Voluntary versus court-ordered measures: Exploring differences in child placement.

• In Event: Parenting intervention

Abstract

In 2021-2022, 32 833 children had comprised situations and were receiving Child Protective Services (CPS) in Quebec, Canada (Ministère de la santé et des services sociaux, 2022). Of those children, 38.2% were placed with kinship or non-kinship foster families and 8.1% were placed in a residential center or group home. Statistics such as types of placements and duration are often provided for all children who receive child protective services, but it is unclear how many families had voluntary measures versus court-ordered measures. Although voluntary agreements have been around for many decades within Child Protective Services in Quebec, little is known about the families and services received and if there are any differences with families with court-ordered measures. This study is part of a larger pilot study aiming to look at families with voluntary agreements to specify their characteristics. This study’s objective is to compare placements in families with and without voluntary agreements. Method: First, the sample included all families beginning a voluntary agreement between Sept. 2017 and August 2018. Data collection was done using the child’s file and included child and parent’s characteristics, interventions and services received during the first 12 months. Within the 312 children with a voluntary agreement, 36 had a placement. To compare children’s placement with families with court-ordered measures, a matched sample was defined based on children’s age, gender and reason for CPS services (neglect, physical abuse, etc.). The comparison group is composed of 32 children. On average, children are 5.8 years old (SD=5.8) at the beginning of the measures (voluntary and court-ordered). Thirty-three percent of children are boys. In 61.8% of cases, CPS is involved because of neglect and risk of neglect. Groups were compared on placement type, duration of placement(s), number of placements, change in caseworkers as well as number of caseworkers, activities to plan a return home, number of attempts to go back home, the decision at the end of 12 months as well as prior history with CPS. To compare groups, T-tests were computed for continuous variables and Chi-square tests were computed for categorical variables. Results. As shown in Table 1, there are no significant differences between groups on the placement type, the number of placements and duration, the attempts to go back home or the decision at the end of 12 months. There was one significant difference between the groups on being involved with CPS prior to this episode of service. Eleven percent of children with voluntary agreements had been involved with CPS prior to the placement compared to 34% of children with court-ordered measures. Discussion. The present findings show that there are almost no differences concerning the placement of children out of home whether the families agree to the CPS measures or have court-ordered measures. Prior episode of service with CPS may be related to court-ordered measures as families having received services before and/or their caseworker may be less inclined to seek a voluntary agreement. The implications of these results in the context of this pilot project will be discussed.

Authors

• Julie Lessard, Laval University
  Presenting Author

• Doris Chateauneuf, Centre de recherche sur les jeunes et les familles

• Karine Poitras

• Audrey Gauthier-Légaré, University Centre for Research on Youth and Families