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Home > Programs & Funding > Profiles of the Child Welfare Waiver Demonstration Projects > Montana - Assisted Guardianship/Kinship Permanence

Montana¹

Demonstration Type:	Assisted Guardianship/Kinship Permanence
Approved:	September 29, 1998
Implemented:	June 21, 2001
Completed:	Expected March 31, 2006
Interim Evaluation Report Date:	NA2
Final Evaluation Report Date:	Expected March 31, 2007

Target Population

Montana’s Assisted Guardianship/Kinship Permanence demonstration targets title IV-E eligible children in State or Tribal custody. To be eligible to participate in the demonstration, children must have been in foster care, be designated as a “child with special needs,” and placed with the prospective guardian for at least six months.

Initially, the Assisted Guardianship demonstration was restricted to children age 12 or older. However, the State’s waiver agreement was amended in September 2002 to include siblings of any age, and age requirements were eliminated completely in year three of the demonstration.

Jurisdiction

Montana has implemented its demonstration statewide and with seven Tribes.

Intervention

Guardianship allows caretakers to assume legal responsibility for a child while retaining the child’s title IV-E eligibility. In Montana, either the State or a Tribal court (depending on jurisdiction) can approve guardianships. The guardianship subsidy amount may not exceed the foster care payment amount. Additional social, financial, and medical services and supports are available to participating families that parallel those services and supports available to adoptive families.

Evaluation Design

The evaluation consists of process and outcome components, as well as a cost analysis. Using an experimental research design with random assignment, the State assigns children to experimental or control groups at a ratio of 3:1 for both the State and Tribal populations. To the extent possible, siblings groups are kept together during the random assignment process.

Over the five years of the demonstration, Montana expects a total sample size of 180 children in the experimental group and 60 children in the control group. Of the children in the experimental group, 80 are expected to be from the State child welfare system and 100 from the Tribal child welfare system.

Montana’s evaluation plan tracks the following permanency and safety-related outcome measures:

• Number of children in long-term foster care with administrative oversight;
• Number of disrupted placements; and
• Rate of subsequent reports of abuse and/or neglect.

Using a survey instrument for caseworkers called the Youth Status Report (YSR), along with separate surveys for caregiver and youth, Montana is also tracking several dimensions of child well-being:

• Stability;
• Academic performance and attendance;
• Safety and risk behaviors;
• Access to services and supports/satisfaction with services and supports; and
• Overall quality of life.

Since September 2002, Montana has collected data on child well-being outcomes using the Youth Status Report (YSR) for child welfare workers and separate surveys for children aged 12 and over and their caregivers. The State administers these surveys to workers, youth, and caregivers on an annual basis. Response rates for the first administration of surveys were quite low, ranging from about 33 percent for the youth and caregiver surveys to 50 percent for the worker-completed YSR. Since this first administration, response rates have improved to about 50 percent for the youth and caregiver surveys and 70 percent for the worker-completed YSR.

Evaluation Findings

Process Findings

The first guardianship was put into effect on June 21, 2001. As of September 30, 2004, 159 children have gone through the random assignment process. Of these, 26 have been assigned to the control group and 133 to the experimental group. Guardianships have been established for 52 children in the experimental group; 16 of these guardianships are for American Indian children, only one of whom resides on a reservation. As of September 30, 2004, 113 children remained active in the demonstration, with 29 children having aged out and 17 having left the demonstration for other reasons.

As part of the process evaluation, the State’s evaluators are conducting annual interviews with caregivers and youth regarding their impressions of and experiences with the Montana subsidized guardianship demonstration project. The latest wave of interviews occurred between June and September 2004 with 36 caregivers and 22 youth. In addition, 45 child welfare works and 12 supervisors were interviewed in September 2004 regarding their impressions of Montana’s subsidized guardianship program.

Advantages of Guardianship

The advantages of assisted guardianship over long- term foster care most often mentioned by interviewees included:

• The guardian’s enhanced ability to make decisions regarding the child’s education, welfare, health care, etc.

• Greater permanence and stability for youth.

• Enhanced well-being for youth. For example, youth reported less stress because they experienced fewer moves or changes in placement settings. In addition, both youth and child welfare workers noted the psychological benefits of independence from the child welfare system and freedom from the stigma of being a “foster kid.”

