Parental Legal Representation in Child Welfare

Parents involved in child welfare court cases face steep challenges navigating the court process. Few parents have experience in advocacy, knowledge of the rules of family court, or of their rights as parents. Stakeholders including the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Children’s Bureau promote an interdisciplinary team approach to parent representation that includes out-of-court engagement.

Funded by Casey Family Programs and in partnership with the NYU School of Law, Action Research conducted a quasi-experimental study based on over 10,000 court cases to understand the impact of different models of parent representation. The study found that after controlling for many other factors, compared to the traditional appointed counsel model, organizations using an interdisciplinary approach that paired lawyers with social workers and parent advocates reduced foster care stays by an average of four months with no impact on safety outcomes. In tandem with this study, the Children’s Bureau has made Title IV-E funds available to support the expansion of the interdisciplinary model approaches for parent representation. Expansion is taking place in several jurisdictions, including in New Mexico, California, and upstate New York. Many of these efforts are supported by the Family Justice Initiative. 

Journal articles:
Effects of an interdisciplinary approach to parental representation in child welfare 

In 2018, the federal Children’s Bureau made Title IV-E funds available to support parent representation, including the interdisciplinary model approaches for parent representation. Since then, interdisciplinary parent representation programs have been established in several jurisdictions, including Oklahoma, New Mexico, California, and upstate New York. Many of these efforts are supported by the Family Justice Initiative, which aims to support high quality parent and child legal representation. 

Understanding the effects of an interdisciplinary approach to parental representation in child welfare

How family defender offices in New York City are able to safely reduce the time  children spend in foster care

Press Release

Media Coverage

Implementing EMDR in Foster Care: Year Two Lessons from NYC

This report presents insights from the second year of Action Research’s evaluation of an innovative initiative to improve access to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for young people in New York City foster care. The pilot program, a joint effort between the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of School Health, involves providing EMDR training to mental health clinicians working within foster care agencies. The report outlines the main accomplishments, obstacles, and lessons learned during the second year of the pilot program, emphasizing the implementation of EMDR with children and youth in foster care settings. Read the report here.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Fund for Public Health in New York, Inc. provided funding for the pilot and the evaluation.

Ohio Legal Representation Pilot Program: Year Two Evaluation Report

In Year 2 of the four-year evaluation, Action Research conducted site visits to each of the six pilots, including focus groups and interviews with 58 pilot staff, judges, public children services agency staff, and community partners. The team gathered additional information from aggregate program and expenditure data, as well as program materials and reports submitted by pilot programs. Researchers also observed technical assistance sessions and attended an all-pilot convening. The team analyzed data using a framework approach to identify themes and patterns while keeping abreast of the research literature and developments in the field. The report focuses on pilots’ strategies for effective internal collaboration, client engagement, community engagement, and government partner collaboration. Read the report here.

Ohio Legal Representation Pilot Program: Year One Evaluation Report

At the request of the Supreme Court of Ohio and in partnership with the Ohio Department of Children and Youth (formerly the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services), Action Research is conducting a four-year evaluation of pilot programs in six Ohio counties that provide multidisciplinary legal representation to parents involved or at risk of involvement with the child welfare system. Each multidisciplinary team includes at least one lawyer, social worker, and parent advocate who work together to address family issues, including child safety issues, and help prevent families’ avoidable involvement with the child welfare system.

In Year 1, Action Research conducted a process evaluation to understand how these programs work, the challenges in implementation faced by the Ohio pilots, and the solutions pilot programs used to address these challenges. Should Ohio choose to replicate these programs in the future, this process evaluation can inform the Supreme Court of Ohio and Ohio counties on how best to scale the initiative. This report is based on six focus groups and one interview involving a total of 36 stakeholders, a review of program proposals, analysis of program reports, observations of technical assistance sessions, and analysis of aggregate program data.

Read the report here.

Implementing EMDR In Foster Care: Early Lessons from NYC

This report presents insights from the inaugural year of Action Research’s evaluation of a groundbreaking initiative aimed at enhancing access to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), an evidence-based trauma treatment, for young people in New York City (NYC) foster care. The pilot program, a collaborative effort between the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of School Health (DOHMH-OSH), focuses on equipping mental health clinicians within ACS foster care agencies with EMDR training. The report describes key achievements, challenges, and lessons learned during the pilot’s first year, with a focus on EMDR training and implementation in foster care settings. Future reports will provide annual updates.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Fund for Public Health in New York, Inc. provided funding for the pilot and the evaluation.

Read the report here

Trends among NYC Children and their Implications for Child Welfare

This brief discusses trends among New York City’s (NYC) children and families that may impact the future of child welfare services in NYC, including transition age youth in foster care. Most trends among NYC’s children and families show marked improvements in living conditions and child well-being over the last several years. In tandem with reforms at the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), these improvements likely contributed to the long-term declines in foster care entries and census. Some data points, such as persistent racial disparities in poverty indicators, raise concerns that more children and families may experience child welfare interventions in coming years.

