Abstract: Factors Associated with Permanency for Children in out-of-Home Placement (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

Schedule:

Friday, January 12, 2024

Liberty Ballroom N, ML 4 (Marriott Marquis Washington DC)

* noted as presenting author

Haksoon Ahn, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Maryland at Baltimore, Baltimore, MD

Kimberly Williams, MSW, PhD Candidate, University of Maryland at Baltimore, Baltimore, MD

Jinyung Kim, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD

Elsa Moeller, MSW, Research Project Coordinator, University of Maryland at Baltimore, Baltimore, MD

Background and Purpose: Achieving permanency for children in foster care is one of the main goals of the child welfare system. Federal guidelines establish timeframes in which each permanency goal should be achieved. However, recent national data indicates that achieving permanency has declined, and 18% of children were in foster care for three years or more (USDHHS, 2022). The purpose of this study is to explore factors associated with the achievement of permanency and to provide implications for permanency. This study has two research questions: (1) What is the length of time to achieve permanency? (2) What factors are associated with achieving permanency for children in foster care?

Methods: Data from the State Automated Child Welfare Information System in a Mid-Atlantic state were used. The sample included 1,874 children who entered foster care for the first time in 2017. This study examined both individual-level variables (e.g., child’s demographics) and case-level variables (e.g., maltreatment type, use of Family Team Decision Meeting [FTDM]). Multivariate survival analyses were conducted using Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Results: Of the children in the sample, 83.72% achieved permanency by November 2022. The median length of time to achieve permanency was 6 months for reunification, 17 months for guardianship, and 31 months for adoption. Children who were four to nine, Black, had three or more siblings, and were living in the metropolitan region achieved permanency at a faster rate. Additionally, children who were placed in relative foster care and had a removal FTDM achieved permanency at a faster rate. Having a behavioral or mental health issue at the time of entry into foster care, experiencing multiple maltreatment types, and having three or more placement changes led to a longer time in care. The adjusted survival analyses revealed that age at removal and the number of placement changes predicted a lower probability of exiting foster care. Conversely, number of siblings and having a removal FTDM were significantly associated with an increased likelihood of achieving permanency. Regarding race and placement type, non-White children were less likely to achieve permanency than their White counterparts, and children staying in non-relative foster care had a higher chance of achieving permanency than those in a family home.

Conclusion & Implications: The findings have important implications for policy and practice. In particular, the impact that the use of FTDMs held at the time of removal have on achieving permanency suggests the importance of formalizing a family-centered model and training front-line child welfare workers on the skills needed to implement these meetings and engage families in collaborative planning. Further, findings related to racial differences in achieving permanency suggest the need to consider a more equitable approach to service provision. Similarly, updates to policy are needed to ensure that kinship placements are being provided the same services as non-relative foster parents to support permanency.

Reference:

US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, Children’s Bureau. (2022, June 28). The AFCARS Report.