ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a variety of placement-related measures, as well as guidelines for their use. Child placement has excellent “reliability” because it is basically nonambiguous and is easily verifiable. Reductions in child placement are thought to be associated with dramatic cost savings, and society values family preservation and children’s ties to birth family members. The body of research regarding the benefits of placement versus birth-family care remains contradictory. The chapter discusses a number of the complexities associated with using placement as an outcome variable, along with some proposed solutions. These complexities include differing definitions of placement, defining placement as “service failure,” organizational and environmental influences on placement rates, problems with current approaches to case screening and decision-making, and the limitations of placement as a measure of success. Variation in placement rates across states may represent differences in state policies and resources as much as differences in the effectiveness of placement prevention services.