Disadvantages of Guardianship

Interviewees also described several disadvantages of participation in the assisted guardianship program:

• The loss of the subsidy when a youth turns 18, even if he/she has not finished high school. Other financial disincentives include a loss of funding for postsecondary education programs, independent living services, respite care, transportation, clothing and school allowances, and extra supports for children with special needs.

• Several child welfare workers expressed concerns about guardianship being a less stable permanency option than adoption. As an example, some cited the possibility of a biological parent attempting to regain legal custody of his/her child if parental rights have not been terminated, thereby increasing the risk of the child’s guardianship arrangement being disrupted.

Barriers to the Establishment of Guardianship

Child welfare staff and supervisors noted several barriers to the successful establishment of guardianships:

• The initial placement with the caregiver breaks down after the family is assigned to the experimental group. In some instances, the subsequent placement proves stable and a guardianship is eventually established. In other cases, the child remains in long-term foster care.

• Internal process problems within the child welfare or judicial systems, such as delays in completing paperwork or postponements in court hearings.

• Caregivers decline guardianship after becoming concerned about assuming legal liability for children placed with them.

• Staff turnover. During staff shortages, the child welfare system places more emphasis on families in crisis situations. Because children awaiting guardianship tend to be in stable placement settings, they are no longer a top priority for child welfare workers.

• Inadequate training and education regarding assisted guardianship. For example, many interviewees did not understand one or more of the basic components of the demonstration, even though the program had been presented at policy training meetings and guardianship procedures are documented in the State’s child welfare policy manual. Common misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge include unfamiliarity with the demonstration’s eligibility requirements, the title IV-E eligibility determination process, the assisted guardianship subsidy rate, and the evaluation’s random assignment process.

• Financial considerations. Greater access to expensive services, supports, and financial subsidies makes long-term foster care more attractive to some families.

• The needs of children with behavioral issues or special needs can be addressed more easily if they remain in foster care.

• Children age out of foster care before guardianship can be established.

• Ongoing concerns about the use of a random assignment design has lead some workers to “opt out” of the evaluation by not submitting the names of otherwise eligible children for assignment to the experimental or control groups. Opposition to random assignment has arisen in part due to some workers’ misunderstanding of random assignment procedures (see above), which the State hopes to address through better information dissemination and training.

Outcome Findings

The most recent analysis of data from surveys administered to youth, caregivers, and child welfare workers has revealed no statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in perceptions of stability and well-being, school performance, safety, engagement in risky behaviors, access to and satisfaction with services and supports, and overall quality of life. In addition, no statistically significant differences appear across these domains when survey scores are compared longitudinally over the first, second, and third years of the demonstration.

Although survey data have revealed few significant findings, caregivers and youth discussed their perceptions of the positive outcomes of assisted guardianship during interviews with evaluation staff:

• Permanency: Both caregivers and youth reported that as soon as the guardianship was established, they felt more attached and better assured of the stability of the placement.

• Child Well Being : Another frequently-cited positive outcome was an enhanced feeling of well-being. This feeling resulted from a greater sense of autonomy, permanence, and stability.

• Family Contact: Most caregivers expressed willingness to support the child’s desires to maintain contact with their parents. Almost universally and regardless of the type of placement (guardianship or foster care), youth commented that they wished they could have more contact with their birth family.

• Community Involvement: Caregivers described their efforts to involved youth in events in the community. Participation varied by location and the availability of activities, but youth in guardianship were generally more involved in community activities because of caregivers’ enhanced authority to make decisions regarding the child’s participation in recreational activities, sports, and religious or cultural events.

• School Performance: In most interviews, caregivers reported that youth had maintained school performance or had shown improvement in the past year or two. The caregivers who reported the most improvement tended to be those who had established guardianships.

Based on the survey data and feedback collected through interviews with families, tribal staff, and child welfare staff, Montana has proposed extending the guardianship subsidy through the end of high school, even if a youth turns 18 prior to high school completion.

¹ Based on information submitted by the State in its December 2004 Progress Report. Back
² Montana has submitted annual evaluation reports in lieu of an interim evaluation report. Back

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