Assessing the Field of Post-Adoption Services:
Family Needs, Program Models, and Evaluation Issues:

Analysis of Secondary Data

Submitted by:
Deborah Gibbs and Kristin Siebenaler
RTI International⁽¹⁾

Richard P. Barth
University of North Carolina School of Social Work
Contract No. 100-99-0006

Submitted to:
Laura Feig Radel
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

Funded by:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Administration for Children and Families
Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau

November 2002

This report is available on the Internet at:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/post-adoption01/data-analysis/

“Printer Friendly” version of report:
PDF version

Contents

Executive Summary

Chapters

1. Introduction
   • 1.1 Adoption Subsidies Data
   • 1.2 Adoption Disruption, Dissolution, and Displacement Data
2. Adoption Dissolution, Disruption, and Supports in North Carolina
   • 2.1 North Carolina Administrative Data
   • 2.2 Study Population
   • 2.3 Adoption Displacement or Dissolution
     • 2.3.1 Data for Studying Dissolution
     • 2.3.2 Adoption Dissolution and Displacement in North Carolina
   • 2.4 Adoption Disruption
   • 2.5 Adoption Subsidy and Vendor Payments for Adoptive Families
   • 2.6 Summary
3. Adoption Subsidies in California
   • 3.1 Data Sources
   • 3.2 CLAS Data on Services and Subsidies
   • 3.3 The California AAP Database
     • 3.3.1 AAP Data
     • 3.3.2 Payment Level of the First AAP Payment
     • 3.3.3 Amount and Direction of Payment Changes
     • 3.3.4 Reasons for Payment Changes
     • 3.3.5 Multivariate Analysis of Payment Changes in California
4. Discussion
   • 4.1 Substantive Findings
   • 4.2 Data System Issues

References

Appendices

1. Data Elements from the California Relinquishment/Independent Adoption Program Individual Case Report -AAP
2. CLAS Participants' Responses to Open-Ended Questions about Adoption Costs and Subsidies

Exhibits

• Exhibit 1 Unique IDs by Data Sources
• Exhibit 2 Adoption Assistance Payment Summary
• Exhibit 3 Study Question by Sources of Data
• Exhibit 4 Characteristics of Children in Study Population
• Exhibit 5 Number and Percentage of Children by Year of Final Decree of Adoption
• Exhibit 6 Key Questions for Dissolution Analysis and Likely Data Access
• Exhibit 7 Characteristics of Children Who Experienced an Adoption Dissolution and Likelihood of Dissolution
• Exhibit 8 Length of Time Until Dissolution
• Exhibit 9 Characteristics of Children Entering Placement Authority after July 1997 by Previous Adoption
• Exhibit 10 Terminal Reason for Placement Following Adoption
• Exhibit 11 Summary of Adoption Assistance Program for Children in North Carolina with Adoption Decree after December 31, 1989
• Exhibit 12 Patterns of Increases in Subsidy
• Exhibit 13 Patterns of Subsidy Increases by Child Characteristics
• Exhibit 14 Probability of an Increase in Cash Assistance
• Exhibit 15 Probability of Increase in Cash Assistance, by Age
• Exhibit 16 Probability of Increase in Cash Assistance by Race
• Exhibit 17 Likelihood of Increased Subsidy Amount
• Exhibit 18 Subsequent Subsidy Use for Children at the Time of Adoption, Current Age, and Clinical BPI Scores
• Exhibit 19 Payment Level of the First AAP Payment, by Demographic Characteristics
• Exhibit 20 Payment Changes and Case Actions
• Exhibit 21 Payment Changes with Each Case Action
• Exhibit 22 Monthly Payment Increases and Decreases with Each Payment Change (excluding all terminations)
• Exhibit 23 Number of Cases by Amount of Payment Change and by Number of Payment Changes
• Exhibit 24 Reasons for AAP with Each Average Amount ($) of Payment Change
• Exhibit 25 Percentage of Reasons for Payment Changes
• Exhibit 26 Characteristics of Cases in Multivariate Analysis
• Exhibit 27 Frequencies of Monthly Payment Changes of AAP Recipients
• Exhibit 28 Scatterplot of Monthly Payment Change Amounts and Durations
• Exhibit 29 Average Monthly Payment Changes by Duration Since the First Record
• Exhibit 30 Children's and Families' Characteristics and Amounts of Subsidy Changes
• Exhibit 31 Logistic Regression Results for Likelihood of Large Payment Changes
• Exhibit 32 Length of Time from Placement to First Payment
• Exhibit 33 Time to Quartiles (in Days) and Proportion with Payment Changes Prior to 1 and 2 Years
• Exhibit 34 Median Durations (Days) and Risk Ratios of Cox Regression Analysis of Payment Changes
• Exhibit 35 Risk Ratios from Cox Regression Analysis of Payment Change for Residential Treatment

1.  * RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute.

Where to?

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Home Pages:
Assessing the Field of Post-Adoption Services project home page
Human Services Policy (HSP)
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Last updated: 06/16/03