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Child Welfare

HZA has conducted research, evaluation, workload, rate setting and technical assistance projects, which when combined, involved every aspect of child welfare beginning with a child's entry into the child welfare system (hotlines/registries), to the investigation of a report, to receipt of services including in-home and foster care, and the achievement of permanency through adoption. Sample projects include:

Alabama Revenue Enhancement/Rate Setting: Developed a rate setting system for children in residential care who were placed by the child welfare and juvenile justice systems to increase future federal dollars claimed under Title IV-E and recover prior state expenditures which are eligible for federal funding.

Alaska Statewide Workload Study: Conducted a study of the workload of the Office of Children’s Services staff to determine whether the agency has adequate staffing to meet the service demand.

Arkansas Mentor Sites Analytic Data Capacity Building: Served as a mentor to three states wishing to enhance their data analysis capacities and make better use of their SACWIS data for management reporting.

Arkansas Quality Assurance: Serving as the quality assurance vendor responsible for producing regularly-scheduled and ad hoc reports for both internal and external consumption and conducting special studies.

Connecticut Assessment of Systems and Services: Conducting an evaluation of Children’s Advocacy Centers and Multidisciplinary Teams which are designed to assess the treatment of child victims of serious physical and sexual abuse.

Florida Quality Assurance Services for the Florida Abuse Hotline: Conducting an evaluation of the intake and assessment activities at the Florida Abuse Hotline, including the conduct of compliance reviews on reports of abuse and non-reports of abuse, neglect or abandonment of children, and abuse, neglect or exploitation of vulnerable adults. The scope of work was recently expanded to include the Hotline’s Criminal Investigation activities.

Georgia Foster Care Needs Assessment: Conducted an assessment of the need for placement resources of different levels of care for the children in foster care in Fulton and DeKalb counties.

Georgia IV-E Penetration: Explored potential ways to increase the statewide Title IV-E penetration rate among foster children and identified additional ways to increase federal funding.

Illinois Front-end Redesign of Child Protective Services: Performed an organizational restructuring of pilot units within the agency to assure continuity of workers and services as families move through the system.

Kansas Risk Assessment Validation: Conducted a study to determine whether Kansas’ risk assessment tools are sufficiently valid and reliable to guide casework decisions.

Nevada Program Evaluation Data Unit: Performed data analysis and quality assurance activities for the Division of Child and Family Services to measure compliance and performance.

New Jersey Analysis of State Central Registry Implementation: Performed a study of the receipt and classification of abuse and neglect calls into the newly-implemented State Central Registry.

Ohio Adoption Services Specialized Administrative Support Quality Assurance: Served as the quality assurance vendor for Ohio’s statewide adoption initiative, AdoptOHIO, whose mission is to find permanent homes for children in public custody.

Ohio Study of Validity and Reliability of the Family Risk Assessment Matrix: Conducted a validity and reliability study of the risk assessment tool used in child protective services.

Pennsylvania Erie County Organizational Review: Performed an organizational review of the Children and Youth program in light of the regulatory challenges and heightened family problems confronted by the child welfare agency.

Pennsylvania Child and Family Services Review: Provided training and technical assistance to the Office of Children, Youth and Families and county staff throughout the federal Child and Family Services Review.

Washington Foster Care Rate Redesign Project: 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 needs of the child and foster care family.

Wisconsin Online Policy:Developing a structure for an online child welfare policy manual while reorganizing existing policy into a case flow process from its numbered memo system.

Family Services [return to top]

HZA has evaluated prevention and intervention programs such as:

Maine Healthy Families Program Evaluation: Conducting a comprehensive process and outcome evaluation of services designed to enhance parenting skills and prevent child abuse and neglect for new mothers.

Pennsylvania Family Group Decision Making Evaluation Plan: Developed a comprehensive design to evaluate the family group decision making process, consumer satisfaction, case plan analysis and outcomes achieved.

Physical Health, Mental Health and

Substance Abuse [return to top]

HZA has served as the evaluator for several multi-year initiatives funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as well as other agencies and foundations designed to improve health and mental health care access, treatment approaches and outcomes. Sample projects include:

Maine Evaluation Services for I³ Initiative: Developed a plan for a comprehensive evaluation of this foundation’s initiative to integrate physical and behavioral health services.

Maine Higher Education Alcohol Prevention Partnership: Evaluating six Maine colleges and universities’ partnership to reduce high-risk drinking among college studies and decrease students’ willingness to host parties where alcohol will be consumed.

Maine Pediatric Rapid Evaluation Program: Conducted an evaluation of this program’s initiative to improve the health and mental health status of children in Maine’s foster care system in target communities.

Maine Youth in Transition Evaluation: Conducted an evaluation of services to youth who have had at least one mental health hospitalization who are at an age of transition between youth and adulthood.

Maine Evaluation Services for the State Incentive Program: Performed an evaluation of One ME, a comprehensive multi-year project aimed at preventing drug and alcohol abuse among youth in Maine.

Maine Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG): Conducting a multi-year evaluation of the Strategic Prevention Framework, State Incentive Grant, designed to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and drugs as well as the negative consequences of their use, throughout the lifespan.

Maine Co-Occurring State Integration Initiative: Performing a multi-year evaluation of an initiative to obtain treatment for people with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health problems at a single place and time through an integrated services approach.

Maine Implementing a Trauma Informed System of Care: Conducting a multi-year evaluation of the System of Care grant designed to recognize trauma in children with serious emotional disturbances and treat its effects through evidence-based practices.

Adult and Juvenile Justice [return to top]

HZA's experience extends to the adult and juvenile justice systems, as demonstrated by the following sample projects:

Wisconsin Reassessment of State Court Performance in Children in Need of Protection or Services Cases: Performed an assessment of the improvements in child welfare court procedures in Wisconsin.

Connecticut Services Needs Assessment: Conducted a service needs assessment of 16- and 17-years old juveniles as part of the state’s effort to increase the age of juvenile offenders.

Maine Evaluation Services for Co-occurring Court in Kennebec County: Conducting an evaluation of a special purpose court, the Kennebec County Co-occurring Disorders Court, to implement a special set of services to people with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.

Maine Evaluation Services for Family Court: Performed a study to determine the effectiveness of Maine’s three family drug court programs in both protecting children and providing parents the opportunity to enter into treatment and learn the skills they need to become healthy, responsible caregivers.

Louisiana Classification System for Adjudicated Females: Conducted a two-year study to bring about changes that would make juvenile justice operations and policies more responsive to the unique needs of girls and thus more effective in achieving community-wide benefits.

Alaska Assessment Study of Disproportionate Minority Contact with the State Juvenile Justice System: Performed a study to address the issue of overrepresentation of minority youth within the juvenile justice system.

Alaska Mental Health Trust Beneficiary Study: Conducted a study of Mental Health Trust beneficiaries served by the Department of Corrections, to define beneficiaries' service needs and identify those who might be appropriately diverted from the correctional system through enhanced mental health treatment to reduce recidivism.

Public Assistance [return to top]

HZA's experience with workload studies extends to many facets of public assistance services, including the following sample projects:

Virginia Workload Management Study: Conducting follow-up activities related to the original workload management study involving all social services programs including Medicaid, child welfare, income maintenance, and adult services to assist the state in calculating necessary resources.

Alaska Division of Public Assistance Workload Analysis: Performed a workload study to identify and define core public assistance direct service work components, and gather relevant data to accurately measure the work burden and inefficiency of tasks performed by each of the components.

Colorado Medicaid Workload Study: Conducted a workload study to measure the workloads carried by county staff performing Medicaid eligibility determinations, including six programs and their sub-parts.

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