Stephanie Lee, Steve Aos, Marna Miller - July 2008

The 2007 Washington Legislature directed the Institute to estimate whether “evidence-based” programs and policies can “reduce the likelihood of children entering and remaining in the child welfare system, including both prevention and intervention programs.” In this report, we study three basic questions: Is there evidence that specific programs “work” to improve these outcomes? If so, do benefits outweigh program costs? Finally, what would be the total net gain to Washington if these evidence-based programs were implemented more widely?

To answer these questions, we systematically reviewed the “what works” literature regarding programs and policies that affect child welfare outcomes. We then estimated the monetary value of the benefits, including factors such as reduced child welfare system expenditures, reduced costs to the victims of child maltreatment, improved educational and labor market performance, and reduced crime-related costs.

Jim Mayfield, Mason Burley - July 2008

In 2006, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services established two pilot sites for the Integrated Crisis Response Program. At these sites, Designated Crisis Responders (DCR) investigate and have authority to detain individuals with serious mental illness or substance abuse problems. Elsewhere in the state, this function is conducted separately by mental health professionals and chemical dependency specialists. The pilots also created secure detox facilities to hold involuntarily detained individuals. This report describes outcomes of clients admitted to these secure detox facilities. Due to the preliminary nature of this study and the challenge of identifying an adequate comparison group, these findings should not be considered final.

Laura Schrager - July 2008

This report presents preliminary information on the implementation of the Foster Care to College (FCTC) mentoring program in Washington State. This pilot program, modeled on King County's Treehouse mentoring program for foster youth, expands the availability of education-focused mentoring to foster youth in all regions of the state.

This preliminary report reviews the background of the program, describes the program, discusses implementation issues experienced in the first 18 months of the program, and suggests potential program modifications.

Tali Klima, Roxanne Lieb - June 2008

This paper reviews policies and practices regarding assessment of sex offenders for risk of reoffense among public agencies and private treatment providers in Washington State. Specifically, we reviewed the use of risk assessment instruments, which gauge the likelihood that individual sex offenders will reoffend.

We found that a diverse set of instruments are employed by public and private entities in making decisions about sex offenders. These decisions include sentencing, facility assignment, treatment, release, public notification, and community supervision. As expected, there was greater variability in risk assessment practices among private treatment providers than public agencies.

Marna Miller - June 2008

The 2007 Legislature created the Racial Disproportionality Advisory Committee to study disproportion in Washington’s child welfare system, and directed the Institute to conduct analyses for the Committee. The initial analysis found that Indian, Black, and Hispanic children referred to Child Protective Services (CPS) in the 2004 study year were present in the system at rates greater than White children, and that Asian children were under-represented in the child welfare system. Further analysis determined that most of the disproportionality occurred at point of referral to CPS alleging abuse or neglect. Controlling for poverty, geography, age of the child, and other factors using regression analysis still indicated disproportionality at many points in the child welfare system.

Robert Barnoski - May 2008

The Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration (JRA) within the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services contracted with the Institute to determine if an empirically valid risk assessment for sexual reoffending could be developed using data from the Intensive Parole Supervision Assessment (IPSA). This report summarizes our findings.

Wade Cole - May 2008

This report updates our effort to identify schools whose students performed above or below expectations on the WASL. To the spring 2006 WASL results we add another set of results, from spring 2007, to determine whether any schools beat the odds for two consecutive years. We also include 4th- and 7th-grade results to identify elementary and middle schools that beat the odds.

Mason Burley - May 2008

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 39,039 adults who received public mental health services in January 2004. At the end of four years, mental health consumers were classified into those that 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”). Using administrative data, we looked at utilization patterns by demographics (age, region, and sex), previous utilization of mental health services, diagnoses, Medicaid eligibility, and functioning and impairment. After highlighting factors associated with service utilization, we outline future reports in this series that will address outcomes for public mental health consumers.

Stephanie Lee, Steve Aos, Marna Miller - May 2008

The 2007 Washington State Legislature directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to study evidence-based, cost-effective programs and policies to reduce the likelihood of children entering and remaining in the child welfare system, including both prevention and intervention programs.
The “bottom line” goal of the study is to provide the legislature with reliable estimates of the costs and benefits of prevention and intervention programs that are designed to reduce involvement in the child welfare system.

Roxanne Lieb, Corey Nunlist - March 2008

The 1990 Legislature directed the Institute to evaluate the effectiveness of the Community Protection Act. As part of this evaluation, the Institute contracted in 1997 with the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC) at Washington State University to conduct telephone interviews with a sample of Washington State residents regarding the community notification provisions of the Community Protection Act.

In 2007, the Institute again contracted with SESRC to conduct a nearly identical survey and learn how responses may have changed. The results from both surveys indicate that the vast majority of Washington State residents are familiar with Washington’s community notification law and consider the law very important.