Foster Care Reentry: A survival analysis assessing differences across permanency type.

Area of Science:

• Child Welfare Research
• Family Studies
• Social Work

Background:

• Foster care reentry is a critical metric for assessing permanency outcomes.
• Current reentry evaluations often focus narrowly on reunification and short-term (12-month) data.
• A comprehensive understanding of reentry across diverse permanency types is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine foster care reentry rates across various permanency types.
• To identify factors influencing the likelihood of children reentering care after achieving permanency.
• To provide a more nuanced evaluation of permanency success.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of a cohort of 8107 children achieving permanency between 2009-2013.
• Kaplan-Meier survival analysis to compare reentry across permanency types (reunification, relative guardianship, non-relative guardianship).
• Cox regression survival analysis controlling for demographics, services, and risk factors.

Main Results:

• 14% of children reentered foster care within 18 months, with an average time to reentry of 6.36 months.
• Kin guardianship showed the lowest reentry odds, followed by non-kin guardianship, and then reunification.
• Reunification against agency recommendations had the highest reentry odds.

Conclusions:

• Permanency type is a significant predictor of foster care reentry.
• Kin guardianship appears to be a more stable permanency outcome compared to reunification.
• Cumulative risk and permanency type are key determinants of reentry, underscoring the importance of placement stability.