Child & Family Policy

The SPHERE Institute conducts evaluations of a wide range of social service programs, providing technical assistance to many of the service providers and performing analyses on the systems in which these programs exist.  For example, we have completed research projects on home visitation, foster youth services, and child care assistance. Projects in this area address the provision of human services by both public agencies and private community-based organizations, emphasizing the effective use of analysis and data in program design, service integration and outcomes-based management.

Current and Recent Projects

Comprehensive Assessment Tool (CAT) Safety and Risk Assessment System

The SPHERE Institute has developed an evidence-based Safety and Risk Assessment System for use in County Child Welfare agencies. The system, which has been implemented in San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Napa, and Contra Costa Counties, assists social workers in gathering critical information regarding a child welfare case, and ensures that key information is reviewed at each decision point in the life of a case. Working in collaboration with counties to build on their successful practices, SPHERE provides research expertise in designing, validating, and evaluating evidence-based risk assessment tools; building automated systems to support the tools; and linking state and county child welfare datasets.

Implementation of Outcomes-Based Management at the Human Services Agency of San Mateo County

SPHERE has served as research consultant to San Mateo County's Human Services Agency (HSA) outcomes-based management initiative since it was launched in 2000. Initial activities included developing and delivering training for CBO and HSA staff on outcomes measurement and facilitating workgroups to develop measures. Because many services are contracted through community-based organizations (CBOs), our consulting tasks have involved working with community organizations like family resource centers and child care resource and referral agencies, as well as agencies providing core services in low-income neighborhoods. In this connection, we recently completed an assessment of the outcomes-reporting capacity and technical needs of CBOs. Other tasks on the project include advising systems developers on data collection and training agency executives, managers and analysts to interpret data and effectively use results to improve programs.

  • Client: San Mateo County Human Services Agency

Factors Affecting Re-entry into Foster Care in San Mateo County

The County of San Mateo System Improvement Plan (SIP) of 2004 calls for a report assessing the needs of staff, community partners, parents, and youth for supports that increase stability for families after children return home from foster care. The SPHERE Institute conducted research to address two primary questions: 1) What factors are associated with cases in which children and youth re-enter foster care? 2) What services or supports are needed to reduce the likelihood that children will re-enter foster care? To answer these questions, SPHERE Institute staff analyzed findings from previous research reported in a review of the literature, content from the county's 2004 Child Welfare Services Self Assessment and System Improvement Plan, data obtained from cases in which children re-entered foster care in San Mateo County in calendar year 2003, and a focus group of social workers who carried cases in which children returned to foster care in 2003. The report recommends strategies to improve services to better meet the needs of children, youth and families during the case planning and post-reunification process.

Implementing Differential Response: An Assessment of Community Organizations' Capacity and Interest

Part of California's state-wide Child Welfare Services System Improvement effort involves the design and implementation of a community service network to provide a differential level of service response to families at risk of entering the child welfare system. In support of San Mateo County's implementation efforts, the SPHERE Institute recently conducted a capacity and needs assessment of the county's existing and potential private non-profit service partners. A core component of this project was a county-wide survey of 200 community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide services to high risk children, youth and families across the county. The project assessed the capacity of CBOs and non- traditional community associations and groups to provide differential response and family support services to children, youth and families at risk of entering, currently served by, or exiting the child welfare system; identified gaps in services and training needs; and identified resources needed to expand capacity.

Analysis of Team Case Planning Practice in San Mateo County

The County of San Mateo Human Services Agency, Children and Family Services program, has for many years operated a number of teams that facilitate the case planning process for children who are at risk of entering, and who enter, the child welfare service system. To assist the County's efforts to streamline processes and improve outcomes, the SPHERE Institute conducted a review of seven case planning teams to document their individual and collective practices. This review was framed by an analysis of relevant literature and team case planning practices in three comparison counties, as was undertaken by conducting extensive focus groups and interviews with social workers who lead and participate in the case planning teams. At the conclusion of the project, SPHERE presented the county with a report that documents team case planning practices and offers recommendations for methods to enhance, streamline, and coordinate team case planning processes in ways that can help increase family and community participation and improve their access to resources.

Youth Data Archive

In this ongoing project, SPHERE has partnered with the Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University to link longitudinal administrative and program data across existing institutional boundaries, including both public agencies and non-profit community-based organizations serving youth in the same communities. The linked data is being used for policy analyses and research designed to improve outcomes for youth through better public policies and more effective programs. Specifically, by linking these data the project aims to show the cumulative effects of community youth development programs and services on youth outcomes, to help community partners understand the full set of services and opportunities for youth in a community, and to document the links between approaches used by community programs and other outcomes measures such as school achievement or juvenile justice recidivism.

The policy analyses and research questions are determined by the Youth Data Archive (YDA) project team in collaboration with local partners in Redwood City, Half Moon Bay and Oakland/Alameda County. Ongoing work in Redwood City is being conducted in collaboration with Redwood City 2020. We are developing a series of related studies on the role of services in Community Schools. In Oakland, the project team is supporting the City Administrator's Office, which is implementing the Measure Y Violence Prevention and Public Safety Act. We will work with the Measure Y team and its grantees to provide ongoing analysis on outreach and program effectiveness.

