NCJ Number
199090
Date Published
June 2001
Length
103 pages
Annotation
This is a report on some of the findings of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), which is the first national longitudinal study of the characteristics, needs, experiences, and outcomes for children and families involved with the child welfare system; this report focuses on the results of the Local Child Welfare Agency Survey (LAS).
Abstract
The LAS was conducted during the first wave of data collection for NSCAW and offers the field a picture of the way child welfare services operated during 1999-2000. This report presents information obtained from local-level child welfare administrators, who were asked about a number of issues, such as staffing and training, caseload, budget, changes in policy and legislation, client characteristics, etc., which affect the delivery of child welfare services. This report also includes a discussion of the implications of the findings on local agencies for child-level NSCAW analysis and for the field. Findings show that the majority of child welfare agencies (about two-thirds) are units within larger agencies rather than freestanding units. Approximately 40 percent of agencies had developed new initiatives in the past 12 months, including specialized units of service, multidisciplinary teams, additional community-based branch offices, and concurrent planning mechanisms. Agencies most often require a college education for their child welfare services investigators, although approximately 10 percent of the agencies had no degree requirement for workers who were not investigators. Agencies reported about five times as many reports of abuse and neglect for children in poverty as for those not in poverty. About two-thirds were referred for investigation. Approximately 1 child per 100 received family support or preservation services, although this rate was considerably higher among poor families. Foster care accounted for almost half of all child welfare expenditures. The survey contrasted characteristics of child welfare agencies in large vs. other counties, poorer vs. nonpoor counties, urban vs. nonurban counties, and State-administered vs. county-administered child welfare programs. 28 tables, 14 references, and appended questionnaire and supplementary methodological information