Evaluating the impact of Family Visit Coaching on future system contact

Families often experience challenges while working toward and following family reunification. During the reunification process, child–parent family time (sometimes called family visitation) plays a significant role in helping to maintain child and family connection and in moving families toward reunification. If done with support and promotion of high-quality interactions, there is potential that the gains made during child–parent family time, such as improved parenting skills, could also promote family stability following family reunification. This quasi-experimental study evaluated Family Visit Coaching (FVC), a child–parent family time prevention strategy serving children at the highest risk of long-term placement and reentry into foster care. The study aimed to answer whether program participation affected the likelihood that children will have subsequent interactions with County of San Diego Child Welfare Services and the outcomes (i.e., re-report, substantiation, and foster care reentry) of those interactions when they occur during a 12-month follow-up period after the end of the program. The comparison group included child welfare–impacted participants who received services as usual and who were matched on race/ethnicity, allegation type, prior child welfare history, median income, and child age. This study sample included children whose parents participated in FVC and were reunified with their parents after time in out-of-home care. A propensity score optimal matching method design was used. Children whose parents participated in FVC experienced significantly fewer substantiations within 12 months than children whose parents received services as usual. There were no significant differences in re-reports.