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The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services, in cooperation with the Children's Bureau (Office of Child Abuse and Neglect), Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, conducted a study of state and county child protection systems with the goal of enhancing the federal government's knowledge of child protective services (CPS) in general, and of efforts to improve or reform CPS underway in states and communities, in particular. The study also aimed to inform the federal government about the current structure and landscape of CPS systems in the United States and help them track and build upon improvement initiatives at all levels, laying the groundwork for future activities.

The two-year study had five components:

• Telephone interviews with state administrators and a mail survey of more than 300 randomly selected local child protective services agencies that focused on the collection of information about the core functions of administration, intake/screening, investigation/assessment, service planning and provision, and collaboration with other agencies. WRMA had over 80 percent response rate to the survey.
• A complete and systematic analysis of state laws, policy documents, guidelines, reports and other material that describe state systems and their operations.
• Site visits to eight communities to gather more in-depth information about traditional and innovative programs, as identified in the surveys.
• Preparation of a “white paper” on the issues associated with child protective services system improvement.
• Convening a symposium of 25 experts in the field that served as a forum for the review, discussion, and elaboration of the findings from the study.

Staff assigned to this project also had responsibility for 1) developing a comprehensive research plan that addressed all major activities and deliverables of the project, including the study’s basic approach, scheduling and staffing; 2) conducting a 50 State and a District of Columbia review of the literature on the current status of CPS policy and practice; 3) preparing an OMB Clearance Package for the instrumentation that was used for data collection in the study; 4) preparing a final report that summarized the key findings on practice and policy, as well as changes being undertaken, which were identified during the study; and 5) convening an expert panel to review and discuss the study findings.

The final report summarizes key findings on practice and policy—as well as changes being undertaken—which were identified during the study. To find all five of the reports produced by this project— Literature Review, Review of State Child Protective Services Policy Findings on Local CPS Practices, Site Visits Report, and the final Summary Report—click here.