This recent webinar presented by the Urban Institute and sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation explored approaches to strengthening evaluation in child welfare services to more rapidly and practically document what works.
It is based on a new series of briefs entitled From Evidence to Impact: Strengthening Evaluation in Child Welfare Service, which aims to helps facilitate a more vigorous discussion of how to rapidly build evidence of what works in child welfare services.
The session highlighted strategies used in three states — Connecticut, New Jersey and Washington — to strengthen the planning, design and implementation of evaluations. Key takeaways included:
- Agencies need more capacity and staffing to conduct and use evaluations effectively.
- Federal evaluation funding is limited and misaligned — greater, broader investment is needed for capacity-building.
- Small or specialized programs require flexible evaluation methods beyond standard models.
- Alternatives to randomized trials can balance equity concerns with effective evaluation.
- Evaluation should be built into program design from the start — not added later.
- Sustained evaluation requires long-term commitment and consistent leadership communication.
