Children's Bureau Website - Indiana - Flexible Funding

Indiana

Demonstration Type:	Flexible Funding – Phase II
Approved:	June 30, 2005
Implemented:	July 1, 2005
Expected Completion Date:	June 30, 2010
Interim Evaluation Report Expected:	March 1, 2008
Final Evaluation Report Expected:	January 1, 2011

Background

Indiana’s original flexible funding waiver demonstration was completed in January 2003 and continued under several short-term extensions through June 30, 2005. For its five-year (Phase II) waiver extension, the State is continuing its demonstration of the flexible use of title IV-E funds and seeks to improve on the process and outcome findings reported for its original waiver demonstration. In particular, the State hopes to promote the utilization of waiver dollars by a greater number of counties in light of the finding from its original demonstration that only 25 of 90 participating counties made significant use of waiver funds.

Target Population

The target population for the Phase II demonstration includes title IV-E and non-IV-E-eligible children at risk of or currently in out-of-home placement, as well as their parents or caregivers. In 2006, the State adopted modified criteria for referring cases to the waiver demonstration, with the new referral protocol more narrowly defining cases that belong to the demonstration’s target population. Specifically, “service cases” (i.e., families with a substantiated maltreatment report but no previous CPS history and no recommendation for CPS involvement) are being phased out beginning September 1, 2006, and will not be eligible for waiver assignment after April 2007.

Jurisdiction

All 92 counties in Indiana are eligible to participate in the Phase II waiver demonstration.

Intervention

Under its waiver extension, Indiana counties are continuing to develop and implement innovative child welfare services, including community-based wraparound services and home-based alternatives to out-of-home placement. As in the original demonstration, each participating county receives a certain number of waiver “slots” in which eligible children may be placed. A capitated payment of $9,000 is allocated to each slot, which is used by a county to provide targeted community and home-based services appropriate for the needs and circumstances of the child and his or her family. The State allocates slots to participating counties based on selected demographic variables, including population size and poverty rates. Statewide, no more than 4,000 waiver slots are available at any given time.

Prior to the start of the waiver extension, the State re-established Interagency Agreements governing implementation of the waiver among all participating counties.
The Agreements are signed by the local juvenile court judge and the local child welfare agency and establish the criteria for the coordination and provision of child welfare services under the demonstration.

A new feature of Indiana’s Phase II demonstration involves the institution of a statewide system of waiver “champions” to serve as experts and consultants on the IV-E waiver demonstration. The champions include family case managers, bookkeepers, child welfare supervisors, and county directors. As of June 2006, 50 champions have been identified, trained, and are providing local field support regarding the waiver.

Evaluation Design

The evaluation includes process, outcome, and cost-effectiveness components. Using a matched case comparison group design, the evaluation tests the hypothesis that the flexible use of title IV-E funds for wraparound services and home-based placement alternatives will (1) prevent out-of-home placements, particularly in restrictive institutional settings; (2) reduce lengths of stay in out-of-home care; (3) decrease the incidence and recurrence of child maltreatment; and (4) enhance child and family well-being.

To implement the matched case comparison design, the State’s evaluation contractor uses a computer algorithm that selects the best possible match for each experimental group child from the pool of children who have not been assigned to the waiver. This method ensures that the IV-E status of the experimental group child matches that of the comparison child at the time of the match and that the case type of the experimental group child matches that of the comparison child (e.g., delinquency, CHINS). Other matching variables may include (1) county of the case, (2) opening date of the case, (3) age of the child, (4) sex of the child, (5) removal and placement status, (6) number of previous removals and placements, (7) number of days in previous placement, (8) type of substantiated child abuse or neglect, and (9) maltreatment risk level.

Data Collection

For evaluation purposes, the State’s evaluation contractor maintains a database that consists of monthly file extracts from the Indiana Child Welfare Information System (ICWIS). These extracts are cumulative from 1997 to the present and include data on all children ever assigned to the waiver experimental group, all other children currently in or who have been in out-of-home placement and their siblings, all children assigned to court custody but not removed from their homes, and all other children with an open child welfare case. Newly assigned experimental group children and matching comparison group children are added to the database over time.

Process Evaluation

The State’s process evaluation describes how the demonstration was implemented in each participating county and identifies differences in the services received by experimental and matched comparison cases. Specific research questions that are being addressed through the process evaluation include the following:

To what extent did counties utilize their allocated waiver slots? What factors accounted for differences among counties in their utilization of waiver slots?
What differences emerge among counties in terms of the populations targeted for waiver slots (e.g., CHINS cases, delinquency cases)?
What are the demographic characteristics (e.g., sex, race/ethnicity, poverty rates) of children assigned to waiver slots?
What differences emerge among counties in terms of the types of services provided using allocated waiver funds? To what extent did children and families receive services and supports that they would not have received in the absence of the waiver?
What are the attitudes of child welfare caseworkers, child welfare agency administrators, juvenile court judges, probation officers, and community stakeholders (e.g., school administrators, local child and family service organizations) toward the waiver?
To what extent were community stakeholders (e.g., juvenile courts, probation officers, school personnel, county officials) involved in the planning and implementation of the waiver?

Outcome Evaluation

The State’s outcome evaluation compares the experimental and matched comparison groups for significant differences in the following outcome measures:

The proportion of children with an alleged or substantiated disposition of child abuse or neglect who enter out-of-home placement
The proportion of children who enter placement in restrictive institutional settings, including out-of-state facilities
Of all children who enter out-of-home placement, the proportion exiting to reunification, adoption, or guardianship
The time from foster care entry to foster care exit for each permanency outcome
Placement duration in restrictive institutional settings, including out-of-state facilities
Of all children who exit to each permanency outcome, the proportion experiencing a subsequent substantiated report of abuse or neglect
Of all children who exit to reunification, the proportion who re-enter out-of-home care
Changes in child and family well-being and functioning

Evaluation Findings

Process Findings

Between July 2005 and June 2006, approximately 600 new cases have been assigned to the waiver demonstration, with approximately 1,000 active cases (new assignments and carryovers) enrolled in the demonstration as of June 2006. Since January 1998, a cumulative total of over 8,000 children have been assigned to the waiver demonstration. The percentage of IV-E eligible children assigned to the waiver has also increased substantially, from 38 percent as of December 2005 to 47.8 percent as of May 2006. Moreover, a total of 15 counties significantly increased their waiver assignments during the first half of 2006, with nine counties more than doubling the number of cases assigned between January-May 2006 compared with July-December 2005. The State expects that these proportions will continue to increase, along with the overall number of cases assigned to the waiver, due to increased monitoring by the State, the impact of the network of regional “waiver champions,” improvements in the IV-E eligibility determination process, and enhancements to ICWIS.

Outcome Evaluation

Evaluation findings are pending continued implementation of Indiana’s Phase II waiver demonstration.

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