Caseworker documentation of mothers in foster care: A case study in California

Young people in foster care frequently experience early parenting, and U.S. law requires the documentation of parents in care. The extent to which the child protection system (CPS) has accurately collected information on parents in care remains largely unknown and has ramifications for the planning and delivery of services.

Using California as a case study, this study documented young mothers in care using birth records, determined the proportion of mothers correctly identified in CPS records, and compared characteristics and placements of mothers who were or were not identified.

All mothers aged 15-21 years documented by vital birth records (2014 and 2019) were probabilistically linked to CPS records, yielding 3199 mothers in care.

We compared mothers who were or were not identified in CPS records using bivariate statistics. A chi-square test for trends examined differences in documentation over time.

A third of mothers were not identified as such in CPS records (n = 1136). The proportion of mothers identified by caseworkers rose from 50 % in 2014 to 71.5 % in 2019 (p < .001). Nonminor dependent mothers and those placed in supervised independent living programs were more likely to be misclassified in CPS data.

Motherhood may not be documented in CPS records; however, significant improvements were evident. Results suggest that all nonminor dependents should be informed of available services for expectant and parenting individuals, especially if they are living in less restrictive placements, given they are more likely to give birth and less likely to be identified in CPS records than minor dependents.