Alex Wagner, A., Daniel Bibel, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, Saijun Zhang, and Meridith Spencer

In this issue: ‘New Research Grant Examines Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Telenursing Center,’ ‘Study Sheds Light on Engaging Parents in Child Protective Services,’ and ‘Use of Recovery Coaches Examined in CFRC Evaluation.’

Theodore P. Cross, Megan Alderden, Alex Wagner, A., Daniel Bibel, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, Saijun Zhang, and Meridith Spencer

In this issue: ‘The Illinois Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being,’ ‘Infants and Toddlers In the Child Welfare System Face Developmental Problems,’ ‘Food Issues a New Area of Concern for Child Welfare,’ and ‘Abused and Neglected Children at a High Risk for Unhealthy Weight.’

Theodore P. Cross, Megan Alderden, Alex Wagner, A., Daniel Bibel, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, Saijun Zhang, and Meridith Spencer

In this issue: ‘2012 Illinois Family Impact Seminar Focuses on Differential Response,’ ‘CFRC Partners with Lawrence Hall Youth Services to Receive Grant,’ and ‘CFRC Sponsors Family Reunion for Former Youth in Care.’

Theodore P. Cross, Megan Alderden, Alex Wagner, A., Daniel Bibel, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, Saijun Zhang, and Meridith Spencer

In this issue: ‘llinois Differential Response Evaluation Releases First Report,’ ‘Research Explores the Link Between Community Violence and Aggressive Child Behavior,’ ‘The Foster Care Utilization Review Program (FCURP),’ and ‘CFRC Highlights.’

Theodore P. Cross, Megan Alderden, Alex Wagner, A., Daniel Bibel, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, Saijun Zhang, and Meridith Spencer

The CFRC is pleased to announce the release of the Conditions of Children in or at Risk of Foster Care in Illinois: 2010 Monitoring Report of the B.H. Consent Decree. Each year since 1998, the CFRC has produced an annual report documenting the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in providing adequate care to children in foster care. The report provides multi-year data on indicators of repeat maltreatment, continuity with family members and community, placement stability, placement restrictiveness, length of time in foster care, and the achievement of permanence through reunification with birth parents, adoption, and guardianship. The report also includes a chapter that examines Child Well-Being that provides an in-depth look at mental health service need and service receipt among children in substantiated investigations. This year's report has been significantly updated to improve the readability and usefulness of the data to a variety of consumers - including child welfare workers, researchers, and policy-makers.

Theodore P. Cross, Megan Alderden, Alex Wagner, A., Daniel Bibel, Lisa Sampson, Brittany Peters, Saijun Zhang, and Meridith Spencer

This debut issue of the newsletter includes: ‘CFRC Releases Report on DCFS Performance,’ ‘Evaluating Differential Response in Illinois,’ and ‘CFRC Receives Grant to Reduce Childhood Obesity Among Foster Children.’

Theodore P. Cross

This article examines the reasons for a shortfall in mental health services for children in foster care in Illinois in 2003 and 2005, and explores efforts to improve mental health services by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The shortfall reflects both overall deficits in funding and staffing children’s mental health services in Illinois and specific challenges to the child welfare system. From 1988 to 2001, DCFS mental health change efforts focused on substantially reducing high rates of psychiatric hospitalization and residential treatment and overhauling an ineffective system of psychological assessment, leaving much undone regarding more routine mental health services. Spurred in part by federal review and statewide grassroots children’s mental health advocacy, DCFS since 2005 has initiated a range of new assessment and treatment programs. However, ongoing problems with Medicaid funding and reimbursement hinder service delivery. More rapid improvement of mental health services for this population may require a coalition with a specific commitment to children in foster care.