Crosswalk of published quality standards for residential care for children and adolescents

There is a growing emphasis on the need for quality in residential care programs for children and adolescents. This present review is an effort to determine what practices have been identified in published sources specifically focused on quality standards for residential care for children and adolescents. Published quality standards for residential care from seven organizations or government agencies were identified and included in the review. Sixty-five quality standards within 8 domains were identified, and a crosswalk table linking each standard to the seven source documents was produced. Overall there was a 72.5% agreement across the seven sources for the quality standards. The identified quality standards clearly show the common elements and multidimensional nature of quality issues for residential care for children and adolescents. It is imperative that a comprehensive approach to, and measurement of, quality standards become pervasive and fully integrated into the services provided to troubled youth and their families.