Clients
Since 1988,
HZA
has provided evaluation and
consulting services to public and private organizations in over 30 states.
A sample of clients, by state, is provided below. Please
select a state from the map or scroll through the list.

Alabama Department of Human Resources:
Developed
a rate setting system for children in residential care in an effort to increase
future federal dollars claimed under Title IV-E and recover prior state
expenditures which are eligible for Federal funding.
Alaska Court System: Conducted a process and outcome evaluation for two local mental health courts responsible for handling cases of persons with mental illness who are charged with misdemeanor crimes.
Alaska Court System: In two separate studies, evaluated the mental health treatment courts in Anchorage and Palmer, Alaska to determine their cost and effectiveness.
Alaska Department of Social and Health Services, Office of Children's Services: Conducted a study of the workload of Office of Children’s Services staff to determine whether the
agency has adequate staffing to meet the service demand.
Alaska
Department of Social and Health Services, Division of Public Assistance:
Conducted a workload study involving core public assistance
and direct service workers to measure the work burden and tasks performed by
each.
Alaska Department of Corrections, Division of
Administrative Services:
Conducted a
two-year study of Mental Health Trust beneficiaries to define service needs;
identify those who might be appropriately diverted from the correctional system;
and identify evidence-based programs with the potential to achieve appropriate
diversion and reduce recidivism.
Arizona Department of Economic Security:
Redesigned the child welfare system in Arizona through the review and
restructuring of child protective laws, policies, practices and staff
training.
Arizona Department of Economic Security:
Conducted a review 4,152 child records in an effort to determine the extent to
which children in the Division’s care were living in safe environments.
Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Children and
Family Services:
Performing
all quality assurance activities for the Division’s programs, including outcome
measurement, contract monitoring and special studies.
California Department of Education,
Child Development Division:
Created of a set of
process standards designed to promote the achievement of “Desired Results” for
child care resource and referral agencies and alternative payment programs.
Colorado Department of Human Services, Division of Child Welfare Services:
Conducted an evaluation of the Intensive Family Preservation
Program for Juvenile Offenders to determine the efficacy of using Intensive
Family Preservation services
for children who had been adjudicated or convicted of criminal offenses.
Colorado Department of Human Services, Division of Healthcare Policy:
Performed
a workload study to measure the workloads carried by county staff
performing Medicaid eligibility determinations, including six programs and their
sub-parts.
Connecticut Judicial Branch:
Conducted
a service needs study for 16 and 17 year-old court-involved youth.
Connecticut Department of Children and Families: Conducting a comprehensive assessment of systems and services designed to meet the needs of physically and sexually abused children.
Developed a methodology, designed to provide an unbiased view of the child
welfare needs of the state, for a needs assessment required by the Juan F. consent decree.
Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families:
Performed a cost benefit study of alternatives to incarceration, which
permitted the tracking of youth from the juvenile justice system into the
adult correctional system.
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association:
Conducted an examination of the membership base and products and services provided to
members; evaluated the needs of current members; identified other potential
membership bases; and developed a marketing plan for the organization's future
development.
Child
Welfare League of America: Conducted an organizational review
the Child Welfare League of America's regional office structure to address the question of how
the agency could best
organize itself to support its member agencies while growing the organization
nationally.
Florida Department
of Children and Families:
Performed an
evaluation of the intake and assessment activities of intake counselors at the
Florida Abuse Hotline. Evaluation activities were
expanded to include conduct of similar work for the Hotline’s Criminal
Investigation Unit activities.
Providing a comprehensive
ongoing package of training and quality assurance for Call Center staff and Crime Intelligence Unit
staff at the Florida Abuse Hotline.
Georgia Department
of Human Resources:
Conducted a needs
assessment of children in foster care to identify placement and prevention
service needs.
Conducted an assessment of
the potential for increasing Title IV-E recovery for children in foster care.
Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services, Department of Human Resources:
Providing assistance in improving the call taking, intake and assessment functions of its child protective services program.
Maine Medical Center and Illinois Department of Mental Health:
Conducted an evaluation of Maine Medical Center's dissemination of the family
psychoeducation approach to mental health services.
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services:
Conducted a “Front End Redesign” to ensure that services were delivered to
families in child protective reports in a timely manner and assure continuity
of workers and services as a family moves through the system.
The
Higher Plain, Inc.:
Designed and implemented an evaluation for a federally-funded demonstration
program aimed at assuring that all children and adolescents in Washington
County, Iowa have access to mental health services.
Iowa Department of Human Services:
Conducted an analysis of the Department’s child care rate setting and
information systems and proposed mechanisms for enhancing federal funding of
child care expenditures.
The
Higher Plain, Inc.:
Conducted an evaluation of the Parent Resource Center to improve student
educational outcomes and parent efficacy.
