Chapin Hall

National Survey Assesses Use of Economic and Concrete Supports to Prevent Child Welfare System Involvement

In collaboration with the American Public Human Services Association, Chapin Hall developed and administered a national landscape survey of child welfare leaders to better understand state leaders’ perceptions and practices regarding the use of economic and concrete supports in preventing involvement with the child welfare system.

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What We Did

The survey asked child welfare leaders five questions:

1. what they believe about economic need and child welfare system involvement,
2. what approaches they use to offer economic and concrete supports to families,
3. how state child welfare agencies coordinate with other human service systems to offer economic and concrete supports to families,
4. what the barriers are to offering economic and concrete supports to families and what solutions might address those barriers, and
5. how they used COVID-19 emergency federal assistance to fund economic and concrete supports.

What We Found

• Respondents believe both the child welfare agency and the public benefit system are responsible for screening, referring, and helping families receive economic and concrete supports during a child protective services investigation. However, they also expressed a clear preference for the public benefit system to lead the work of helping families access economic and concrete supports. They noted economic need frequently contributes to suspected maltreatment reports.
• Economic and concrete support needs are not regularly assessed during hotline screening processes, but they are assessed during child protective services investigations.
• A variety of funding streams are utilized to pay for case management and direct provision of economic and concrete supports. State funds were the most common funding source.
• Most respondents said another agency—not child welfare—administers public benefit programs. While some child welfare agencies coordinate with public benefits programs, data is more often shared to coordinate access to economic and concrete supports, not to track performance.
• Agencies face a wide variety of barriers to offering economic and concrete supports to families. These include staffing resources, restrictions on federal child welfare funds, and public benefit eligibility restrictions. Nearly all respondents reported that direct funding to expand access to economic and concrete supports would be very helpful.
• Agencies used COVID-19 emergency federal assistance to help provide economic and concrete supports. Federal assistance most often went to providing cash, utilities, food, housing, child care, employment, and home repairs. State procurement processes were the most significant barrier in the ability to use emergency federal assistance.

What It Means

Based on the survey responses, several steps can be taken to improve the child welfare system’s ability to meet the economic and concrete needs of families:

• Human services leadership should commit to sharing responsibility for upstream prevention of child maltreatment and child welfare involvement.
• More direct and flexible federal funding to meet family economic and concrete support needs should be made available.
• Policies and practices that contribute to unnecessary child welfare system involvement should be revised, including revisions to mandated reporting laws and narrowing the definitions of child maltreatment.
• Awareness and understanding the relationship between access to economic and concrete supports and enhanced family stability and well-being, including reduced child welfare involvement, should be elevated.
• Engage in national learning communities and innovative demonstration projects that focus on effective ways to redesign human service systems to reduce unnecessary child welfare involvement.

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