Evaluation of NC Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration

Under a federal waiver of Title IV-E regulations, 38 volunteer counties in North Carolina used Title IV-E funds to develop and implement strategies for improving outcomes for children who are at risk of entering out-of-home care. The demonstration began on July 1, 1997 and expanded from 19  to 38 counties effective October 2004.  An evaluation team based at UNC’s Jordan Institute for Families prepared a report assessing the impact of the wavier on the rate of entries to out-of-home care, lengths of stay, and reentry to care for the period from 1997 through 2001.  Based on the results of that study, the Children’s Bureau decided to authorize the expansion of the demonstration and to extend it until 2009.

The evaluation of the original demonstration was conducted in several stages and utilized a variety of research methods. North Carolina’s longitudinal child welfare database provided the basis for assessing progress toward key outcomes of the waiver demonstration. With the database it is possible to estimate the risk of out-of-home placement in each county among children who have experienced an initial substantiated report of abuse and/or neglect, and then to compare differences in outcomes in demonstration and comparison counties. The placement database supported similar analyses of length of stay and reentry to care.  A cost analysis tracked expenditures for out-of-home care and program administration for the duration of the demonstration. The benefits of the demonstration were measured in terms of improving the safety of children while reducing reliance on out-of-home care, reducing lengths of stay, and improving permanency outcomes within current cost levels.

The database describing children’s experiences in out-of-home care was initially constructed for an evaluation of the Families for Kids initiative in North Carolina, sponsored by the W.K Kellogg Foundation, It now encompasses the experiences of more than 30,000 children who initially entered out-of-home care after July 1, 1991, as well as all children who were subjects of reports of abuse and neglect from the mid-1980s to the present. Information developed from the database provides county and state administrators the information necessary to plan, implement, and evaluate programs directed to these children and their families.  The most recent data for each county can be obtained on-line from a Website supported by the Division of Social Services.

Sponsor:  NC Dept of Health and Human Services

Principal Investigator:  Lynn Usher