Privacy, policy, & permanency: the Family First Prevention Services Act and the use of administrative data for child welfare research

Privacy, policy, & permanency: the Family First Prevention Services Act and the use of administrative data for child welfare research

Collection:
Health Policy and Services Research
Author(s):
Walton, Matthew T., author
Schutze, Maik, author
Thrasher, Shawndaya, author
Johnston, Taylor, author
Contributor(s):
AcademyHealth, issuing body.
Publication:
[Washington, DC] : AcademyHealth, [2021]
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Subject(s):
Child Abuse
Child Welfare
Ethics, Research
United States
Genre(s):
Technical Report
Abstract:
During Federal Fiscal Year 2018, the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System reported that there were more than half a million children served at some point by state foster care systems. This population of children has risen by nearly 40,000 since 2014 – a 5.74 percent increase in just that four-year period. There is more than one explanation for this concerning trend, but researchers and state agencies have overwhelmingly pointed to a common trio of problems that contribute to the heightened risk of removing children from their families: 1) the rise in prevalence of harmful substance use; 2) the incapacitating effects of severe mental illness and; 3) household economic hardships. While the opioid epidemic in the U.S. may have exacerbated these problems in recent years, they are not new. Child welfare authorities have long known of this trio’s detrimental effects on families, and evidence of these associations has been documented by several authors. For example, analyses using datasets from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Children’s Bureau produced an estimate that each 10 percent increase in drug overdose deaths in a typical US county was associated with a 4.4 percent increase in foster care entries.5 Similarly, when it comes to mental illness, analyses of state level data in Missouri found that the proportion of children placed in out-of-home care was more than double for the children of mothers with mental illness than for other children involved with Child Protective Services (CPS). The risk of removal from the home was also found to be notably higher for the children of mothers with anxiety disorders in that study. Economic hardships – especially those that result in homelessness and housing instability – have also been discovered to increase the risk of a family’s involvement with CPS.
Copyright:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
Extent:
1 online resource (1 PDF file (11 pages))
Illustrations:
Illustrations
NLM Unique ID:
9918384881706676 (See catalog record)
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918384881706676