Session: Evidence for and Applications of Risk Assessment Tools Used By Child Protection Agencies (Society for Social Work and Research 27th Annual Conference - Social Work Science and Complex Problems: Battling Inequities + Building Solutions)

Understanding and assessing the risk of children and families is critical for policy planning and service coordination. Risk assessment tools designed for and used by the child protection system (CPS) have evolved alongside technological advances offering novel insights into using administrative data. This symposium considers how risk has historically been assessed in CPS and introduces the experience and perception of child welfare workers on their daily decision-making process. This symposium also presents examples of applying risk assessment tools to support better supervision practice and concurrent efforts to connect families to community services considering service equity.

The first paper provides a scoping review of risk assessment tools used by CPS agencies in the U.S. by synthesizing the literature published between 1990 and 2021. This paper describes the methodologies of those risk assessment tools and their implications for validity and reliability.

The second paper uses a qualitative approach to investigate the experiences of child welfare workers who use various risk assessment strategies to make a number of important decisions on a daily basis. This study also provides the narratives of child welfare workers about their perception of fairness in CPS.

Given the increasing attention paid to predictive risk modeling that can support improved decision-making in child protection agencies, the third paper illustrates the development and piloting of a risk stratification model in Los Angeles (LA) County. Using linked administrative records and machine learning algorithms, this paper offers an overview of collaborative efforts to develop, test, and implement the risk assessment model.

Finally, the fourth paper documents how the application of risk assessment tools can be used to examine and assess the distribution of families referred to community-based services by risk level, including variability in the likelihood of a service connection racial/ethnicity and gender subpopulations.

Each of these papers sheds light on varying aspects of risk assessment tools used by CPS agencies, including their implications for improved decision-making, applications for CPS agencies, and limitations and opportunities for service equity. The collection of presentations in this symposium is particularly timely in light of the opportunities presented by the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) and the resulting shift toward a prevention-focused approach for which a proactive and accurate risk assessment is critical.