Mandatory Reporting, Institutional Variation, and Child Wellbeing: Novel Evidence from the Child Welfare System

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Despite the fact that over 1 in 3 children are subject to an investigation by child protective services (CPS) over the course of their childhood, remarkably little evidence exists on the causal effect of reports and investigations. Most research over the last two decades has centered around removal from the home and placement into foster care, a downstream consequence of reports and investigations. This panel addresses this gap by convening four interdisciplinary teams to generate novel evidence on the causal effects of mandatory reporting. We leverage high-dimensional administrative records to investigate how reporting and investigations in general, and those stemming from medical providers and educators – the two most common reporters – impact child safety and wellbeing. Here we describe each paper in turn.
The first paper investigates the role of educational institutions in generating reports to CPS by comparing report rates across public schools for children between kindergarten through fifth grade. Findings indicate that, despite wide variation in school-level reporting tendency – ranging from virtually none to nearly 50% of students being reported – attending high-report schools is not associated with children’s academic achievement. The finding of wide variation in institutional variation corroborates the second paper in our panel.

The second paper asks whether infants benefit from marginal reports from medical providers and hospitals in terms of short-run outcomes, such as child welfare system involvement, children’s health, and wellbeing, as well as longer-term outcomes such as parent’s subsequent fertility and family stability. The researchers find that hospital-level reporting tendency represents an important source of variation in subsequent child welfare system contact, providing novel insight into opportunities for early identification and prevention. Findings corroborate the second and fourth papers in our panel.

The third paper leverages the fact that children who are admitted to the emergency department (ED) are quasi-randomly assigned to physicians who differ in terms of their tendency to report suspected maltreatment to child welfare authorities. Findings indicate that children assigned to high-reporting tendency physicians exhibit increased rates of subsequent CPS investigations and removals, corroborating the conclusions of the second and fourth papers.

The fourth paper estimates the causal effect of being investigated – the consequence of the reporting decisions evaluated in the three other panel papers – on children’s academic achievement using linked administrative records. To answer this question, the researchers construct a representative sample of children who are quasi-randomly assigned to child protection hotline screeners who vary in terms of their tendency to recommend investigations. Using instrumental variable methods, the researchers find that investigations are associated with mixed effects, with heterogeneity analysis indicating that only higher-risk children appear to benefit. Findings provide insight into the conclusions drawn by the other papers in our panel.

Collectively, findings from this panel provide new evidence for policymakers and practitioners seeking to balance the responsibility of child protection and safety against the potential harms of institutional over-reach.

Policy Area

• Family and Child Policy

Chair

• Maria Cancian, Georgetown University McCourt School

Discussants

• Ezra G. Goldstein, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Caroline Frances Dorothy Black, Casey Family Programs

Organizer

• Jessica Erin Pac, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Individual Presentations

• Institutional Variation in Child Maltreatment Reporting - Presenting Author: Maria D. Fitzpatrick, Cornell University

• Hospitals as Reporters: Determinants and Consequences of Early-Life Child Protection Contact - Presenting Author: Katherine Rittenhouse, University of Texas at Austin

• Emergency Department Physician Reporting of Suspected Child Maltreatment: Effects on Child Safety and Wellbeing - Presenting Author: Jessica Erin Pac, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• The Impact of Maltreatment Investigations on Child Wellbeing - Presenting Author: Jason Baron, Duke University