Kansas
Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services:
Conducted a study
to determine whether Kansas’ risk assessment tools are sufficiently valid and
reliable to guide casework decisions.
Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, Office of Youth
Development: Conducted
study of Louisiana’s classification systems for adjudicated females to bring
about changes that would make juvenile justice operations and policies more
responsive to the unique needs of girls.
Louisiana Department of Social Services:
Developed and implemented a rate setting system for Office of Children
Services residential and foster home providers.
Day One:
Conducted an evaluation of Natural Helpers of Maine, a peer support program for adolescents.
Maine Office of Elder Services:
Conducted an assessment of services provided to elderly community members living in subsidized housing with a goal of keeping them independent.
Bucksport Bay Healthy Communities Coalition:
Performing an evaluation of the Working on Wellness and Communities
Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol programs.
Co-occurring Collaborative of Southern Maine:
Conducted a multi-year evaluation of an integrated services approach for people
with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health problems.
The
Greater Waterville Prevention Coalition: Performing an
evaluation of the Communities
Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol program, Coalition Development and Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey data
to be used in
conjunction with the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program evaluation
conducted under the Drug Free Communities project.
Maine
Judicial Branch, Administrative Office of the Courts:
Conducted an
assessment of Maine’s courts to determine the effectiveness of a newly-implemented case management procedure in the courts and whether use of mediation
in one of its district courts has been an effective tool.
Maine
Department of Health and Human Services, Adult Mental Health Services:
Conducted an
evaluation including an inventory and analysis of Adult Mental Health Crisis
Services in Maine.
Maine
Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control:
Conducting a
comprehensive process and outcome evaluation of services designed to enhance
parenting skills and prevent child abuse and neglect for new mothers.
Maine
Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Behavioral Health Services:
Conducting an evaluation of the Trauma-informed
Systems of Care project in an effort to build an infrastructure and
implement an integrated system of care for children ages birth through eighteen
with serious emotional disturbances who have experienced trauma.
Maine
Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Substance Abuse:
Performing
a multi-year evaluation of an initiative to institute changes in
services offered to individuals across the state of Maine who experience
psychiatric and alcohol or drug-related co-occurring disorders.
Conducting an
evaluation of Maine’s Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant in an
effort to reduce substance abuse, reduce risk factors and consequences with a
demonstrated link to substance abuse, and reduce consumption and other health
risk behaviors linked to substance abuse.
Conducting evaluation of six Maine colleges and universities’ initiative to reduce high-risk drinking among college students.
Maine General
HealthReach Network:
Performed
an evaluation of the Pediatric Rapid Evaluation Program to determine the
efficacy of PREP services, project service needs and assess what impact the
program has on achieving the best interests of children in foster care.
Maine Health Access
Foundation:
Developed a plan
for a comprehensive evaluation of this foundation’s initiative to integrate
physical and behavioral health services.
Maine
Medical Center:
Conducted
a process evaluation of a multi-year grant to address systems change and
implement a model for youth in transition from the children’s mental health
system to adulthood.
Developing report structures and evaluation tools for the Community Support Network Employment initiative .
Massachusetts Office of Child Care
Services:
Conducted an evaluation of the system of state
subsidized child care administration and delivery to improve the efficacy,
accountability and cost-effectiveness of the system.
Minnesota Department of Human Services, Child Safety and Permanency Division: Conducting a statewide child welfare workload study and analysis for 87-county system.
Montana [return
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Montana Department of Public and
Health and Human Services:
Conducted a time study and workload analysis of child welfare caseworkers and
licensing specialists to determine the need for increased staff by region.
Conducted a follow-up evaluation of the regional staffing differences across
the state as identified in the time study and workload analysis.
Nebraska [return
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Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services:
Conducting an evaluation of the Behavioral Health Help line, Family Navigator and Post Adoption Services programs,
all of which are newly funded by the state legislature.
Nevada Department of Human
Resources, Division of Child and Family Services:
Established
a Program Evaluation and Data Unit to perform data analysis and quality
assurance activities for the Division.
Provided technical support
to the Division throughout each phase of the Child and Family Services Review
including the statewide assessment and on-site reviews.
Provided project management
services to assist with the development of plans and procedures for the transfer
of a child welfare services from the Division to Washoe and Clark Counties, and
developed a Cost Allocation Plan reflective of those organizational changes.
Designed and operated a Data
Analysis Unit which would allow the Division to develop an expertise in gathering,
analyzing and using data; and improve their research and evaluation
infrastructures.
New
Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Youth and Family Services:
Developed a new regulatory
and policy framework which would implement A New Beginning: The Future of Child
Welfare in New Jersey.
Performed a study of the Division of Youth
and Family Services’ newly-implemented State Central Registry and conducted a follow-up quality assurance study to determine whether the
people taking the calls and dispatching information to the field were operating
within legal and best practice guidelines.
