![[Case Western Reserve University -- Toolbar]](/pix/lowpro.gif)
Posted 12-20-99
Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, in collaboration with the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services, has launched a five-year study of the impact of welfare reform on the child welfare system.
About 80 percent of children in out-of-home placement due to neglect or abuse are from families who have used public assistance, according to study investigators. The loss of income as welfare reform kicks in could put additional stress on some already troubled families, which may negatively affect the child welfare caseload.
Federal welfare reform, known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, was designed to promote self-sufficiency by requiring welfare recipients to work and by setting a five-year lifetime limit on eligibility for benefits. Ohio -- one of 22 states with shorter lifetime limits -- restricts eligibility to three years.
The study is being conducted by associate professor Kathleen Wells and assistant professor Shenyang Guo, who are using government data on child welfare, public assistance, and employment along with in-depth interviews to conduct the research.
"A study like this could not be done without the county's cooperation," said Wells. "It's unusual to have a public child welfare agency take on a project of this size, which speaks well for its openness and concern for clients." The confidentially of all client records is protected, she added.
Cleveland, with its high concentration of urban poverty, is an important site for a study of this nature, Wells points out. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's analysis of the 50 largest U.S. cities, it is among the worst on several indicators of child well-being.
For example, Cleveland is surpassed only by Detroit in the percentage of children living in distressed neighborhoods, which are characterized by high rates of poverty, male unemployment, female-headed households, and families on public assistance.
"Cleveland is a tough place to be a poor kid," observes Marsha Wickliffe, Deputy Director of the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services. "Our systems are already strained, and welfare reform will put an even greater strain on the child welfare system."
Throughout the study, new information will be fed back into the department through meetings with key administrators to enable them to respond rapidly to problems as they are identified.
"We're really looking forward to getting this feedback, so we can use hard information -- not anecdotes and fears -- to drive the planning of the work we need to do," Wickliffe said. "It's critical." Deputy director Jim McCafferty is also working with Wells on the study.
The first phase of the research will analyze changes in the child welfare caseloads before and after welfare reform based on three groups of children in out-of-home placement: children who entered placement over a six-month period before welfare reform; children placed during the first six months after Ohio's welfare reform began October 1, 1997; and children placed during the six-month period that begins October 1, 2000, when the first Ohio recipients exhaust their three-year eligibility and lose their benefits.
In addition to the lifetime limits, a family may lose its benefits for one to six months, as sanctions for failure to comply with work requirements.
"The families of children in substitute care have problems which make it difficult for them to obtain or keep paying jobs," Wells noted. "Therefore, welfare reform may decrease the total family income of a significant portion of this population."
Although poverty alone does not cause child abuse, she added, "we know that mothers with young children below the poverty line are at greatest risk of maltreating their children."
The study will compare conditions before and after welfare reform, focusing on issues including the number of children in placements such as foster care, group homes, and residential treatment centers; the severity of the maltreatment that prompted placement; the length of time in placement; and the number of children who are eventually reunited with their families.
Length of time in placement is especially significant because of a new state law aimed at preventing prolonged foster care. In cases where a child has been in foster care for 12 out of the preceding 22 months, the state may terminate parental rights and make the child eligible for adoption, Wells noted. Therefore, length of time in placement could have life-changing consequences.
The second phase of the study will feature in-depth interviews with 200 randomly selected families with children in the child welfare system to determine how the use of welfare, loss of income, and employment interact with the neighborhood poverty level to affect out-of-home placement.
To support her study, Wells has received $283,000 from the Casey Foundation and nearly $19,000 from the Gund Foundation, with in-kind funding by the county.
![[Toolbar]](/pix/ribbon.gif){kind=small}