Running to Keep in Place: The Continuing Evolution of Our Nation's Child Welfare System

An Urban InstituteProgram to AssessChanging Social PoliciesOccasional Paper Number 54Assessingthe NewFederalismRunning to Keep in Place:The ContinuingEvolution of Our Nation’sChild WelfareSystemKarin MalmRoseana BessJacob Leos-UrbelRobert GeenThe Urban InstituteTeresa MarkowitzOn the Mark, Inc.Running to Keep in Place:The ContinuingEvolution of Our Nation’sChild WelfareSystem Running to Keepin Place: The Continuing Evolution of OurNation’s ChildWelfare SystemKarin MalmRoseana BessJacob Leos-UrbelRobert GeenThe Urban InstituteTeresa MarkowitzOn the Mark, Inc.Occasional Paper Number 54An Urban Institute Program to Assess Changing Social PoliciesThe Urban Institute2100MStreet,N.W.Washington,DC20037Phone:202.833.7200ax:202.429.0687E-Mail:paffairs@ui.urban.orghttp://www.urban.org Copyright © October 2001. The Urban Institute. All rights reserved. Except for short quotes, no part of thisbook may be reproduced in any form or utilized in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, includingphotocopying, recording, or by information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from theUrban Institute.This paper is part of the Urban Institute’s Assessing the New Federalismproject, a multiyear project to monitorand assess the devolution of social programs from the federal to the state and local levels. Alan Weil is the pro-ject director. The project analyzes changes in income support, social services, and health programs. In collabo-ration with Child Trends, the project studies child and family well-being.The paper has received funding from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, TheRobert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The Davidand Lucile Packard Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Charles StewartMott Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, the Stuart Foundation, the WeingartFoundation, The Fund for New Jersey, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, andThe Rockefeller Foundation.The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consid-eration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, itstrustees, or its funders.The authors wish to thank Jane Waldfogel, Ying-Ying Yuan, Matthew Stagner, Marti Burt, and Alan Weil for pro-viding insightful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. In addition, the authors would like to thank JenniferEhrle, Lynne Fender, and Martha Steketee, who contributed to this report’s data collection effort. Most impor-tantly, the authors would like to thank the many state and local administrators, supervisors, caseworkers, andcommunity representatives whom we interviewed, who gave so generously of their time. Assessing the New Federalismis a multiyear Urban Institute projectdesigned to analyze the devolution of responsibility for social programsfrom the federal government to the states, focusing primarily on healthcare, income security, employment and training programs, and social ser-vices. Researchers monitor program changes and fiscal developments. In collaborationwith Child Trends, the project studies changes in family well-being. The project aimsto provide timely, nonpartisan information to inform public debate and to help stateand local decisionmakers carry out their new responsibilities more effectively.Key components of the project include a household survey, studies of policies in 13states, and a database with information on all states and the District of Columbia,available at the Urban Institute’s Web site (http://www.urban.org). This paper isone in a series of occasional papers analyzing information from these and othersources. ContentsExecutive Summary viiIntroduction 1The System: Still Crisis Oriented and Unstable 2Concerns and Criticisms about Quality and Capacity 3Changes in Leadership and Mission 5Child Welfare Reforms 6Greater Oversight and Accountability 7New Practice Initiatives 8Resource Capacity of Child Welfare Systems 10Resource Capacity of Other Systems Affecting Child Welfare 14How Crises, Criticisms, and Reforms Have Affected Front-Line Practices 15Changes in Workload 15Changing Nature of the Job 17Summary and Discussion 19Notes 22References 24About the Authors 26 Executive SummaryAs part of the Urban Institute’s Assessing the New Federalism(ANF) project, in-depthcase studies were conducted in 12 states and multiple local sites in 1999 to documenthow welfare reform and other changes may be affecting child welfare agencies.1These case studies, a follow-up to case studies conducted in these same localities in1997, included in-person, semistructured interviews with a broad range of welfareand child