Project Title: Trajectories of Economic Disconnection among Families in the Child Welfare System: Using Administrative Data to Assess Implications for Family Reunification

Project Description: This project will focus on a particularly vulnerable subgroup of poor families with children – those who come in contact with the child welfare system. The goal of the project will be to discern patterns of family income dynamics – and types of economic disconnection – relative to spells of child welfare involvement and assess the impact of these trajectories on family reunification (versus termination of parental rights). Family reunification, as soon as safely possible, is the preferred outcome of child welfare intervention. The longer youth remain in care, the more likely they are to experience multiple moves and escalating risk including behavioral problems, delinquency, and school failure.