Children's Bureau Website - Illinois - Assisted Guardianship

Illinois

Demonstration Type:	Assisted Guardianship - Phase II¹
Approval Date:	January 1, 2004²
Implementation Date:	June 30, 2005
Expected Completion Date:	December 31, 2008
Interim Evaluation Report Received:	February 14, 2008³
Final Evaluation Report Expected:	June 30, 2009

Background

Illinois' original five-year assisted guardianship demonstration was approved September 22, 1996. In January 2004, the Children's Bureau granted Illinois a five-year extension of the project through December 31, 2008. Under its Phase II demonstration, Illinois continues to implement its "standard" assisted guardianship program and has added an "enhanced program" component that provides independent living and transitional services to older wards (youth ages 14 or older) who achieve permanency through adoption or guardianship.

Target Population

To participate in either the standard or enhanced program components, children must have been in the legal custody of the State for at least one year and have resided with a prospective guardian for a minimum of 12 consecutive months. Children may participate in either program component without regard to title IV-E eligibility. Although the demonstration focuses on children living with relatives, children living in licensed non-relative foster homes may also enroll in the demonstration.

To participate in the standard guardianship program, children living in the home of an unrelated foster parent must be at least 12 years of age; there is no age requirement for children living in kinship foster homes.

The enhanced guardianship program component focuses on a subset of children eligible for the State's standard guardianship program. Specifically, the enhanced program targets (1) youth in the experimental group of the standard guardianship program who have attained or will attain the age of 14 but have not been adopted or entered into guardianship; and (2) other youth currently in foster care, or who enter foster care during the demonstration period, who are 14 years of age or older and meet all other eligibility requirements of the standard subsidized guardianship option.

Jurisdiction

Illinois continues to implement the standard guardianship component statewide. The enhanced program was originally implemented in Central Cook County (Chicago), East St. Louis, and Peoria. In February 2006, Illinois received approval from the Children's Bureau to expand the enhanced program to include all eligible children statewide. Statewide expansion of this program component began in April 2006.

Intervention

Standard Guardianship Program

Under its standard guardianship program, Illinois offers relative caretakers and licensed, non-relative foster parents the option of assuming legal guardianship of eligible children in their care. Specific services offered under the standard guardianship program are highlighted below.

Pre-Guardianship Services: Services available in preparation for guardianship include home studies, preliminary screenings, and counseling on guardianship. During the process of completing the guardianship, the State provides up to $500 as a one-time, non-recurring payment to cover expenses related to the establishment of the guardianship subsidy agreement and the transfer of guardianship to the relative or non-relative caregiver.
Post-Guardianship Services: After the establishment of the guardianship subsidy agreement, the guardian receives, on behalf of the child, a monthly subsidy that does not exceed the State's foster care board rate. Services that may be part of the guardianship agreement include a Medicaid card; counseling or other services not payable through other sources that are related to a child's pre-existing physical, emotional, or mental health condition; therapeutic daycare; and employment-related daycare for children under the age of three. Additional services that are available and do not need to be documented in the guardianship subsidy agreement include adoption preservation services and respite care.

Enhanced Guardianship Program

Under the Enhanced Guardianship Program component, eligible youth in the experimental group who enter guardianship or who are adopted at age 14 or older are offered the same services available to youth who "age out" of foster care without achieving permanency. Specific services available to eligible youth include the following:

Education and Training Vouchers provide up to $5,000 each fiscal year to cover tuition payments for post-secondary educational or vocational programs.
Employment Incentive Program provides a monthly subsidy for a maximum of 12 months and a Medicaid card. Limited, one-time funding is also available for work-related items associated with the start of new employment.
Housing Cash Assistance covers the cost of housing security deposits, provides rental assistance when the youth cannot make the payment, and offers a partial housing subsidy for up to one year following a youth's emancipation.
Life Skills Training consists of group or individual instruction designed to teach independent living skills.
Youth in College and Vocational Training Program supports young people pursuing higher education or vocational training through a monthly stipend and a Medicaid card. Benefits are available until the earlier of four years or the attainment of an AA or BA degree.

Evaluation Design

The evaluation of the Phase II waiver demonstration focuses on the enhanced guardianship program component and includes process and outcome components, as well as a cost analysis. Using an experimental research design with random assignment at a 1:1 ratio, youth in the experimental group are offered enhanced guardianship services while youth in the control group remain enrolled in or eligible for the standard guardianship program.

Random assignment for the enhanced program was originally limited to the sub-regions of Central Cook County (Chicago), East St. Louis, and Peoria. In conjunction with the statewide expansion of the enhanced program, the State has now implemented random assignment statewide.

