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Home > Statistics & Research > Child Maltreatment Report 1999 > Chapter 5

 

CHAPTER 5 SERVICES

CPS agencies provide services to prevent future instances of child abuse and neglect and to remedy harm that has occurred as a result of child maltreatment.

Preventive services are provided to parents whose children are at risk of abuse or neglect. These services are designed to increase the parents' child-rearing competence and knowledge of the developmental stages of childhood.

Remedial services provided to families that have experienced a child maltreatment episode (post-investigative services) are offered by child welfare agencies or are ordered by the courts to assist children and their families and to ensure safety. Most commonly, they are based on an assessment of the family's strengths, weaknesses, and needs, which leads to the development of an appropriate plan to protect the child.

This chapter examines the number of children who received preventive services and the number who received post-investigative services. It also examines factors that may influence the provision of services.

5.1 PREVENTIVE SERVICES

Approximately 22.3 of every 1,000 children in the population were in families that received services to prevent child maltreatment. This rate yields a national estimate of 1,563,000 children who received preventive services. Because of the complexity of collecting data on preventive services, which are often provided through local community-based agencies, this number may be an undercount. (See table 5-1.)

The rate of children in the population in families that received preventive services for 1999 reflects an increase over the rate for 1997 and 1998. (See table 5-2.) Some of this increase may be attributable to increased or more accurate reporting. This trend will be tracked in the coming years.

Examples of preventive services include respite care; parenting education; housing assistance; substance abuse treatment; day care; home visits; individual and family counseling; and homemaker, transportation, crisis, and domestic violence services. These services are funded through a variety of programs, including the following Federal funding sources:

• Title IV-B, Subpart 2, Section 430, of the Social Security Act, as amended (Promoting Safe and Stable Families ) [42.U.S.C. 629 et seq.]. This legislation has the goal of keeping families together by funding such services as preventive intervention, so that children do not have to be removed from their homes, services to develop alternative placements if children cannot remain safely in the home, and reunification services to enable children to return to their homes, if appropriate.

• Title XX of the Social Security Act, Social Services Block Grant (SSBG)[42 U.S.C. 1397 et seq.]. States may use these funds for preventive services, such as child day care, child protective services, information and referral, counseling, and employment, as well as other services that meet the goal of preventing or remedying neglect, abuse, or exploitation of children.

• Section 106 of Title I of CAPTA, as amended [42 U.S.C 5106 et seq.]. The Child Abuse and Neglect State Grants provide funds to States to improve CPS systems. These grants serve as a catalyst to assist States in screening and investigating child abuse and neglect reports, improving risk and safety assessment protocols, training child protective service workers and mandated reporters, and improving services to infants disabled with life-threatening conditions.

• Title II of CAPTA, as amended [42 U.S.C. 5116 et seq.]. Community Based Family Resource and Support Grants assist each State in preventing child abuse and neglect and in promoting healthy parent-child relationships by developing, operating, expanding, and enhancing a network of community-based, prevention-focused resource and support programs that coordinate resources among a broad range of human services organizations.

5.2 REMEDIAL SERVICES

Remedial services may include family-based services (services provided to the entire family, such as counseling or family support), in-home services (such as family preservation), foster care services, and court services. Among the 14 States that provided data on State response time for providing services, the average time from the start of investigation to provision of service was 47.4 days. (See table 5-3.)

Post-investigative Services in General

In 1999, 55.8 percent of child victims received any post-investigative service. Applying this percentage from the 41 reporting States to the number of victims in the States that did not report on victims receiving services yields a national estimate of 461,000 child victims who received services. Of the children in unsubstantiated reports, 14.2 percent (an estimate of 217,000 children for 49 States) received post-investigative services. (See table 5-4.)

