Project Abstract

In October 2008, the Children’s Bureau awarded a cooperative agreement to the American Humane Association and its partners, Walter R. McDonald & Associates, Inc., and the Institute of Applied Research, to operate the National Quality Improvement Center on Differential Response in Child Protective Services (QIC-DR). All three organizations have been pioneers in advancing knowledge about differential response nationally and within States, and are uniquely positioned to collaborate and complement each other’s experiences and networks. The American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law and the National Conference of State Legislatures are contributing their expertise to enhance the QIC’s project activities and thus, the quality of child protective services (CPS).

The purposes of this project are to:

1. Design and conduct evaluation, to rigorously study implementation, outcomes and cost impact of differential response in research and demonstration sites;
2. Learn if differential response is an effective approach in CPS; and
3. Build cutting-edge, innovative and replicable knowledge about differential response, including guidance on best practices in differential response.

Throughout the five years of this project, information gained from the QIC-DR will be disseminated to:

• The Children’s Bureau
• Research and demonstration sites
• Public and private child welfare agencies
• Child abuse prevention organizations
• Family support agencies and family resource centers
• Mental health, domestic violence, economic development and other system partners
• Legislators, judges and other legal professionals
• National foundations and advocacy groups
• Members of the training and technical assistance network.

Project Approach

The QIC-DR has a two-phase approach. Through a needs assessment, Phase I focused on the identification of knowledge gaps, service gaps, research priorities and experimental design. In October 2009, Phase II began and focuses on the implementation of the research design in three research and demonstration (R&D) sites — Colorado, Illinois and Ohio — and dissertation research. The QIC-DR will disseminate the most current and state-of-the-art information to practitioners, policymakers, administrators and researchers. Using a collaborative approach, the QIC-DR serves as a laboratory for innovation, application and learning.

The QIC-DR project team and the Children’s Bureau drew upon the expertise of families and leaders in the field at the Federal, State and community levels, as well as a National Advisory Committee, to guide and select the research focus for the three sites. The R&D sites will ultimately work to answer the following questions:

1. Are children whose families participate in the non-investigation pathway as safe as or safer than children whose families participate in the investigation pathway?
2. How is the non-investigation pathway different from the investigation pathway in terms of family engagement, caseworker practice and services provided?
3. What are the cost and funding implications to the child protection agency of the implementation and maintenance of a differential response approach?

The QIC-DR Goals

1. To promote innovation, evidence-based practice improvements and advancement of knowledge about child welfare outcomes through experimental control group design with random assignment that tests practice models of differential response.
2. To establish a national collaborative information-sharing network, resource and peer learning community on differential response and its related child welfare outcomes, and use multiple networks to aggressively disseminate information gained through this QIC.
3. To gain, disseminate and support the application and replication of knowledge at multiple levels regarding the identification of the core elements that support successful implementation of differential response, and the viability of differential response as an effective practice model in CPS.
4. To supplement rigorous research that will be undertaken by the sites and crosssite evaluators by supporting doctoral dissertations on differential response that can also contribute to building knowledge and answering key questions about this and related child welfare reform efforts.

Phase I - Year 1

Conducting a national needs assessment:

During Phase I, the QIC-DR, in cooperation with the Children’s Bureau, completed a comprehensive review of existing knowledge on differential response in child protective services through a literature review, legal and legislative analysis, information summits on relevant topic areas with experts in the field, interviews and focus groups, and listening sessions with families and tribal representatives. The website for the project (www.DifferentialResponseQIC.org) houses all of these products as well as a searchable annotated bibliography.

Phase II - Years 2-5

Administering projects:

Colorado, Illinois and Ohio were selected as R&D sites through a competitive process to implement differential response and conduct local evaluations of their differential response model and cooperate with the cross-site evaluation. Each R&D site will develop strategies to meaningfully gain feedback from family consumers about their experiences with the CPS agency’s differential response approach to inform practice, policy and system enhancements. The QIC-DR will provide ongoing technical assistance to the R&D sites and will facilitate the development of an information-sharing network among sites. In addition, with guidance from the Academic Scholars Panel, the QIC-DR will support up to four doctoral students for two years of dissertation research to create additional knowledge and more scholarly evidence about differential response.

Evaluating process and outcomes:

A cross-site evaluation will be conducted that will include process (implementation and fidelity), child and family outcomes, and cost study components. The outcomes study will use a randomized control trial (RCT) methodology. Core components of the evaluation will be comparable across sites, and will be fully incorporated into the local evaluation design. The QIC-DR will supply technical assistance and support to the local evaluators in the collection of data. Lessons learned from the implementation study will also be documented.

Disseminating knowledge:

To help build a knowledge-development process and engage the field, information will be shared in a timely manner throughout all stages of the initiative. Products from Phase I will be updated as necessary and continually shared with different audiences. Initial findings from R&D sites on their implementation process, strengths and challenges will also be disseminated. Finally, information on outcomes achieved through the cross-site evaluation will be shared nationally and site-specific outcomes will be synthesized and disseminated as they become available.