Navigating the services maze: Assessing service needs, referrals, receipts, and child protective services re-report and foster care entry outcomes

Research shows that families involved with Child Protective Services (CPS) have diverse needs not fully met by service referrals and provision. Furthermore, it is still unknown whether the service provision gaps are linked to child safety and permanency outcomes. This study aims to address this research gap by evaluating the rereport and foster care entry outcomes of child welfare services based on the needs, referrals, and receipt of services for families involved with CPS. The National Survey on Child and Adolescent Well-being II (NSCAW II) was used for this study, excluding children with prior reports and those in foster care to focus on re-report and foster care entry outcomes, reducing the sample from 5872 to 2580 children. Logistic Regression analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between services needed, referred, and receipts and child welfare outcomes. The analyses were structured into three sets of models to explore different aspects of service engagement and its impact on child welfare outcomes. Our study shows that specific CPS services, particularly caregivers' needs for mental health and substance misuse services, significantly impact the likelihood of re-reporting and foster care placements. Most families contacting the child welfare system receive only case management services if their report moves beyond investigation. Such an approach requires that services are available, acceptable, and of sufficient quality to meet needs. This paper highlights crucial disparities in service needs, referrals, and receipts among families engaged with CPS. •Caregivers with legal aid needs and serious health services are less likely to face re-reports and foster care entry outcomes, but caregivers's housing needs were associated with both outcomes•Referrals for employment assistance for caregivers are associated with higher re-report and foster care entry outcomes•Referrals for children's learning and developmental problems are associated with re-report outcomes•Children who received services for emotional, behavioral, or attention problems were associated with higher re-report outcomes•Caregiver's substance abuse services were consistently associated with foster care entry outcomes across different service provision processes in all unweighted and weighted models