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Stability for Children in Foster Care Rises 30% After Adoption Reform
A recent research study through the Minnesota Linking Information for Kids (Minn-LInK) Project at the School of Social Work in the University of Minnesota took a close look at adoption, financial Incentives, and child achievement, and the results were noteworthy.
Researchers found that financial support from the Northstar Care for Children payment reform program resulted in children in foster care being 23 percent to 31 percent more likely to enter a permanent, stable living situation. This is an incredible impact, with substantial implications for youth currently in foster care.
“We found that financial incentives from the Northstar Care for Children payment reform increased the likelihood of adoption for older children,” said research partner David Simon, Ph.D., and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut, “The impacts are substantial: after policy enactment, older children are 23 percent to 31 percent more likely to exit to permanency.”
The Research at a Glance
In 2015, through the Northstar Care for Children reform, Minnesota equalized post-exit payment levels in adoption or kin guardianship up to the same level as payments in foster care for those aged six years and above. This brought up an important question for the researchers partnering with the School of Social Work’s Minn-LInK team at the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW):
What role can financial incentives play in supporting children to achieve permanent, stable living situations? And, how does it impact their academic performance?
This research study was able to describe:
- How the policy affected the length of foster care episodes.
- How children exited foster care.
- The probability of children re-entering foster care.
- Children’s later academic success.
The research team utilized Minn-LInK, a highly secure platform housed at the School of Social Work, that enables researchers to integrate, de-identify, and analyze administrative data across multiple state and local systems. The research team leveraged the available information about payment reforms that were part of the Northstar Care for Children policy change.
- They integrated information with available foster care, educational, and mental health data.
- They conducted an observational study comparing outcomes over time across different age groups to study the effect of increased permanency payments on immediate child welfare case outcomes, as well as child well-being three to four years after foster care entry.
- Multiple research models were used to estimate how the policy changed the exit from foster care.
- Outcomes such as the rate of exit to adoption and kinship care, academic achievement, suspensions, school stability, and the use of mental health services were also closely observed.
Why This Matters
The study found that children experiencing foster care exited into adoption or kin guardianship faster and had higher academic achievement under the policy that continued monthly payments to families in permanency at levels closer to what foster parents are paid.
The payment reform through Northstar Care for Children policy change increased the likelihood of older children being adopted or placed into kin guardianship, decreased the time spent in foster care, and improved their academic outcomes three years after case start.
“These findings are evidence that payment equalization through the Northstar Care for Children reform successfully accelerated and increased the rate of adoptions, with substantial benefits to the child both in terms of leading them into a long-term, stable home and improving their academic achievement,” said Aaron Sojourner, senior researcher at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, “The policy therefore appears successful at eliminating the dis-incentive to adopt caused by lower payments in permanency. Equalizing payments for younger children may bring similar benefits for them.”
What’s Next?
- The results speak to the benefit that additional monetary resources coming into a home can provide to children after they enter permanency. Both policymakers and child welfare practitioners should keep this in mind when working with families of origin.
- Additional financial resources might also benefit children in reunifying with their family of origin after foster care. Monetary stipends, such as those received by adoptive parents, may even be useful to prevent home removals in the first place.
“This research was developed through partnerships between the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare research and evaluation team, university and community partners, as well as government agencies,” said Associate Director of Research and Evaluation, Michael Hoffmeister, PhD, “By pooling our collective knowledge, skills, and resources, we were able to answer questions about this pressing and complex issue impacting child welfare in Minnesota.”
Curious to Learn More About Minn-LInK?
Created in 2003, the University of Minnesota’s Minnesota Linking Information for Kids Project (Minn-LInK) is housed at the Multidisciplinary Institute for Child Welfare, and is managed by the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, which is located in the School of Social Work.
Minn-LInK’s research efforts bring together different experts and organizations to tackle a range of complex issues impacting child welfare. Minn-LInK operates as a central connector, and Minn-LInK researchers partner with universities, nonprofits, and government agencies to pool knowledge, resources, and skills.
By bringing together a diverse group of researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders, these collaborative research efforts build actionable knowledge that is more likely to inform real-world practice and policy than research conducted by any single organization alone. Each research project typically results in a Minn-Link research brief and discussion guide, which make the research findings more accessible and useful to the community.
Minn-LInK research briefs help to answer critical questions around the interconnectedness of involvement with multiple systems, risk factors for adverse child and family outcomes, and disproportionality and disparities regarding race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and other intersecting identities.
“For more than twenty years, the Minn-LInK project has provided researchers, practitioners, educators, administrators, and policymakers rare insights into the experiences and outcomes of children and families served by multiple systems,” said Minn-LInK researcher and Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare Director, Kristy Piescher, Ph.D.
Minn-LInK studies are developed and carried out with a cross-system perspective in mind, linking longitudinal administrative data from multiple statewide systems to answer questions about the effects of policies, programs, and practice on the well-being of children and families in Minnesota.
Interested in learning more about this research or the Minnesota Linking Information for Kids Project? Please reach out to Michael Hoffmeister, Associate Director of Research and Evaluation via email at: mhoffmei@umn.edu.
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