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Innovating New Frontiers for Child Welfare
800+FL
FLORIDA 2016-17
3,692 adoptions were finalized !!!
26% adopted by Foster Parents; 50% by Relatives; & 24% by Recruited Parents
30.87 months was the average length of stay in foster care for all children adopted
130 adoption dissruptions71 adoption dissolutions
A data driven application designed to promote permanency and stability for children in foster care
through compatibility matching.
Disruption influenced by many sources
Child Impact Parent Impact Situation Impact
Behavioral Problems Warm Type of Placement (Kin)
Emotional Problems Child Oriented Family Support
Physical Problems Limit Setting System Integration (Family)
# of Placements Autonomy and Control Siblings Placed Together
Age Faith/Church Child/Social Worker Contact
Gender Parenting Ability
Motivation Flexibility
Socialization Commitment
Positivity Adequate Resources
History of Abuse/Neglect Marital Quality
Empirical evidence for matching
Positive Impact Evidence Negative Impact Evidence Potential to Test
Chemistry (undefined) Child Negative Mood with Mother’s Rigidity
Attachment Style
Child Shyness – Parent Attachment Sensitivity
Extraversion
Openness
Conscientiousness
Spirituality (older Children)
Interests (older Children)
We created a questionnaire to assess these qualities and have an initial algorithm that predicts the likelihood of disruption.
The matching system improves over time
Algorithm
Trained
Matches Made
Follow up Data
Collected
Algorithm revised
Benefits of Family-Match
For Families:• Visibility to workers across the state
• Reduced timeline
• Match based on compatibility
For Workers: • Simplified approach with less work to identify matched families
• Reduced timeline
• Presented compatible/approved families
What’s Happening Now: A Look at Virginia
Over 16,000Data Points Collected to Date.
“Love seeing all the families in one place.”
“It’s helpful to see the snapshot of information on each family prior to making contact with the family’s worker.”
“The delegate and secondary worker function makes our job easier.”
“So encouraging to see so many families who want to adopt an older child.”
“I am so hopeful our family will become visible to placement workers in Virginia! I really enjoyed the experience of putting together a profile to
spotlight our family.”
“I like how Family-Match considers our attributes along with the child’s attributes.”
Placement Workers
Families
About Our Families74 Approved Families
110 Total Families (pending home study approval)
34% will to adopt a child over the age of 10 in Virginia.
20% of our families with pets would consider parting with their pet if they had more information about a potential adoptive placement. When pressed further, these families made it clear that their desire to become parents trumped keeping a pet in the home.
70% of families surveyed who had a specified gender for a child preference said they would be willing to take a child of the gender not specified and 20% said they would consider it if they had more information.
Comparison ChartAdopt Us Kids Family-Match Heart Gallery
Family Recruitment X X X
State Specific Families Featured Only X
Capability for Social Worker to View Families X X
State One Children Featured X
Capability for Families to Search for Children X X
Families Nationwide X X
Matches Children to Families on Compatibility X
Home Study Sent to Social Worker Unsolicited X X
Home Studies Validated and Available X
Children Visible for Family Reviewing X X
Only Compatible Families Presented to Worker X
Match to Post Placement Process Followed X
Use of Machine Learning to Use Data from Match to Placement to Enhance Predictive Model
X