Tracking Changes in Child Welfare: Using Quality Assurance to Monitor Child Welfare Outcomes

Child welfare and ensuring children are safe from abuse and neglect is critically important. Also of great importance is evaluating the system tasked to protect these children. A large part of this evaluation is done through statewide quality assurance reviews. The reviews are conducted using a federally developed instrument designed to measure outcomes of safety, permanency, and well-being. As part of the review, counties are rated on these outcomes and the data is compiled to examine overall state performance. Many of the social indicators that cause children to come into the state child welfare system affect the items on which the state's cases are rated. This descriptive study attempts to show the potential impact of social indicators associated with potential child abuse and neglect on outcomes of safety and well-being for children involved in the child welfare system.