Read the brief here

Trends and Measurement in NYC Teen Reproductive Health

This brief focuses on teen pregnancy and births in New York City (NYC) to place the measures used in the Foster Youth Initiative in context. Consistent with national and statewide trends, the most widely used measures of teen pregnancy and birth rates show marked and sustained declines in NYC over the last ten years. Still, areas that have high rates of child maltreatment investigations have teen pregnancy and birth rates that can be twice as high as the citywide rate. This brief discusses trends in NYC, the potential impact on NYC’s foster care system, and a measure that may help track trends among NYC youth in foster care.

Read the brief here

Trends in NYC Youth Employment

This brief discusses trends in youth employment and workforce development to set the context for efforts to improve economic outcomes for New York City (NYC) foster youth. Several common measures have moved in positive directions in recent years. The number and rate of youth disconnected from school and work has dropped as has the youth unemployment rate, while hourly wage rates have risen. However, these improvements mask some troubling trends showing high youth unemployment and stagnant earnings as well as racial and geographic disparities. NYC has a robust set of youth workforce initiatives, including several targeted at foster youth. Workforce experts credit these programs for contributing to improvements, but the absence of greater gains among youth during the tightest labor market on record is cause for concern. The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will likely affect low-income youth of color disproportionately, erasing nearly all progress made in the rate of disconnection and increasing youth unemployment to pre-recession levels.

Read the brief here

Trends in NYC Education Outcomes

This brief focuses on trends among students in New York City’s (NYC) public schools to provide context for the efforts made to increase the educational advancement of NYC transition age youth in foster care. The high school graduation rate overall increased steadily over the past decade in NYC, consistent with NY State, and national trends. Additional markers of educational progress such as rates of attendance, dropping out, and college enrollment demonstrate significant improvements. Though NYC public school students have made significant progress overall, racial disparities remain.

Read the brief here

ACTION RESEARCH RELEASES A MID-EVALUATION REPORT ON OLDER YOUTH SERVICES IN NEW YORK CITY.

The Programs for Foster Youth Transitioning to Adulthood (FYTA) Evaluation: Mid-Evaluation Report provides a progress update of the first two years of the FYTA program and evaluation funded by the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative (CJII) of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (DANY) in New York City (NYC). The report describes the characteristics, histories, and experiences of youth under the auspice of the NYC Administration for Children Services (ACS) who transitioned to adulthood from foster care in the past few years, as well as the programmatic experiences of those youth who participated in DANY-funded programs designed to help prepare them for young adulthood. Program staff perspectives are presented with particular attention to their response to youths’ needs during the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests provoked by George Floyd’s death. Finally, indicators of program implementation are discussed.

Action Research Publishes Companion Article on Parent Representation in Child Welfare

A study published in Children and Youth Services Review (CYSR) by Action Research and the New York University School of Law  found that children spend significantly less time in foster care – with no compromise of safety – when their parents receive interdisciplinary law office representation.  CYSR recently published a companion article that describes findings from interviews with 42 practitioners in the New York City Family Court and 16 parents who had had a recent child protection case in the New York City Family Court.  Our analysis of these interviews identified three elements critical to the success of the interdisciplinary law office case practice approach: [1] uniform high-quality representation, [2] interdisciplinary practice, and [3] paying attention to the client’s well-being.  The study is the result of a three-year evaluation funded by Casey Family Programs.

Youth in Foster Care In New York City

Youth in Foster Care:

This brief describes some recent policy changes impacting teens and presents an analysis of initial placement patterns in one urban jurisdiction, New York City (NYC), that can inform potential responses to these changes. The brief then uses data from the federal AFCARS data system to compare NYC to other large urban jurisdictions on indicators such as how many teens live in foster care, the proportion of the foster care census composed of teens, and more. The analysis of data from NYC shows that some youth enter care and leave quickly, some stay longer, and still others are re-entering care after previous spells. Almost half of NYC teens are initially placed in residential care, but many of these teens either leave foster care or move to family foster care quickly. The characteristics of the New York foster teen population are similar in many respects to other large urban jurisdictions on the rate of teens in foster care, living in kinship placements, and living in residential care. These analyses have implications for the types of services, placements, and permanency plans for youth.

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Placing teens with siblings

Sibling relationships are emotionally influential in childhood and over the course of a lifetime. For children in foster care, sibling relationships often provide a much-needed source of continuity and support during periods of instability. Keeping a sibling group together throughout their time in care has implications for the placement stability and permanency outcomes of the children in the sibling group. This brief uses four years of data from New York City(NYC)to examine how often siblings entering care are placed together. We found that larger sibling groups and sibling groups with at least one teen are separated more often than smaller sibling groups and those with only younger children. This has implications for removal and placement practice by NYC’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), as well as areas for future research.