Conducted a Qualitative Services Review which helped the Division prepare for its Child
and Family Services Review and
provided critical information for the development of a statewide assessment.
Schuyler
Center for Analysis and Advocacy:
Conducted an analysis of data supplied by the State of New York Office of
Children and Family Services to the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy for the annual report
the Center
drafted for the New York State Citizen Review Panels.
Westchester County
Department of Social Services: Conducting a workload study of the
Child Welfare Division.
North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts:
Conducted an assessment of the courts’ role, responsibilities and effectiveness in cases involving the interstate placement of foster children.
Ohio
Department of Job and Family Services, Office of Children and Families:
Conducted an evaluation of
Ohio’s Family Risk Assessment Matrix, with particular focus on the utilization
of the tool in the later stages of the case.
Served as Ohio’s quality
assurance vendor for its adoption program that has a goal to continue to increase the number of
adoptions of children in public custody.
Conducted a comprehensive needs assessment in response to a consent decree, Roe vs. Staples, quantifying the need for services designed to prevent placement and/or aid a child’s return home.
Oklahoma House of Representatives:
Conducting a performance audit of the state's Department of
Human Services to assess its organizational structure for management and performance of its services programs,
especially child welfare.
Oregon
Department of Human Services, Office of Information Services:
Produced a comprehensive inventory of federal and state laws, regulations,
agency policies, procedures and practice guidelines as well as those of local
jurisdictions which govern the provision of child welfare in Oregon.
Dauphin County Department of Human Services:
Provided
assistance with an effort to consolidate information collected on clients from
multiple agencies into a single computer program.
Erie
County Office of Children and Youth:
Conducted an organizational
review of the Erie County Office of Children and Youth in light of the regulatory challenges and heightened family
problems confronted by child welfare agencies. Developed and implemented a
comprehensive quality assurance system by broadening the quality assurance
effort identified in the organizational review to encompass a wider range of
activities.
Monitored the program
improvements identified in the Integrated County Services Plan and related them
to the State's Program Improvement Plan and prepared the County for the next round of
Federal Child and Family Service Reviews and Medicaid re-alignment.
Harborcreek Youth Services:
Provided assistance in selecting an automated system
which could track children and youth served and produce management reports;
provided assistance throughout the implementation, installation and training
phases of the selected system.
Pennsylvania Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers:
Developed prototypes for the standard forms and reports for the State of
Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Case Management System, a new automated system
developed for juvenile probation and parole.
Pennsylvania Department of
Public Welfare, Office of Children, Youth and Families:
Providing technical assistance, training and
staff support in the development of mechanisms to improve and validate county
and state data and the analysis of the AFCARS, NCANDS and CY-28 data. Create
AFCARS longitudinal files and ad hoc reports, develop Quality Service Review
reports and create data packages for each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
Providing training and
technical assistance to the Office of Children, Youth and Families and county staff throughout the federal Child and
Family Services Review.
Provided support to the Office of Children,
Youth and Families in
the management and monitoring of the Program Improvement Plan, with additional
focus on monitoring the implementation of the counties' Needs-based Plans and
Budgets.
Conducted an evaluation of
the relationship between changes implemented in the planning and delivery of
services encompassing the Family Group Decision-making principles and the
results or outcomes achieved for children, youth and families.
Rhode Island Department of Children,
Youth and Families:
Developed a rate setting system to reimburse foster parents based on the
special needs of their children.
South Carolina Department of Social
Services:
Conducted an evaluation of the Child Protective and
Preventive Services programs, including identification of program strengths
and weaknesses with special emphasis on the risk assessment system, the "Model
for Casework Practice".
Utah Department of Human Services:
Conducted an assessment of the practices for
collecting federal reimbursements as performed by the Division of Child and
Family Services.
Virginia
Department of Social Services:
Conducted a
workload management study involving all social services programs including
Medicaid, child welfare, income maintenance, and adult services across local
departments of social services.
Conducting
an update to the original workload management study involving all social
services programs from a sampling of 35 participating local departments of
social services.
Washington Department of
Social and Health Services, Children's Administration: Redesigned foster
care rates for children in basic care and with special needs and assisted with
the development of an automated system to assign rates based on the need.
Washington Department of Social and Health Services,
Division of Developmental Disabilities:
Modified and expand upon the rate system developed for the
Children's Administration (see above) to make it applicable to children
receiving Voluntary Placement Program services.
Wisconsin Supreme Court, State Courts Office:
Conducted an evaluation involving the reassessment of the improvements in child
welfare court procedures in Wisconsin.
Developing strategies to measure court initiatives to improve outcomes for children in the child welfare system.
Evaluated the courts effectiveness in the interstate placement of children and the engagement of stakeholders across state lines.
Conducted an assessment of the court's role in cases involving the interstate placement of children.
Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services:
Developing a structure for an online policy manual and placing existing policies into a workflow order from its numbered memo system.
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