Outcome Evaluation

The key research hypotheses addressed by the State's evaluation of the enhanced guardianship program include the following:

The enhanced subsidized guardianship program will be accepted by a greater percentage of youth and caregivers who are offered this option than those who accept the standard subsidized guardianship program.
The demonstration will result in better long-term outcomes for youth in terms of educational status, employment, and other measures of successful independent living.
The proportion of youth who are wait-listed for independent living and transition services will be the same in the experimental and control groups, as well as in comparison with other youth 14 years of age or older in foster care.
The demonstration will result in fewer children remaining in long-term foster care with ongoing administrative oversight.
Youth in the experimental group will experience fewer disrupted placements than youth in the control group.
Youth in the experimental group will not experience a higher rate of subsequent substantiated reports of abuse or neglect than youth in the control group.

Data Collection

To address outcomes specific to the enhanced guardianship component, the State's evaluators are conducting interviews with eligible youth and their caregivers. As of January 1, 2008 approximately 900 youth and caregiver interviews have been completed in the three study regions. Additional data on youth assigned to the enhanced program are being collected from the State's Automated Child Welfare Information System to address questions regarding permanency rates, the quantity and types of services received, subsequent maltreatment reports, and placement disruptions.

Evaluation Findings

Process Evaluation

Between June 2005 and July 2007, 3,079 eligible youth have been assigned to the demonstration, with 810 youth coming from the three study regions and 2,269 youth coming from other parts of the State. Of the 810 youth in the three study regions, 400 were assigned to the experimental group and 410 were assigned to the control group. In the statewide study, 1,143 youth were assigned to the experimental group and 1,126 youth were assigned to the control group.

The process evaluation has uncovered distinct differences between the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) staff and court personnel regarding their perceptions of the waiver and the benefits of permanency for older youth. Major themes that emerged through focus groups and interviews are noted below:

Caseworkers and supervisors expressed support for subsidized guardianship and perceive the waiver as positive. However, they seemed unclear about the mix of services available to youth in the experimental and control groups. In addition, the waiver's experimental research design was not well understood by many caseworkers.
DCFS staff appeared more knowledgeable about the waiver and were more likely to report having received training on the waiver than private agency staff.
In general, judges were not well informed about the waiver. Attorneys and guardians ad litem were better informed about the waiver, but often did not understand the differences in service eligibility between the experimental and control groups. In addition, they expressed a preference for adoption as a more permanent option than subsidized guardianship.

Outcome Evaluation

To allow adequate time for the waiver to have an effect on outcomes, the State noted in its January 2008 Interim Evaluation Report that the outcome analysis included only those youth eligible for the waiver through the end of 2006. Therefore, 708 youth from the three study regions and 1,857 youth statewide were included in the outcome analysis presented in the interim report.

As of January 2008, only small differences between the experimental and control group have been found in key outcomes of interest (permanency rates, placement duration, maltreatment recurrence, and child well-being). The evaluators note that none of the findings included in the Interim Evaluation Report are statistically significant; however, preliminary findings include the following:

From the three study regions, 12.2 percent of youth in the experimental group exited to subsidized guardianship compared to 8.9 percent of youth in the control group; net permanency rates (guardianship, reunification, and adoption combined) were 25.3 percent for the experimental group compared to 24.8 percent for the control group. Statewide, 10.6 percent of youth in the experimental group exited to subsidized guardianship compared to 7.9 percent of youth in the control group, with net permanency rates of 23 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
In the three study regions, the average time in foster care following assignment to the waiver until achieving permanency (or June 30, 2007, whichever came first) was 1.32 years for youth in the experimental group and 1.31 years for youth in the control group. Percentages in the statewide group were slightly lower at 1.09 years for youth in the experimental group versus 1.10 years for youth in the control group.
Youth assigned to the experimental group were no more likely to experience maltreatment recurrence prior to the achievement of permanence. In the three study regions, 1.1 percent of youth in both the experimental and control groups had a repeat maltreatment allegation following assignment; in the statewide group, the rates were 1.6 percent for the experimental group and 1.3 percent for the control group.
Overall, 83 percent of youth assigned to the demonstration in the three study regions had completed or were attending high school. This proportion was slightly higher in the experimental group but not statistically significant. Attendance rates in the statewide group were similar and differences between the experimental and control groups were not significant.
Through interviews, 90 percent of youth and caregivers reported that the youths' health status was excellent or good and 90 percent of youth reported that they liked living with their caregivers most or all of the time.

Additional outcome findings will become available as implementation continues.

Web Links

The Illinois Guardianship Demonstration Final Report (for the project's first five years) is available at: http://cfrcwww.social.uiuc.edu/pubs/Pdf.files/sgfinalreport.pdf (PDF - 1010 KB)

¹ Based on information submitted by the State as of February 2008. Back

² Illinois completed Phase I of this demonstration on December 31, 2003. Back

³ Interim evaluation findings are being submitted by the State in two parts. A second Interim Evaluation Report is expected to be submitted by the State in Spring 2008. Back

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