Length of service for foster parents: Using administrative data to understand retention

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Abstract

Although adoptions from foster care have increased dramatically in recent years, foster homes remain a critical resource within the child welfare system. Research has explored the factors associated with foster parents' decision to continue or cease providing foster care. However, we know little about the length of time for which foster parents provide service, nor about the foster parent characteristics and foster care provision associated with varying length of service. This study used administrative data from three states to conduct longitudinal analyses of foster parenting careers. It builds on previous research by producing the first unbiased estimates of length of service and examining variations in length of service in terms of foster parent characteristics and the amount and type of care provided. Median length of service was between 8 and 14 months. Foster parents with greater length of service are likely to be older; live in urban areas; care for more children at a given time; and care for more infants, adolescents, or children with special needs. In each state, a relatively small group of foster parents provided the majority of caregiving. These findings can guide development of strategies to increase retention and make better use of foster parenting resources.

Introduction

Foster homes serve as an essential resource for the more than 500,000 children currently in out-of-home care, nearly half of whom are placed in nonrelative foster family homes (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) 2005) The critical shortages of foster homes noted in the late 1980s (Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), 1997; U.S. House of Representatives 2004) appear to have been alleviated by increasing rates of adoption (Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), 2005, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005) and use of relative foster-care providers (Geen, 2003). Nevertheless, strategies to enhance retention of qualified foster parents continue to generate considerable discussion (Casey Family Programs, 2005, Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), 1995, Christian, 2002, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002).

Foster parent retention affects the well-being of both child welfare agencies and the children they serve. Turnover among foster parents, reported to range from 30 to 50% in some agencies (Christian, 2002), creates ongoing demands for agency staff to recruit, train and license additional foster parents. Maintaining an adequate supply of foster parents enables agencies to minimize placements in congregate care or with marginally qualified foster families, and to choose placements based on proximity to birth families and the ability to meet foster children's needs (Annie E. Casey Foundation, n.d.). Although no research links child outcomes to foster parent experience, there exists an implicit assumption that experienced foster parents are better equipped to respond to the complex needs of the foster children in their care.

Research on foster parenting has identified characteristics and experiences that differentiate foster parents who continue or cease foster parenting. However, few of these studies describe the length of service among the foster parents studied, or the correlates of varying length of service. In addition, estimates of length of service are based on cross-sectional data that over-represent those foster parents who have remained in service. This article uses longitudinal analysis methods to produce the first unbiased estimates of length of service among foster parents in three states, examining the extent to which foster parent characteristics and the amount and type of care provided are associated with varying length of service. Better understanding of foster parents' length of service can inform our understanding of retention and strategies to make better use of foster parenting resources.

Section snippets

Background

Three comprehensive studies represent the bulk of research on foster parent retention. Foremost is the National Survey of Current and Former Foster Parents (hereafter the National Survey), conducted in 1991, which used a nationally representative sample to select more than 1000 current and foster parents for interviews (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989, Rhodes et al., 2001). In a second major study, researchers at Ohio State University collected data from 539 current and 265

Data

Child welfare agencies in three states—New Mexico, Oklahoma and Oregon—contributed data for these analyses. We selected these states because of their willingness to provide both data and ongoing consultation and the quality of their data. States provided three types of data for nonrelative foster care: placement records for children, foster parent licensure, and individual foster parent characteristics.

Placement data included all nonrelative foster care placements during the years in which

Distribution of care

Mean occupancy rates were similar in all states, between 1.5 and 1.6, as shown in Table 1. This indicates that the average home has between one and two foster children on a typical day, although homes may have had no children for part of the year and several children at other times. Median occupancy rates were lower than the mean, ranging from 1.0 to 1.3, suggesting that a relatively small group of foster parents have much higher occupancy rates. In fact, only 10% of homes in each state had a

Discussion

These analyses build on recent research applying longitudinal analyses to examine children's length of stay in foster care. They extend previous research on foster parenting by providing unbiased estimates of length of service and a more detailed picture of the characteristics associated with varying length of service. Further analyses in other states might build on these analyses to incorporate data elements such as foster parent training and foster care board rates.

Readers should note some

Acknowledgments

This report was developed by RTI International for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This work was supported through a task order under contract number HHS-100-99-0006, Delivery Order No. 5. Laura Radel served as the ASPE project monitor. The authors would like to acknowledge the cooperation of state child welfare agencies in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Oregon, which contributed data used for these

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