Stephanie Lee, Marna Miller - October 2009

The Washington State Institute for Public Policy was directed by the 2008 Washington Legislature to estimate the effectiveness, costs, and benefits of programs for individuals with developmental disabilities (excluding special education).

We reviewed the research literature to find the best available evidence on the economic impacts of services for individuals with developmental disabilities and found that residential services in the community for similar groups of adults with developmental disabilities cost less on average than institutional care. In some research, supported employment increases clients’ wage earnings and taxes paid, with a reduction in public costs. Several programs have demonstrated positive impacts on various life outcomes.

Mason Burley - August 2009

The 2007 Washington State Legislature established an Office of Public Guardianship within the Administrative Office of the Courts. The office is intended to “promote the availability of guardianship services for individuals who need them and for whom adequate services may otherwise be unavailable.” Public guardianship services are available in six pilot counties throughout Washington State. By June 2009, 71 cases had been referred to public guardians. This report summarizes detailed assessments and discusses the implementation of the public guardianship pilot program.

The Legislature also directed the Institute to “analyze the costs and off-setting savings to the state from the delivery of public guardianship services.” The Institute’s final evaluation report (December 2011) will analyze the benefits and costs of the pilot program.

Elizabeth Drake, Steve Aos - June 2009

The Sex Offender Policy Board asked the Institute to evaluate the effectiveness of sex offender registration and community notification laws on reducing crime. We conducted a systematic review of all research evidence and located nine rigorous evaluations. Some studies address whether the laws influence “specific” deterrence—the effect of a law on the recidivism rates of convicted sex offenders. The remaining studies analyze “general” deterrence—the effect of a law on sex offense rates of the general public, as well as recidivism rates of convicted sex offenders.

At this time, we tentatively conclude that existing research does not offer much policy guidance on the specific deterrent effect of registration/notification laws. For general deterrence, there is some indication that registration laws lower sex offense rates in the public at large. Additional research is necessary before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

Elizabeth Drake - June 2009

The Institute was contracted to evaluate the effectiveness of the Department of Corrections’ “Going Home Project.” The program was designed to transition younger, high-risk, violent offenders into the community. To date, not enough time has passed to conduct an outcome evaluation with a comparison group and 36-month follow-up. This interim report outlines our research design and provides 18-month recidivism rates for program participants.

Tali Klima, Marna Miller, Corey Nunlist - June 2009

The 2008 Washington State Legislature directed the Institute to evaluate evidence-based intervention and prevention programs for truancy. Because truancy and school dropout are closely linked, we also examined dropout prevention programs. In this report, we investigated whether targeted school, court, and law enforcement programs for middle and high school students affect educational outcomes, including high school graduation, dropping out, achievement, and attendance. The results of 22 studies were aggregated, and effective program types are identified.

Tali Klima, Marna Miller, Corey Nunlist - June 2009

This report describes attendance problems in Washington’s schools by identifying the rates of chronically truant students. These students may be the target of multiple school-based interventions, which are the focus of the current report. In 2008, the Washington State Legislature directed the Institute to survey truancy-specific intervention programs and services currently available in Washington’s school districts. Due to the close link between chronic truancy and dropping out, we investigated not only programs for students with specific attendance problems but also those for students at a larger risk of school failure. We also investigated several community-based collaborations that include school district partners and analyzed gaps in student access to existing school services.

Mason Burley - June 2009

The 2001 Washington State Legislature directed the Institute to “conduct a longitudinal study of long-term [mental health] client outcomes to assess any changes in client status at two, five, and ten years.” Every year, the state’s public mental health system serves about 120,000 individuals. To follow changes over time, this paper focuses on a cohort of 38,668 adults who received public mental health services in January 2004. At the end of five years, mental health consumers were classified into those who 1) received services continually (every month), 2) regularly utilized mental health services (every quarter), 3) had intermittent use of mental health services (breaks longer than three months), and 4) clients who received services and did not return (“leavers”). After profiling these four categories of clients, we examine outcomes for each related to employment, housing, hospitalizations, and involvement in the criminal justice system.

Marna Miller - June 2009

The 2008 Legislature directed the Office of the Family and Children's Ombudsman (OFCO) to analyze referrals of child abuse and neglect to find out whether the source of the referral influenced the response by the Child Protective Services (CPS) at the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). OFCO contracted with the Institute to perform the study. We examined a total of 96,000 referrals made between January 2006 and February 2008 and found that educators and social services professionals make more reports to CPS than other types of reporters. Compared with other reporters, referrals from law enforcement were more likely to both be accepted for investigation and result in removal of a child from his or her home.

The study also found variations in the outcomes of referrals from the various types of reporters. The largest variations in outcomes were determined by DSHS region and the risk assignment history of individual intake workers. Intake workers with a history of assigning higher levels of risk than their peers were more likely to continue to assign higher levels of risk.

Janie Maki, Roxanne Lieb - June 2009

The Washington State Institute for Public Policy conducts non-partisan policy research for the state of Washington. Originally conceived in 1982, the organization’s governance structure and operating practices have evolved over time. This paper reviews the history of the Institute’s structure and mission.

Elizabeth Drake, Steve Aos, Marna Miller - April 2009

In 2006, long-term forecasts indicated that Washington faced the need to construct several new prisons in the following two decades. Since new prisons are costly, the legislature directed the Institute to project whether there are “evidence-based” options that can reduce the future need for prison beds, save money for state and local taxpayers, and contribute to lower crime rates. As part of a systematic review of the research evidence, we found and analyzed 545 comparison-group evaluations of adult corrections, juvenile corrections, and prevention programs to determine what works, if anything, to reduce crime. We then estimated the benefits and costs of many of these evidence-based options and found that some evidence-based programs produce favorable returns on investment. This paper presents our findings and describes our meta-analytic and economic methods.