Data on Placement Prevention and New Research on Foster Care Outcomes

Since their inception in the 1970s, Intensive Family Preservation Services have been among the most studied and evaluated programs in the child welfare system. Evaluations generally focus on placement prevention rates. Five states and two counties recently provided data on placement prevention for IFPS programs operating in their jurisdiction:

State/County	Year	Percent. of children still at home	No. of months post-IFPS at which success is measured
Kansas	FY 2002	91%	12 months
Kentucky	FY 2003	87%	12 months
Missouri	FY 2002	79%	12 months
North Carolina	FY 2002	82%	12 months
Washington	FY 2001	77%	6 months
Marion Co., Indiana	2002	83%	6 months
Wayne Co., Michigan	2001	88%	6 months

While the models used in these jurisdictions may vary, the data show that at least three-quarters of families consistently remain together following an IFPS intervention. What happens to the children who don’t remain with their families but go into an out-of-home placement?

New studies conclude that the outcome for children growing up in foster care is grim. The Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago has just released a study of 17-year-old foster youth in three states (Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin). The study found that foster youth have mental health and substance abuse problems at three times the rate of a comparable national sample. Nearly two-thirds of the males and half of the females had been arrested, convicted of a crime, or sent to a correctional facility. Over half of the foster youth were not yet reading at the seventh-grade level.

Another study by the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois found that the risk of delinquency is approximately doubled for children entering substitute care placement. The researchers tested whether the tendency toward increased delinquency occurs prior to or after placement in the foster care system. For males, the difference in delinquency rates between males at home and males in foster care does not increase substantially until the third placement, indicating that placement instability is the largest contributing factor to male delinquency. However, for females the risk of delinquency doubled with the first out-of-home placement, indicating that placement itself increases the risk.

These studies are discouraging in that they represent real children whose lives will be forever changed, most likely not for the better, if they grow up in foster care. On the other hand, for anyone who provides or advocates for intensive family preservation services, these studies should encourage all of us to continue the effort and do even more! What we do has a tremendous, life-long impact on children and families.