|
|---|
|
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|||
| ACF Home | Services | Working with ACF | Policy/Planning | About ACF | ACF News | HHS Home | ||||
Questions?
|
Privacy
|
Site Index
|
Contact Us
|
Download Reader™
|
Print
|
|---|
| Demonstration Type: | Intensive Services |
| Approved: | March 31, 2006 |
| Expected Implementation Date: | December 31, 2007 |
| Expected Completion Date: | Last day of the 20th quarter after implementation |
| Interim Evaluation Report Expected: | (Date Pending) |
| Final Evaluation Report Expected: | (Date Pending) |
As originally approved, Michigan’s intensive services demonstration was designed to target title IV-E-eligible and non-IV-E-eligible children who were (1) at risk of entering out-of-home placement or whose adoption arrangements were at risk of dissolution; (2) currently in or who entered relative or non-relative placement; (3) if part of an adoptive family, had been placed outside the home prior to finalization of the adoption; or (4) were placed in an institutional or congregate care setting. The State has since proposed to narrow the target population of its demonstration to focus on title IV-E-eligible foster care children in long-term, high-cost foster care, including children placed in congregate care settings. This target population may be expanded following implementation of the waiver demonstration.
Michigan currently plans to implement its demonstration in four counties—Wayne, Kent, Ingham, and Genessee.
Through its intensive services waiver, the State will implement a focused treatment system to ensure that children and families are assessed for, referred to, and receive needed services in a consistent and appropriate manner. The intervention involves delegating as much direct authority as possible to caseworkers to use flexible IV-E dollars to manage and provide services for long-term/high-cost foster care cases. Using this decentralized decision-making model, caseworkers may choose from an inventory of specified services to deescalate children from institutional placements or reunify children with their families.
A second component of the demonstration involves the implementation of a “Model Integrity Management” (MIM) quality assurance system overseen by a team of child welfare supervisors and managers. Specific responsibilities of the MIM Team will include (1) establishing clear practice guidelines for the delivery of enhanced waiver services; (2) reviewing case management and service delivery practices in experimental child welfare district offices and counties; and (3) implementing practice, procedural, or policy changes as needed to maximize fidelity to the service model operated under this demonstration.
A third demonstration component will involve the creation of a “Data Model” to systematically target cases for enhanced waiver services. Through the use of structured, longitudinal administrative data sets and established rules for targeting long-term/high-cost cases, the Data Model will allow the Model Integrity Management (MIM) Team to identify eligible cases and delegate them to case managers in an efficient and effective manner.
Michigan’s evaluation will include process and outcome components, as well as a cost analysis. As originally approved, the evaluation plan incorporated a two-stage matched comparison group design in which (1) child welfare districts and counties designated as experimental sites were to be matched with comparable districts and counties using selected demographic matching variables, and (2) child welfare cases in the experimental sites were to be matched with cases in comparison sites using selected case-level matching variables (e.g., maltreatment risk level and placement type). At the present time, the State is in the process of revising the research design for the evaluation of the waiver demonstration.
Sample Size
There are approximately 4,000 children in out-of-home placement in the four counties designated for waiver implementation and, of these, the State estimates that 1,200 children are in title IV-E-eligible foster care placements. The initial research sample for the waiver’s evaluation will be a subset of these children in IV-E-eligible placements.
Process Evaluation
Michigan’s evaluation will include interim and final process analyses that describe how demonstration activities and services were implemented and how these differed from the services received by children and families that do not participate in the waiver demonstration.
Outcome Evaluation
The State’s outcome evaluation will compare cases in the experimental and comparison sites for significant differences in child safety, permanency, and placement stability. Major outcome measures of interest include the following:
Cost Study
Michigan’s cost study will examine the costs of key elements of waiver-funded services received by children living in experimental sites and then compare these costs with those of the usual services received by children living in comparison sites. The cost analysis will examine the use of key funding sources, including Federal titles IV-A, IV-B, IV-E and XIX of the Social Security Act, as well as State and local funds. In addition, the State will conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis to identify costs per successful outcome for the experimental and comparison groups. This analysis may be conducted using one or more key outcome measures in which significant differences between the experimental and comparison groups are identified.
Initial evaluation findings are pending implementation of Michigan’s demonstration.
Back to Table of Contents
