Session: Improving Outcomes In the Child Welfare System: Harnessing the Power of Integrated Multi-Systems Data (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

Despite substantial changes in the size, structure, and policies of the child welfare system (CWS) over the past fifty years, old challenges linger and new problems have emerged. While advances in technology and computational social science enable the better use of data to inform system solutions, these advances remain underutilized without cross-sector data integration. This symposium features four studies that collectively provide an exemplar of what can be accomplished through such integration. Each study considers timely, policy-relevant questions that can only be answered by linking CWS records with healthcare and juvenile delinquency data.

Jones et al. (Paper 1) leverage Medicaid claims and CWS records to explore “service cliffs” following reunification from foster care. The study first describes how much – and how quickly – service utilization declines in the post-reunification period and then considers the potential contribution of service cliffs to persistently high rates of maltreatment recurrence and foster care reentry. Chen et al. (Paper 2) examine the impact of maternal Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) on maltreatment recurrence, foster care entry, and child injuries. This study is highly timely, given recent federal pronouncements qualifying MOUD as a "well-supported" service despite a lack of research on post-neonatal child safety.

Finally, Jacob et al. (Paper 3) and De Araujo Silva et al. (Paper 4) examine complex multi-system interactions. Jacob et al. use CWS and Medicaid data with multivariate logistic regression models to improve the identification and earlier treatment of “high-acuity” children—those whose unmet healthcare needs challenge family-based care. De Araujo Silva et al. apply sequence analysis to characterize trajectories of multi-system involvement across CWS, juvenile delinquency, and healthcare systems, providing a novel way to understand adolescent experiences.