| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 346155 | Children and Youth Services Review | 2011 | 26 Pages |
For nearly three decades foster care review has been required and practiced in the United States. It is well established that foster care review was designed with the intent to reduce the time children spend in foster care and increase permanent placements for children. This article presents that foster care review, as practiced in Colorado, is a social work intervention and quantitative results of this study demonstrate that as an intervention, timely administrative case review is an effective social work intervention related to improving child welfare outcomes for the children and families served in Colorado. The major findings show that timely administrative case review and increased levels of review attendance (mother, father, Guardian ad litem's, and foster parents) are predictors of the child welfare outcomes of permanency and length of time in out-of-home care. Bivariate results indicate a median length of stay approximately 10.76 months longer for children who do not consistently receive timely case reviews. Additionally, the results show that timely care review moderates the underlying casework process related to caseworker contacts, demonstrating that a child's length of stay differs depending on the level of timely case review. In essence, the administrative case review process in Colorado is effectively achieving its goal and is an effective intervention for improving the lives of children in foster care.
Research Highlights► Whitaker examines administrative review as predictor of los and permanency for children in OOH. ► Timely case review and increased levels of review attendance are predictors of permanency and los. ► There was a a median length of stay of 10.76 months longer for children not consistently reviewed timely. ► Timely case review has a more intense effect when worker contacts are low and levels of timely case review are high. ► The administrative review in Colorado promotes shorter lengths of stay and improves permanency.
