Evaluating Innovations in Child Welfare
Currently, we are evaluating programs that focus on enabling foster youth to make successful transitions to adulthood in New York City. For the first time, New York City will be able to see education, employment, housing, and other outcomes for the entire population of youth “aging out” of foster care and how they have changed over time. In 2020, we completed the largest study of parent legal representation ever and found that an interdisciplinary team approach to parental representation that includes out-of-court engagement and pairs attorneys with social workers shortens stays in foster care without reducing safety. These and other evaluations built on our first evaluation, of the “Manage by Data” initiative in New Jersey, that focused on training staff to use information and analysis to solve common problems. For more information, click on the links below.
Foster youth transitioning to adulthood