Watch: Overcoming Challenges to Evaluating Child Welfare Programs

A recent webi­nar pre­sent­ed by the Urban Insti­tute and spon­sored by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion explored approach­es to strength­en­ing eval­u­a­tion in child wel­fare ser­vices to more rapid­ly and prac­ti­cal­ly doc­u­ment what works.

Over­com­ing Chal­lenges to Eval­u­at­ing Child Wel­fare Pro­grams is based on a new series of briefs enti­tled From Evi­dence to Impact: Strength­en­ing Eval­u­a­tion in Child Wel­fare Ser­vice. Authors Michael Pergamit, Mark Court­ney and Brid­gette Lery hope the series helps facil­i­tate a more vig­or­ous dis­cus­sion of how to rapid­ly build evi­dence of what works in child wel­fare services.

Dur­ing the ses­sion, Pergamit, Court­ney, Lery and their guests high­light­ed strate­gies used in three states — Con­necti­cut, New Jer­sey and Wash­ing­ton — to strength­en the plan­ning, design and imple­men­ta­tion of eval­u­a­tions. Key take­aways included:

• Agen­cies need more capac­i­ty and staffing to con­duct and use eval­u­a­tions effectively.
• Fed­er­al eval­u­a­tion fund­ing is lim­it­ed and mis­aligned — greater, broad­er invest­ment is need­ed for capacity-building.
• Small or spe­cial­ized pro­grams require flex­i­ble eval­u­a­tion meth­ods beyond stan­dard models.
• Alter­na­tives to ran­dom­ized tri­als can bal­ance equi­ty con­cerns with effec­tive evaluation.
• Eval­u­a­tion should be built into pro­gram design from the start — not added later.
• Sus­tained eval­u­a­tion requires long-term com­mit­ment and con­sis­tent lead­er­ship communication.

Rig­or­ous eval­u­a­tion of child wel­fare pro­grams and ser­vices is nec­es­sary to build evi­dence that deliv­er intend­ed results. Eval­u­a­tions help pub­lic and pri­vate agen­cies improve the lives of the chil­dren, youth and fam­i­lies they serve while demon­strat­ing account­abil­i­ty to fun­ders, tax­pay­ers and communities.

“It is essen­tial to doc­u­ment what works for whom and what can be improved,” said Alli­son Holmes, senior research asso­ciate in the Foundation’s Research, Eval­u­a­tion, Evi­dence and Data unit. Sup­port­ing approach­es to acquir­ing this vital infor­ma­tion is part of the Foundation’s mission.”