  • Partnered with: John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University
  • Funded by: Skoll Foundation, David and Lucille Packard Foundation, Stanford University Office of the President

Evaluation of the Local School Readiness Initiative

Since 2000, the Children and Families Commission of Orange County has provided funding for the Local School Readiness Initiative. This initiative, which places School Readiness Coordinators in each of Orange County's elementary and unified school districts, builds on the concept that school readiness not only means that children are ready for school, but also that schools are ready for children. The SPHERE Institute recently undertook an evaluation of this initiative to assist the Commission in gaining a better understanding the contributions that School Readiness Coordinators and the Local School Readiness Initiative make to improving young children's readiness for school and schools' efforts to assist children in making a positive transition to kindergarten. The evaluation was largely conducted though surveys, focus groups, and informal conversations with various stakeholders including the School Readiness Coordinators themselves, Commission staff and consultants, school district personnel, early care and education providers, and parents of young children in Orange County.

  • Final Report
  • Funded by: Children and Families Commission of Orange County

Planning and Evaluation for AB1326, The San Mateo County Individualized Child Care Subsidy Pilot

The SPHERE Institute provided planning support and is now directing the evaluation of the AB1326 Individualized Child Care Subsidy Pilot for San Mateo County. Assembly Bill 1326 authorizes this pilot project, the first county child care subsidy plan specifically tailored to the needs and goals of the local community. The pilot allows San Mateo County to address two fundamental concerns: first, that families barely earning enough to meet the high cost of housing in the county are nevertheless considered too high income to qualify for child care subsidies; and second, that the state reimbursement rates for providers contracted to provide high quality child care are so low that providers cannot cover their costs, and therefore, are unable to utilize their full allocation of state and federal child care and child development funds. The plan sets a higher income eligibility threshold for subsidized child care in San Mateo and redirects underused resources to increase provider reimbursement rates. The pilot is currently in its second year and is being evaluated on a number of criteria, including the retention of contracted providers, income growth and child care stability for families, and an increase in the number of children served in contracted slots in the county.

  • Client: San Mateo County Child Care Partnership Council

Planning and Evaluation for SB701, The San Francisco County Individualized Child Care Subsidy Pilot

Following the successful implementation of San Mateo County's Child Care Subsidy Pilot Project (described above), the SPHERE Institute provided planning support for the SB701 Individualized Child Care Subsidy Pilot for San Francisco County. This pilot, which was authorized by Senate Bill 701, is similar to the San Mateo pilot and allows San Francisco County to address the same two fundamental concerns that are described above. The plan sets a higher income eligibility threshold for subsidized child care in San Francisco and redirects underused resources to increase provider reimbursement rates. The pilot is currently in its first year and will be evaluated yearly on a number of criteria, including the retention of contracted providers, income growth and child care stability for families, and an increase in the number of children served in contracted slots in the county.

  • Client: San Francisco Child Care Planning and Advisory Council

Participation Under the Farm Bill and Alternative Food Assistance Policies

This study will examine key Food Stamp Program provisions from the 2002 Farm Bill, using a Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)-based micro-simulation model.  Impacts on participation and benefit levels will be projected for those Farm Bill provisions allowing for simplified reporting, transitional food stamps for families leaving cash welfare, and partial restoration of benefits to legal immigrants.  Cost impacts of simplified reporting options will be simulated.  Modifications to the model will enhance its reliability and refine its capacity to simulate consequences of alternative reporting methods for the National School Lunch Program.

  • Funded by: Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Reforming Pensions Financing:  An Assessment of the Fiscal Cost of Public Sector Pension Plans in Mexico

This study will consolidate data for all pension plans for federal, state, and local public sector employees in Mexico to develop a simulation model that estimates the implicit liabilities of the pension system.  This model will be used to project the consequences of maintaining the current benefits on future pension expenditures and assess the implications to the federal budget.

  • Funded by: World Bank

Care Price Dynamics in California

This project will inform proposals to change child care subsidy policies, especially under a proposed "master plan" process to re-examine the child care system in the state.  The project has four basic objectives: (1) to trace trends in prices over the last decade; (2) to relate price changes to supply and demand characteristics of county and sub-county markets; (3) to deepen our understanding of how child care providers set prices; and (4) to assess what effect the presence of vouchers, the reimbursement rate ceiling or other policy changes may have on the overall price of care in the private market.  To meet these objectives, we will work with the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network to conduct a longitudinal analysis of a decade of child care price data collected through the annual Regional Market Rate (RMR) survey.  In addition, we will complete a case study of providers in Kern County and San Mateo County, assessing how changes in input costs are translated into child care market prices.  Linked with this work, we will examine potential expansions to the RMR survey to improve the value of this data as a policy analysis tool.

  • Funded by: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, and the Public Policy Institute of California

Evaluation of Children and Families Commission of Orange County's Capacity Building Program

The goal of this project is to assess the success of the capacity building grants awarded in the Children and Families Commission's first six funding rounds, in addition to identifying some best practices for choosing future capacity building grantees.  To date, the Commission has issued 91 capacity building grants, which are intended as one-time start-up funds and cannot be used to supplant an existing or expiring source of revenue.  In order to ensure the optimal and effective use of future capacity building funds, our project is designed to help the Commission understand the strengths, weaknesses, and evolution of its capacity building program.  We will also assess the impact of CONNECT - the Commission's technical assistance program - on the ability of grantees to meet their objectives.

  • Funded by: Children and Families Commission of Orange County
 



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