Caseworker Factors That Influence Removal Decisions

Background and Purpose. Despite the extreme importance of the decision to remove children from their homes during child maltreatment investigations, these decisions are not always made systematically.  Decisions are known to vary between workers—beyond variance attributable to child and family risk factors.  In this present study, we explored whether caseworker characteristics predicted decisions to remove children from their homes using real-world data from a statewide child welfare population.  The purpose was to identify which caseworker factors predicted removal decisions beyond other pertinent child-case and regional variables. 

Methods:  General Staff Surveys were administered to Child Protective Services caseworkers as part of a Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project in a western state in 2016.  All caseworkers (n=224) who were identified as the primary caseworker on a CPS case were recruited to complete the surveys.  The two surveys were administered one week apart and, therefore, treated as separate samples.  The first survey assessed caseworkers’ attitudes and beliefs towards family preservation and child safety; the response rate was 85%.  The second assessed the caseworkers’ perceptions of the supervision, workload, case skills, liability, and community services; the response rate was 70%.  Additionally, the caseworkers’ race and ethnicity, gender, and years of experience were collected from both the survey data and the child welfare administrative data.  The caseworkers’ survey responses for both were matched to case-level data of supported CPS cases between 2008-2016.  The data were analyzed using multilevel logistic models. 

Results:  The caseworkers’ attitudes and beliefs towards child safety and family preservation, as well as the caseworkers’ perception of their supervision and work unit, predicted removal decisions in bi-variate analyses.  However, these predictors were not significant after controlling for child-case and other caseworker factors.  The caseworkers’ years of experience, gender, perceptions of their skills, and perceptions of their workload each significantly predicted removal decisions.  Caseworkers who had less experience, females, caseworkers who perceived themselves to be very skilled, and caseworkers who did not perceived themselves to be overburdened, were less likely to remove children from their homes.  Caseworker factors that did not predicted removal decisions included the caseworkers’ minority status, correspondence between the caseworkers’ and children’s race and ethnicity, perceptions of community services, perceptions of liability, and perceptions of supervision and their work unit.  

Implications:    The results from this research demonstrate that caseworker characteristics and caseworkers’ perceptions of the child welfare agency can influence their removal decisions.  This means that caseworker characteristics contribute to inconsistencies in caseworkers’ removal decisions, which can create barriers for the implementation of child welfare programs, such as programs aimed at reducing the need for out-of-home care.  Nevertheless, the findings also suggest that the characteristics of the workforce are a potential leverage point where child welfare agencies can change policy, practice, and training to guide decision making.  This research adds to the foundation of research that can be used to identify potential interventions to reduce unwanted variation in removal decisions and improve practice by aligning caseworker decisions with the goals of local child welfare organizations.