Children at Risk in the Child Welfare System: Collaborations to Promote School Readiness (ICPSR 30821)

Version Date: Aug 21, 2013

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Principal Investigator(s):
Helen Ward, University of Southern Maine. Muskie School of Public Service. Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy; Sun Young Yoon, University of Southern Maine. Muskie School of Public Service. Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy; Erin Oldham, Oldham Innovative Research

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR30821.v2

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Summary

This mixed method, in-depth case study in Colorado examines the degree to which key players in the child welfare, early intervention/preschool special education (EI/Preschool SPED) and early care and education (ECE) systems (e.g. Head Start, preschool, child care centers, family child care homes) collaborate to meet the developmental needs of children ages 0-5 who are involved in the child welfare system. An ecological perspective serves as the conceptual framework to support the goals of the project and to guide the development of this study (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).

This research includes a quantitative analysis of data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (NSCAW, a nationally representative sample of children involved in the child welfare system). Additional quantitative research was conducted through two surveys (optional paper or on-line survey) in Colorado between 2005-2006: the Foster Parent Survey, a statewide survey of foster parents drawn from public and private agency lists of licensed families (n=266), and the Child Welfare Caseworker Survey, a statewide survey of child welfare caseworkers and caseworker supervisors drawn from public and private agency lists (n=339).

The qualitative component of this research was conducted through field study interviews, with professionals (Child Welfare, Early Intervention, and Early Care and Education) and foster and biological parents of children under 5 in the child welfare system. These interviews were conducted in Adams, Alamosa, Arapahoe, Conejos, and El Paso counties (n=134).

Citation

Ward, Helen, Yoon, Sun Young, and Oldham, Erin. Children at Risk in the Child Welfare System: Collaborations to Promote School Readiness. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2013-08-21. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR30821.v2

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Funding

United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (90YE0076)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

county

Restrictions

To protect respondent privacy, the public-use and restricted-use versions of the data differ in the amount of geographic, employment, and race/ethnicity detail provided. The restricted-use version contains variables with county, employment, and specific race/ethnicity information.

Access to parts of this study requires a signed User Agreement. To obtain the restricted files, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of the Restricted Data Use Agreement, found via ICPSR's online Restricted Data Access Request System, by clicking the "apply online for access to the data" link above.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2005 -- 2006

Date of Collection

2006-06 -- 2006-08

Data Collection Notes

  1. The quantitative analysis data from National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (NSCAW) and the qualitative research, the field study interviews, are not available to the public as a part of this data collection. The findings for both of these components are available in the Final Report.

  2. Due to statistical software limitations, some character variables have been truncated.

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Sample

This was a convenience sample as lists of names were provided by compliant agencies. There was no attempt to choose a random sample of counties.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

All licensed foster parents in 31 of 64 Colorado counties that complied with our request for names on their public lists; 7 out of 25 private agencies also provided their agency lists.

All child welfare caseworkers and supervisors in 54 of 64 Colorado counties that complied with our request for names on their public lists; 7 out of 25 private agencies also provided their lists. Agencies were asked to provide names of those serving children 0-5 in the previous 12 months.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

Response rate for the foster parent survey was 38 percent; for the child welfare caseworker survey, 32 percent.

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Original Release Date

2013-02-28

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Ward, Helen, Sun Young Yoon, and Erin Oldham. Children at Risk in the Child Welfare System: Collaborations to Promote School Readiness. ICPSR30821-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2013-08-06. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR30821.v2

2013-08-21 Updated R statistical package files for Child Welfare Caseworker Survey Public Data, Foster Parent Survey Restricted Data, and Child Welfare Caseworker Survey Restricted Data.

2013-08-06 Public use files are now available for download. Certain string variables in the restricted files have also been converted to numeric variables.

2013-02-28 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Performed consistency checks.
  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Standardized missing values.
  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.

CFDA logo

This study is maintained and distributed by the Child and Family Data Archive (CFData). CFData hosts datasets about young children, their families and communities, and the programs that serve them. CFData is supported by Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), an office of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.