Case study:
Florida Circuit 12
Within 12 months of supplementing its Family Support service array with CarePortal, the Safe Children Coalition reported at 60% reduction in children entering out-of-home care.
Introduction
The Department of Children and Families in the State of Florida contracts with several Community-Based Care (CBC) agencies throughout the state who are responsible for providing child welfare services that are region-specific and child-focused. For the past 25 years, the Safe Children Coalition (SCC) has been the CBC agency for Judicial Circuit 12 composed of Manatee, Sarasota, and Desoto counties, offering services including but not limited to education, prevention, diversion, foster care, adoption, and more. Despite having the least amount of state funding allocated per child served amongst all CBCs in fiscal year 2021, SCC served 9,285 at-risk children and families this past fiscal year.
Community Information
SCC does a remarkable job of serving a community with a longstanding history of crisis. Manatee County, in particular, was once the epicenter of the national opioid crisis which had a dramatic impact on the amount of children being removed from their homes and placed into out-of-home care. Despite many measures to address the substance abuse issue across the community, this remains the most common reason children enter out-of-home care, and kids continue to be removed at a disproportionately higher rate than surrounding areas.
Partnership and Support
Launching within this one team enabled SCC to monitor the effectiveness of adding CarePortal as a support tool wthin the child welfare system in Circuit 12 in many ways. Through support training and ongoing encouragement, local churches began to engage with frequency and longevity, providing a sustainable source of care for local vulnerable families. By using CarePortal to build bridges and connect child-serving professionals with the faith community, agency workers (who were under-resourced and experiencing extreme burnout) experienced encouragement, appreciation, and joy from the local church while gaining vital reinforcements to serve children and families with excellence.
Most significantly, due to the nature of prevention and diversion services, the number of children being directed to out-of-home care services began to drop and stayed consistently lower each month CarePortal has been in effect.
SCC has implemented CarePortal on these additional teams to support each area of service:
(in order of implementation)
Prevention and Diversion
- Emergency Response and Assessment Team
- Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act Team (CAPTA)
- Family Support Services Team
- Safety Management Team
- In-Home Non-Judicial Services Team
Judicial Services
- Post Reunification Team
Out of Home Care
- Relative/Non Relative Placement Team (Caregiver Assistance Program)
KEY FINDINGS
Within 12 months of using CarePortal, SCC reported the following:
60%
decrease in children entering out-of-home care
The rate of children experiencing a verified report resulting in removal decreased from 10.4% to 4.3% within 12 months.
20+
local churches engaged in serving children
$119,683
economic
impact
532
children jointly
served through FSS and CarePortal
100%
of families served
were offered ongoing, meaningful connection to a local church.
When SCC supplemented its Family Support service array with a request to CarePortal, they realized a 60% reduction of children removed within 12 months. This impact is due to a decrease of children experiencing a verified report resulting in a removal within 12 months from 10.4% to 4.3%.
Last Fiscal Year Comparison (Per CARS):
7/1/2020 – 6/30/2021
511
Family support cases
458
no subsequent removals with 12 months
89.62%
non-removal Rate Family Support Cases
(10.38% recurrence rate)
Data Analysis by MindShare Technology
CarePortal Data
When SCC supplemented its Family Support service array with a request to CarePortal, they realized a 60% reduction of children removed within 12 months.
This impact is due to a decrease of children experiencing a verified report resulting in a removal within 12 months from 10.4% to 4.4%
Impact from 7/1/2020 – 6/30/2021
511
Total Families Served thru Family Support (Prevention)
458
Total Families with No Subsequent Removal within 12 Months
10.4%
% Families with Subsequent Removal within 12 Months with No Care Portal Intervention Supplementing Service Array
4.4%
% Families with Subsequent Removal within 12 Months with Care Portal Intervention Supplements the Family Support (Prevention) Service Array
60%
% Reduction in Removals within 12 Months once Care Portal Intervention Supplements the Family Support (Prevention) Service Array
