Do specialty courts achieve better outcomes for children in foster care than general courts?
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the effects of unified family and drug treatment courts
(DTCs) on the resolution of cases involving foster care children and the resulting
effects on school performance. METHOD: The first analytic step was to assess the impacts
of presence of unified and DTCs in North Carolina counties on time children spent
in foster care and the type of placement at exit from foster care. In the second step,
the same data on foster care placements were merged with school records for youth
in Grades 3-8 in public schools. The effect of children's time in foster care and
placement outcomes on school performance as measured by math and reading tests, grade
retention, and attendance was assessed using child fixed-effects regression. RESULTS:
Children in counties with unified family courts experienced shorter foster care spells
and higher rates of reunification with parents or primary caregivers. Shorter foster
care spells translated into improved school performance measured by end-of-grade reading
and math test scores. Adult DTCs were associated with lower probability of reunification
with parents/primary caregivers. CONCLUSION: The shortened time in foster care implies
an efficiency gain attributable to unified family courts, which translate into savings
for the court system through the use of fewer resources. Children also benefit through
shortened stays in temporary placements, which are related to some improved educational
outcomes.
Type
Journal articleSubject
child welfarecrime and justice (adult and juvenile)
education
Adolescent
Adult
Child
Child Custody
Child Welfare
Child of Impaired Parents
Educational Status
Efficiency, Organizational
Family
Female
Foster Home Care
Humans
Juvenile Delinquency
Longitudinal Studies
Male
North Carolina
Poverty
Regression Analysis
Substance Abuse Treatment Centers
Time Factors
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12807Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1177/0193841X13487536Publication Info
Sloan, Frank A; Gifford, Elizabeth J; Eldred, Lindsey M; Acquah, Kofi F; & Blevins,
Claire E (2013). Do specialty courts achieve better outcomes for children in foster care than general
courts?. Eval Rev, 37(1). pp. 3-34. 10.1177/0193841X13487536. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/12807.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Lindsey Eldred Kozecke
Staff
Lindsey Eldred Kozecke is a Research Scholar at Duke University. She first joined
Duke in 2005, shortly after earning her law degree from Benjamin Cardozo School of
Law. She began her research at Duke in the Center for Health Policy (now known as
the Global Health Institute), and joined the Department of Economics in 2009. Ms.
Eldred Kozecke focuses her research on the intersection of health and the law. Her
current research focuses on substance use and misuse, treatment courts, and legal
levers
Elizabeth Joanne Gifford
Associate Research Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Beth Gifford is an associate research professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Gifford is leading the Social and Economic Component of the Children’s Health and
Discovery Institute housed within the Duke School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics.
She uses large administrative and population-level datasets to study individual
Frank A. Sloan
J. Alexander McMahon Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Health Policy and Management
Professor Sloan is interested in studying the subjects of health policy and the economics
of aging, hospitals, health, pharmaceuticals, and substance abuse. He has received
funding from numerous research grants that he earned for studies of which he was the
principal investigator. His most recent grants were awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, the Center for Disease Control, the Pew Charitable Trust, and the National
Institute on Aging. Titles of his projects include, “Why Mature S
Alphabetical list of authors with Scholars@Duke profiles.

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