Child Protective Service Involvement and Parental Economic Precarity: Investigating the Role of Frontline Workers

Background: Child welfare system involvement remains a critical mechanism for the perpetuation of economic and racial inequality in the United States, with low-income families and families of color disproportionately subjected to surveillance, investigation, and child removal (Fong, 2019; Kim et al., 2023; Roberts, 2002, 2022). Evidence increasingly points to a causal link between income poverty and CPS involvement (Thomas et al., 2023), though little research has specifically examined the immediate financial consequences for parents navigating this system. Once involved with CPS, parents frequently experience economic hardship tied to service requirements, schedule conflicts, lost employment, reduced public benefits, and child support enforcement (Berger et al., 2024; Cancian et al., 2017; Hook et al., 2016; Nadon, 2024; Thomas & Nadon, forthcoming). These burdens are shaped not only by policy but by frontline worker discretion – an underexplored, but pivotal, point of intervention in the production of economic hardship for families.

Purpose: This study investigates how frontline child welfare workers understand and influence the economic impacts of CPS involvement for parents. Specifically, we ask: (1) How do frontline child welfare workers describe the economic consequences parents face when navigating the child welfare system?; and (2) How, if at all, do frontline workers use their professional discretion to shape the economic impacts of the child welfare system for parents?

Methods: Our study employs an exploratory thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006), grounded in semi-structured qualitative interviews with 30 frontline child welfare workers and supervisors across public and private agencies in both urban (Chicago) and non-urban (Champaign) Illinois. Participants were recruited via agency partnerships and professional networks. Interviews were audio-recorded, professionally transcribed using a human transcription service, and coded through an inductive, consensus-driven process involving multiple researchers. Our analytic strategy centered on identifying emergent themes that reflected both the diversity and consistency of frontline workers’ understandings, decisions, and actions impacting parents’ financial wellbeing.

Results: Early findings indicate that workers widely recognize economic barriers for CPS-involved parents but report substantial variation in the provision of supports and enforcement of financial sanctions. Findings highlight inconsistencies rooted in agency policies, worker judgment, and geographic context, revealing how discretionary actions both mitigate and reinforce systemic economic inequality.

Conclusion/Implications: This study offers compelling insights into points of intervention at the policy and practice level to improve economic outcomes for CPS-impacted parents. By centering the perspectives and practices of frontline CPS workers, this study offers novel insight into neglected policy mechanisms driving social and economic inequality for child welfare-involved families. Our results yield critical evidence for policymakers, administrators, and advocates seeking to reduce inequity in the child welfare system and advance economic security for affected parents and children.