Do Policies Resulting in Welfare and Child Welfare Service Integration Prevent Child Maltreatment? Preliminary Findings from a Policy Research Study

A number of determinants related to the child, caregiver, socioeconomic, and environment can increase the risk of child maltreatment (CM). Among these, poverty is often considered the single best predictor of CM, particularly neglect. Poverty is associated with food and housing insecurity, lack of reliable child care, and un- or underemployment.

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) is the hallmark Federal policy providing resources to states so that they may assist low-income families with financial support and employment services. Programs provided under TANF can help to stabilize families, provide financial/resource relief, and support families with food, housing, and employment-seeking services. The support provided by TANF, if proactively applied to families at-risk or already known to the child welfare (CW) system could serve to prevent first occurrence of CM, especially neglect. As such, policies that facilitate integration of TANF supports alongside CW services may offer a viable primary prevention strategy for CM. 

To this end, CDC has contracted with ICF International to conduct research in the state of Colorado to understand if county-administered (and state-supervised) policy strategies of the TANF program result in lower rates of CM and associated child welfare outcomes. El Paso County leveraged Colorado’s flexible policies to develop and implement an integrated TANF and child welfare service model; results of a case study indicate that this service model results in a reduction in CM.  Further, other reports indicate that El Paso County served as a model for the integration of welfare and child welfare services in other states. The current project more rigorously evaluates this integrated welfare-child welfare service model via a multiple baseline, interrupted time series design examining 1995-2014 CM data in a sample of 9 Colorado counties. El Paso County is serving as the baseline intervention county. A CW-TANF integration scoring index was developed and applied to all counties to determine integration status for all study years. The index ratings were made using data from site visit interviews, surveys of CW and TANF staff, and historical document review. The integration scoring rubric was applied and intervention status assigned for analytic purposes. Outcome analyses are underway. Methods and preliminary results will be presented. Implications for public policy related to integrated CW-TANF service provision models will be discussed.