RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DISCHARGE OUTCOMES FOR TREATMENT FOSTER-CARE CLIENTS AND PROGRAM CHARACTERISTICS

Data collected from a survey of treatment foster-care programs permitted an exploratory study of relationships among type of discharge (planned or unplanned), restrictiveness of postdischarge living arrangements, and the program characteristics (per client annual cost, basis of payments and amount paid to family care providers, perservice and inservice training requirements for family care providers, maximum caseload permitted for social workers, program treatment theory, program size, maximum number of placements permitted per family care provider, and the average number of clients per home). Data were available for 1,521 youth discharged from 210 treatment foster-care programs in the United States and Canada. Of the total discharges, 60% were planned, and 63% of the youth were discharged to settings less restrictive than treatment foster care. No meaningful associations were found between program characteristics and type of discharge or restrictiveness of discharge setting. Additional research is necessary to establish the relationship, if any, between program characteristics and program success before moving to impose standards that may increase the cost of delivering treatment foster care but not increase program success.