Examining Administrative Challenges in Conducting Research in Public Human Service Systems: Lessons from Child Welfare

Researchers in child welfare are responding to the federal funding emphasis for the need for evidence-based interventions. In 2014 the Children's Bureau produced the document, a “Framework to Design, Test, Spread, and Sustain Effective Practice in Child Welfare” which supports rigorous research and evaluation to improve child welfare outcomes for children/youth, promoting safety, permanence, and well-being of families served.

In 2015, the National Quality Improvement Center for Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation (QIC-AG) was formed through a cooperative agreement with the Children's Bureau. The QIC-AG adopted the Children's Bureau's framework to develop evidence-based supports and interventions designed to promote permanence through services and supports. To guide this work, the QIC-AG developed the Permanency Continuum framework, a way to organize the common experiences and needs of families formed through adoption or guardianship. The Permanency Continuum includes different stages (Intervals) from pre- to post- permanence.

In order to better understand the Permanency Continuum and what services and supports work best with families in different intervals, the QIC-AG selected eight sites as partners: the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, New Jersey, and Vermont; as well as Catawba County in North Carolina; and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. The eight sites are range in geography, size, and target population focus. The two target populations are 1) families of children in potentially permanent placements where legal permanence is delayed; and 2) families formed through adoption and guardianship who could benefit from services and support post-permanence in order to maintain permanence.

Through work with the sites to implement the selected interventions, the QIC-AG's evaluation and implementation teams have encountered some administrative challenges. Presenters will discuss the following challenges in the context of the creative, collaborative solutions they have developed in partnership with the sites. • One presenter will discuss navigating different public child welfare systems' legal requirements for data sharing (commonly called Data Sharing Agreements, DSAs or Data Use Agreements, DUAs). In a time of increasing concern about information security, allowing ample time to negotiate data sharing is essential to project success. • Another presenter will discuss the actual mechanics of data sharing, working with different systems to obtain administrative data to link foster and adoption IDs. • The final presenter will discuss the creativity needed to maneuver large human service systems (like public child welfare) where careful navigation of agency and/or Site culture is essential to creating and sustaining research project buy-in. Roundtable participants will have the opportunity to ask their questions and share their solutions on how to successfully implement and evaluate interventions within complex systems.