Children's Bureau Website - New Mexico - State and Tribal Assisted Guardianship

New Mexico

Demonstration Type:	State and Tribal Assisted Guardianship
Approved:	June 14, 1999
Implemented:	Tribal Component: July 1, 2000 State Component: April 2001
Completed:	December 31, 2005¹
Interim Evaluation Report Date:	February 2003
Final Evaluation Report Date:	December 22, 2005

Target Population

The State’s assisted guardianship demonstration included two components: (1) a Tribal Custody Component for children in the legal custody of New Mexico Tribes and Pueblos, and (2) a State Custody Component for Native American and non-Native American children in State custody. Participation in the Tribal Custody Component was open to title IV-E eligible Native American children ages 0-18 in the legal custody of Tribes or Pueblos for whom reunification and adoption had been ruled out as permanency options. The State Custody Component was available to title IV-E-eligible Native American and non-Native American children ages 0-18 in the legal custody of the State for whom reunification and adoption were ruled out.

Jurisdiction

Participation in the Tribal Custody Component was open to nine Tribes and Pueblos in New Mexico, including eight with Joint Powers Agreements (Cochiti Pueblo, Jicarilla Apache Nation, Nambe Pueblo, Navajo Nation, Picuris Pueblo, Santa Clara, Taos, and Santa Ana Pueblo) and one with a Title IV-E Waiver Agreement (Pueblo of Zuni).² By December 2004, only two tribal communities – Navajo Nation and the Santa Ana Pueblo – had chosen to participate in the Tribal Custody Component. In contrast, the State Custody Component was implemented statewide.

Intervention

Both guardianship components offered a monthly financial subsidy to foster caregivers who assumed legal custody of a child in out-of-home placement. In addition, both components sought to improve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for Native American and non-Native American children in out-of-home placement for whom adoption or reunification were not viable permanency options. In both components, assisted guardianship payments were similar to, but could not exceed, the State’s adoption assistance payment rate.

Evaluation Design

The evaluation consisted of process and outcome components, as well as a cost analysis. To ensure the implementation of a culturally appropriate and sensitive evaluation, the State’s evaluators worked with an Evaluation Advisory Council comprised of ten members representing both the State of New Mexico and several Tribes and Pueblos.

As described below, New Mexico implemented separate evaluation designs for the Tribal and State Custody Components of this waiver demonstration:

Tribal Assisted Guardianship Component: The evaluation of the Tribal Guardianship Component involved a comparison group design in which outcomes for Native American children in Tribal custody who enter assisted guardianship (experimental group) were compared with outcomes for Native American children in State custody (comparison group).

State Custody Component: The evaluation of the State Custody Component utilized an experimental research design in which children were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Children in the experimental group were eligible for and could be offered assisted guardianship, whereas children in the control group were not eligible for the guardianship subsidy. All children were assigned to either the experimental or control group immediately upon entering the State’s child welfare system.

Outcome measures of interest for both the Tribal and State Custody Components included number of placements per child; length of time in out-of-home placement; number and proportion of children exiting out-of-home placement to adoption, guardianship, or reunification; number of homes available for guardianship or adoption; proximity of the child’s current or permanent placement to the child’s family of origin; number and proportion of cases with a re-allegation of maltreatment; number and proportion of children who re-enter foster care; child well-being; family functioning; and caregiver and child satisfaction with demonstration services.

Evaluation Findings

Process Evaluation

Tribal Custody Component

As of September 2005, a total of 40 children entered guardianship through the Tribal Custody Component.

Native American children in Tribal custody who entered assisted guardianship had somewhat different demographic characteristics than Native American children in State custody. For example, they tended to be younger at the time of their first out-of-home placement than Native American children in State custody (5.1 years on average compared to 6.9 years) and were more likely to be male (52.3 percent compared to 42.5 percent). In terms of Tribal affiliation, children in Tribal custody who entered assisted guardianship were almost entirely Navajo (90 percent), compared with only 56.3 percent of children in State custody.

State Custody Component

As of October 2005, 6,339 children were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 6,150 children to the control group through the State Custody Guardianship Component. No major differences emerged between the two groups in terms of age, gender, or race.

A total of 1,650 Native American children were enrolled in the State Custody Component as of October 2005. Of these, 811 (49 percent) were assigned to the experimental group and 839 (51 percent) were assigned to the control group.

Altogether, 194 children entered assisted guardianship through the State Custody Component, including 185 non-Native children and 9 Native American children.

Outcome Evaluation

Tribal Assisted Guardianship Component

Few outcome findings are available regarding the Tribal Assisted Guardianship Component. However, some potentially positive findings emerged regarding children in Tribal custody who entered assisted guardianship:

Compared with adopted youth, a higher proportion of children in assisted guardianship were placed in close proximity to their families of origin (65 percent versus 51 percent).

Youth in assisted guardianship appeared to achieve permanency more quickly than adopted children, spending on average 720 days in out-of-home placement prior to exiting foster care compared to 1,090 days for adopted children.

State Custody Component

As with the Tribal Custody Component, few outcome findings are available regarding the State Custody component. The available data indicate no major differences between the experimental and control groups with respect to placement duration or exits to permanency:

As of October 2005, net permanence (defined as exits to reunification, adoption, or guardianship) was somewhat higher in the experimental group (63.8 percent) than in the control group (59.2 percent), a difference of 4.6 percent. The State did not indicate whether this difference in net permanence was statistically significant. No differences emerged between the experimental group and the control group in reunification rates (45.5 percent versus 45.8 percent, respectively), while adoption rates were slightly higher in the experimental group (14.6 percent) than in the control group (13.4 percent).

By the end of the demonstration, experimental group children had spent more time in out-of-home placement on average than children in the control group (670 days versus 622.5 days). The State did not indicate in its final evaluation report whether this difference in placement duration was statistically significant.

¹New Mexico’s demonstration was originally scheduled to end June 30, 2005. The State received one short-term extension that allowed implementation to continue through December 31, 2005. Back

²See separate profile describing New Mexico’s Administration of title IV-E Funds waiver demonstration. Back

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