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Effects of an interdisciplinary approach to parental representation in child welfare

This study utilizes a quasi-experimental propensity score matching design to assess the causal impact on child welfare outcomes when parents facing an abuse or neglect case in the New York City Family Court were provided interdisciplinary law office representation as opposed to a standard panel attorney. The interdisciplinary law office approach includes social work staff and parent advocates for the parent, and salaried attorneys working in nonprofit organizations. Using administrative child welfare data, the study assesses the foster care and safety outcomes of 9582 families and their 18,288 children. The propensity score matched results do not indicate a preventive effect toward foster care entry nor any difference in children's likelihoods of experiencing a subsequent substantiated report of maltreatment. However, when children's parents received the interdisciplinary representation and those children did enter foster care, children spent 118 fewer days on average in foster care during the four years following the abuse or neglect case filing. Subsequent competing risk models show that children whose parents received the interdisciplinary law office model achieved overall permanency, reunification, and guardianship more quickly. These results provide evidence that interdisciplinary law office parental representation is an effective intervention to promote permanency for children in foster care.

Read the journal article

Trends in NYC Youth Employment

This brief discusses trends in youth employment and workforce development to set the context for efforts to improve economic outcomes for New York City (NYC) foster youth. Several common measures have moved in positive directions in recent years. The number and rate of youth disconnected from school and work has dropped as has the youth unemployment rate, while hourly wage rates have risen. These improvements mask some troubling trends showing youth participating in more part-time as opposed to full-time work and stagnant earnings. NYC has a robust set of youth workforce initiatives, including several targeted at foster youth. Workforce experts credit these programs for contributing to improvements, but the absence of greater gains among youth during the tightest labor market on record is cause for concern.

Read the article

Trends in New York City Education Outcomes

This brief focuses on trends among students in New York City’s (NYC) public schools to provide context for the efforts made to increase the educational advancement of NYC transition age youth in foster care. The high school graduation rate overall increased steadily over the past decade in NYC, consistent with NY State, and national trends. Additional markers of educational progress such as rates of attendance, dropping out, and college enrollment demonstrate significant improvements. Though NYC public school students have made significant progress overall, racial disparities remain.

The method used to calculate high school graduation rates for the general population is not applicable to foster youth, who often stay in foster care for short periods. As a result, NYC developed several alternate measures to track educational performance for this group over the past several years. Spurred in part by federal legislation, New York City initiated several new educational policies and services that impact foster youth. This brief touches on postsecondary outcomes such as college persistence and job readiness, which could be an additional area to explore in future briefs.

Read the article

Trends among New York City Children and their Implications for Child Welfare

This brief discusses some of the trends among New York City’s (NYC) children and families that may impact the future of child welfare services in NYC, including transition age youth in foster care. Most trends among NYC’s children and families show marked improvements in living conditions and child well-being over the last several years. In tandem with reforms at the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), these improvements likely contributed to the long-term declines in foster care entries and census. Some data points, such as the increase in children living in concentrated poverty, raise concerns that more children and families may experience child welfare interventions.

Read the article

Trends and Measurement in New York City Teen Reproductive Health

This brief focuses on teen pregnancy and births in New York City (NYC) to place the measures used in the Foster Youth Initiative in context. Consistent with national and statewide trends, the most widely used measures of teen pregnancy and birth rates show marked and sustained declines in NYC over the last ten years. Still, areas that have high rates of child maltreatment investigations have teen pregnancy and birth rates that can be twice as high as the citywide rate. This brief discusses trends in NYC, the potential impact on NYC’s foster care system, and a measure that may help track trends among NYC youth in foster care.

Read the article

New York City Child Welfare: The Challenges of a New Year

This first policy brief focuses on the state of child welfare in New York City in 2018 and draws upon several sources including media and advocacy reports; experience with the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS, the city’s child welfare agency), other city agencies, and contracted service providers; and attendance at the January 22, 2018 forum entitled Toward a 21st Child Welfare System. The memo begins with a short discussion of the system’s strengths and looming challenges followed by a description of some of the strategies ACS uses to grapple with challenges faced by transition age youth (TAY). The memo then describes the topics of future policy briefs.

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Innovations in NYC Health and Human Services Policy: Data Integration and Cross-Agency Collaboration

During the last eight years, the city launched three innovative policy initiatives that use information technology and administrative data to integrate HHS processes in an effort to strengthen cross-agency policy development, increase the quality and efficiency of service delivery, and improve the outcomes of HHS clients. The city established an interagency research team in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, developed an online procurement and management system for health and human service agencies, and systems to coordinate the delivery of services. Significant progress has been made in moving the city closer to a modernized service system that integrates information across agencies, uses data to drive policy more effectively, makes informed decisions, and measures the outcomes of these services consistently and frequently.

This brief first outlines some of the problems with fragmentation that the policy initiatives aimed at addressing. Next, it discusses the challenges these efforts have faced and the strategies used to tackle them. And finally, it looks ahead at lessons learned and forthcoming issues that will need attention. To produce this brief, the authors reviewed documents provided by the Mayor’s Office, interviewed key government and provider staff, and drew on their own professional experiences designing and evaluating health and human services and programs.

Read the article