Welfare reform and child welfare outcomes: A multiple-cohort study

This article reports the results of a study of whether children placed in foster care prior to welfare reform return home more quickly than do children placed in foster care after reform. The study also examines whether specific factors such as a child's mother's loss of cash assistance show a stronger relationship to the speed with which a child returns home after reform than before. The study relies on administrative data; has a prospective multiple-cohort design; and includes a sample of 1560 children. The analysis shows that children who entered foster care after reform are reunified more slowly within 12 months of their placements than are children who entered foster care before reform and that family-income-related variables have a strong relationship to reunification speed. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.