Infant-Toddler Court Teams and Reentry to Foster Care

Infant-Toddler Court Teams (ITCTs) are associated with higher rates of reunification and kinship permanency, but less is known about whether these gains are sustained after children exit care. This study examined reentry to foster care within 12 months of an eligible permanency exit among children served by an ITCT compared to matched controls receiving services as usual. The analytic sample included 206 children (51 treatment; 155 control) who exited to reunification, guardianship, or relative placement with 12 months of follow-up data available. Groups were established through propensity score matching on pretreatment characteristics and were similar on observed child and case characteristics at permanency. No ITCT children reentered foster care during follow-up, compared to five controls (3.2%), a difference that was not statistically significant (pooled p = .402). The absence of reentry among ITCT cases, coupled with substantially higher rates of reunification, suggests the ITCT may achieve family permanency without compromising post-exit stability as measured by federal Child and Family Services Review standards. Although the small treatment-group sample and single-site design warrant cautious interpretation, these findings support a growing body of evidence that ITCTs promote both the rate and durability of family-based permanency for very young children in foster care.