Assessing Conformity to Standards for Treatment Foster Care

In this article we examine conformity to the Program Standards for Treatment Foster Care (Foster Family-Based TreatmentAssociation, 1995).Treatment foster care (TFC) is an increasingly common community-based residential placement option for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders.At present, findings from model programs suggest that TFC can be effective for producing desired outcomes. However, little is known about variations of TFC in real-world practice.The standards of care developed by the Foster Family-Based Treatment Association are used to examine variations in conformity to the standards in a statewide sample of TFC programs. Findings suggest fair to good overall conformity, with considerable variation among programs.The article includes a discussion of methodological and substantive considerations for future research and evaluation using this approach.