Foster Care Services

States varied widely on the percentage of child victims placed in foster care, ranging from 2.3 percent to 61.5 percent of child victims; the overall percentage was 20.7 percent (41 States reporting). Children in foster care may have been removed from their homes for other reasons, such as being in need of supervision or having committed a juvenile offense. Applying the percentage from the 41 reporting States to the number of victims in the States that did not report yields a national estimate of 171,000 child victims removed from their homes and placed in foster care. (See table 5-5.) In addition, 3.2 percent of the children in unsubstantiated reports (an estimated 49,000 children in 49 States) were placed in foster care.

Family Preservation Services and Reunification Services

Some victims of maltreatment had previously received family preservation services. Sixteen States reported SDC data on this topic. In those States, 21.2 percent of the child victims came from families that had received family preservation services in the 5 years prior to their 1999 report. (See table 5-6.)

Other victims of maltreatment had been previously reunified with their families. Twenty-one States reported data on this topic. In those States, 5.1 percent of the child victims had been reunited with their families in the previous 5 years after a stay in foster care.

Court Services

Court services, which include proceedings to determine temporary custody of the victim, guardianship of the victim, or disposition of State dependency petitions, were initiated for a quarter (26.1 percent) of the victims in the 32 States that reported SDC data on court actions. (See table 5-7.)

Fifteen States reported that 79.3 percent of child victims were provided with court-appointed representatives who were appointed to represent the best interests of the child.

Six States reported on the number of out-of-court contacts between the court-appointed representatives and the child victims. On average, court-appointed representatives met with the child victims they were representing 5.4 times. (See table 5-8.)

5.3 FACTORS INFLUENCING THE RECEIPT OF SERVICES (DCDC)

To examine whether characteristics of a child's case affect how that child is served in the child welfare system, factors influencing the receipt of services and factors influencing the removal of victims from their homes were examined using multi-variant analysis.

Receipt of Post-investigative Services

There are several possible reasons why data show that only some children and families receive services. One reason is that there may not be enough services available for families, or waiting lists may be long. Another reason is that, in many cases, services are offered to a family that can choose to accept or not accept them. A third reason is that information systems do not consistently track all types of services that a family may receive.

In addition to these reasons, it has been hypothesized that the characteristics of the child's case may influence whether or not he or she receives services. This hypothesis has been explored by using the case-level data to examine what factors influence whether a child has received services. Findings include the following:

• Victims of multiple maltreatments were 112 percent more likely than children who experienced physical abuse only to receive services. In contrast, victims of sexual abuse were 30 percent less likely than victims of physical abuse to receive services. (See table 5-9.)

• Prior victims of maltreatment were 78 percent more likely to receive services than those children with no prior victimization.

• African-American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic children were 45 percent, 19 percent, 23 percent, and 34 percent more likely, respectively, than White, non-Hispanic children to receive services.

• Children reported by educators and law enforcement personnel were 33 percent and 11 percent less likely, respectively, to receive services than children reported by social and mental health service professionals. Children reported by medical personnel were 17 percent more likely to receive services than children reported by social and mental health service professionals.

• All children older than age 3 were less likely than children ages birth to 3 to receive services.

• There was no relationship between a child's sex and the likelihood of receiving services.

Receipt of Foster Care Services

The factors associated with children being removed from the home and placed in foster care were very similar to the factors associated with children receiving services. Three areas in which there were differences are described below:

• Asian/Pacific Islander children were 42 percent less likely than White, non-Hispanic children to be placed in foster care. (In contrast, Asian/Pacific Islander children were 23% more likely than white children to receive any services.)

• Children reported by medical personnel were 10 percent less likely than children reported by social/mental health services professionals to be placed in foster care. (In contrast, children reported by medical personnel were 17% more likely than children reported by social/mental health services professionals to receive any services.)

• Children reported by law enforcement personnel were 19 percent more likely than children reported by social/mental health services professionals to be placed in foster care. (In contrast, children reported by law enforcement personnel were 11% less likely than children reported by social/mental health services professionals to receive any services).

These findings while based on large numbers of children, should be considered early endeavors to understand service dynamics. Future reports will explore this issue in additional depth.