Cross system comparisons of children in treatment foster care: Using agency data to study cross-system child outcomes

This exploratory study matched a set of data from a treatment foster care population served in one Midwestern state during one calendar year with statewide data from public schools and child welfare agencies to create a broader picture of how these children were faring. Despite typical challenges to the quality of agency-level data, a significant proportion of child records could be matched to data from other systems. Important discoveries were made in terms of the attendance patterns of school-aged children and their participation in special education. The stabilizing effect of treatment foster care can be observed by high rates of child welfare involvement up to the point when children were placed in treatment foster care settings after which, they had very little, if any, subsequent child welfare involvement. Recommendations are provided for how treatment foster care agencies might not only enhance the quality of their data to improve their ability to report on their performance but to consider the broader research implications illustrated in the findings presented here.