• Evidence for Practice in Child Welfare
• Low-income Families in Poverty Neighborhoods
• Participant and Staff Perceptions of Welfare to Work Services
• Child Welfare and the Courts Study
• Education for Foster Children: Removing Barriers to Academic Success
• Factors Influencing Foster Parents: Decisions to Continue or Cease Foster Parenting
• Foster Family Agencies: Children's Characteristics and Placement Considerations
• Receiving Centers and Informal Emergency Assessment Settings in Child Welfare: Child, Family, Service, and Placement Characteristics
• A Strategy for Outcome-based Accountability for School-based and School-linked Prevention Programs and Early Intervention Programs

PROJECT DETAILS:

Evidence for Practice in Child Welfare (2005-2006)
This study began in Fall 2004 and relates to a structured review of current research designed to inform practice in the following areas: the disproportionality of minority children entering the child welfare systems, assessment of child safety and risk, and outcome measures for assessing child welfare services, outcomes for substance abuse programs, outcomes for parent education programs, and family assessment tools.
To access these documents, please click here.
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Low-income Families in Poverty Neighborhoods (2004)
This study involves a review of current research related to the coping and survival strategies of low-income families, the neighborhood effects of poverty on these families, and current promising programs and practices related to neighborhood-based services for low-income families.
Download the Executive Summary page of this report in PDF format.
Download the full PDF report.
Also published in the Journal of Health and Social Policy, Volume 21(1), 2005. **
(Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 required)

Related downloads (in Word format), all appearing in the Journal of Health and Social Policy, 2005:
Low-income Families
Low-income Neighborhoods
Promising Practices
Promising Programs

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Participant and Staff Perceptions of Welfare to Work Services (2003)
This study addresses the perceptions of service participants and staff after five years of implementing welfare reform in the Bay Area Counties. It also features an in-depth assessment of staff decision-making as well as an analysis of administrative data systems.
Four manuscripts (in Word format) to appear in several journals:
Literature Review (Social Policy Journal, 2005)
Participant Perspective (Journal of Human Behavior and the Social Environment, 2008)
Staff Perspectives (Administration in Social Work, 2007)
Decision-Making Process (Families in Society, 2006)
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Child Welfare and the Courts Study (2002)
In 2001-20002, BASSC is conducting a study examining the relationship between child welfare agencies and the courts. The study combines qualitative and quantitative methods, and will be conducted in ten Bay Area counties. Data will be collected in focus groups with social workers in each county, and with foster youth, foster parents, and parents and guardians involved in dependency proceedings. Interviews with judicial officers and attorneys in each county, and with leaders of model programs addressing the relationship between the two systems will also be conducted. Finally, BASSC research staff will review case records in each county, to identify case characteristics associated with problematic interactions between the two systems.
Download the full PDF report.
Also published in the Journal of Public Child Welfare, Volume 1(1), 2006. ** (Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 required)

Two manuscripts (in Word format) to appear in the Journal of Public Child Welfare, 2006:
Child Welfare Case Review
Child Welfare and Courts

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Education for Foster Children: Removing Barriers to Academic Success (2000)
In California, approximately 10 out of every 1,000 children are in foster care and approximately 72% of these children are school age (Needell, Webster, Cuccaro-Alamin, Armijo, Brookhart 2000). As foster children enter emergency shelter care and then move back to their own homes or into longer-term foster care situations, the primary job of the social worker is to protect children's immediate safety and ensure their emotional well-being. Concern for meeting foster children's educational needs is clearly within the social services domain of child well-being, yet it is the school system that ultimately is responsible for ensuring that all children receive appropriate education.
Download a 6 page brief of this report in PDF format.
Download the full PDF report (112 pgs).
** (Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 required)
Also published in the Journal of Public Child Welfare, Volume 1(1), 2006. **
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Factors Influencing Foster Parents: Decisions to Continue or Cease Foster Parenting (2000)
The purpose of this study is to investigate how Alameda County can improve recruitment and retention rates of foster parents. Researchers conducted 7 focus groups across 64 individuals from one of three groups: those who had completed Model Approaches to Parenting Partnership (MAPP) training but never fostered, individuals who provided foster care for a few years and then stopped, and current foster parents. Results were incorporated into the recommendations by identifying specific key factors that were found to influence decisions to continue or cease fostering.
Available only in hardcopy.
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Foster Family Agencies: Children's Characteristics and Placement Considerations (2000)
Here researchers aim to evaluate similarities and differences between children who enter different settings, as well as how social workers decide in which setting to place a child. A literature review was conducted, as well as archival analysis of the California Children's Services Archive, as the basis for producing questions for the two focus groups that were conducted with social workers and placement specialists. Recommendations were based on an integration of qualitative and quantitative data, providing methods for improving the effectiveness of the use of Foster Family Agencies.
Available only in hardcopy.
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Receiving Centers and Informal Emergency Assessment Settings in Child Welfare: Child, Family, Service, and Placement Characteristics (2000)
Researchers in this study evaluated outcomes for children assessed through the centers versus informal emergency settings, utilizing a case extraction procedure of 58 children served by the Antioch receiving center and 54 children assessed in Contra Costa county through informal emergency settings. Recommendations provide guidelines for increasing the use of the centers and the benefits they provide for clients.
Available only in hardcopy.
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