Grantee Lessons Learned Series

In 1996 and 1997, the Children's Bureau funded 10 demonstration projects to address the prevention, intervention, and treatment needs of neglected children and their families. These projects implemented and evaluated a wide variety of service strategies with large numbers of children and families. Programs varied considerably in terms of theoretical model (psychosocial or ecological), target population, location (in-home or out-of-home), duration, and intensity. This publication provides an overview of services and outcomes, common challenges and successful strategies, and lessons learned for the 10 projects. Specific project and contact information is provided in the appendix for readers interested in learning more about individual projects.

This paper synthesizes the findings of three Children's Bureau funded research grants on unsubstantiated child protective services (CPS) cases. It specifically addresses the case, decision-maker, organizational, and external factors that influence the decision to substantiate or unsubstantiate a CPS referral and how that decision impacts outcomes for children. Researchers' suggestions for practical implications and future research also are presented. 1 table, 1 figure.

With the goal of expanding and enhancing services to adoptive families of children with special needs, post-legal adoption services have been established in annual adoption discretionary grant announcements. Under that priority area in 1998, 15 3-year grants were awarded to increase permanency and well-being for children with special needs by preventing adoption disruption, dissolution, or out-of-home placement. This briefing paper synthesizes the final reports of those 15 projects. The projects targeted post-legal adoptive families and their children with special needs, pre-adoptive families, single adoptive parents, transracial adoptive families, kinship families. Core services included parent support and educational groups, children s support and educational groups, information and referral, and training for service providers.

In 1996 and 1997, the Children's Bureau funded 10 demonstration projects to address the prevention, intervention, and treatment needs of neglected children and their families. These projects implemented and evaluated a wide variety of service strategies with large numbers of high-risk children and families. The programs varied considerably in terms of theoretical model (psychosocial or ecological), target population, location (in-home or out-of-home), duration, and intensity. The projects provided a great variety of services, including parent education and support, home visits, and referrals to other resources or services in the community. (For information about the programmatic aspects of these projects, see the companion synthesis, Child Neglect Demonstration Projects: A Synthesis of Lessons Learned, published by the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information.) Throughout the course of their 5-year projects, grantees faced a number of common challenges in combining service delivery with a rigorous program evaluation methodology. Despite these challenges, several of the programs conducted very thorough evaluations, and they all reported positive outcomes. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the evaluation of social service programs. Funders and other stakeholders want evidence that programs are achieving their intended outcomes. Practitioners want to develop more effective services by documenting interventions and measuring results, and they want to establish stronger connections between services and outcomes. Therefore, this program evaluation synthesis summarizes the grantees' challenges, strategies, and lessons learned regarding program evaluation, so that these lessons may help future projects develop and implement effective evaluation plans. While some of the lessons learned will be most useful to other programs addressing child neglect, many are applicable to a broader range of social service programs. Contact information

This paper identifies strategies to reduce re-referrals in unsubstantiated child protective services (CPS) cases. Based on the findings of three Children's Bureau funded research grants on unsubstantiated CPS cases, it summarizes the studies' key findings regarding factors influencing CPS decision-making and implications for practice including suggestions for assessing risk more effectively and creative ways to provide services to at-risk families in unsubstantiated cases.

This report synthesizes information from the final program and evaluation reports of 8 Adoption Opportunities discretionary grants programs written between 1994 and 1999. It summarizes project descriptions, lessons learned, accomplishments, and recommendations. An appendix includes project information for each of the 8 projects, including contact information, area served, target population, and evaluation activities.

The Office on Child Abuse and Neglect awarded several grants during Fiscal Year 1997 to programs that utilized school resources for the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. The three-year demonstration projects focused on collaboration between child protection agencies and school systems; education for parents, teachers, and children about child abuse and neglect; and the involvement of school staff in prevention and intervention. This report summarizes the service approaches and lessons learned by 11 demonstration programs as noted in their final reports. The projects found that training was effective in enhancing knowledge about the signs of child abuse and reporting procedures. Teachers who attended prevention activities applied concepts to lesson plans and classroom management, while children became more conscious of safety. Direct services to at-risk children and families, disclosure response assistance, parenting education, and resource directories resulted in improvements in child behavior and academic achievement, as well as parental knowledge about stress and the child protection reporting system. In general, the grantees recommended flexibility in program schedules, cultural sensitivity for outreach activities, adaptability in response to participant needs, and realistic expectations for service utilization. 1 table.