Perceptions of state child welfare administrators regarding federally-mandated citizen review panels

Since 1996, federal law has required state child welfare agencies receiving grant funding through the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to support the work of independent citizen review panels. According to the law, citizen review panels are to assess the functions and performance of state child welfare systems, providing recommendations for improvements. To date, a handful of studies have examined the work of the citizen review panels from the perspective of the citizen participants, yet the voice of state child welfare administrators regarding their work with the panels has been largely silent in the literature. While exploratory in nature and intent, the present study begins to fill this gap by reporting the results of a national survey of state child welfare administrators regarding their perceptions of barriers and benefits to citizen participation. The qualitative analysis yielded a significant degree of agreement across administrators in 31 states and the District of Columbia, and provided a number of insights for how agencies and citizen review panels can work more collaboratively. These include the need for agencies to assist in the training of CRP participants and for administrators to more deliberately foster an environment conducive to effective engagement by supporting ongoing dialog, integrating CRP recommendations into agency work, and meeting regularly with the groups.