QIC-ChildRep Best Practice Model Training Evaluation

Through an experimental research design, the project is testing the effects of training attorneys in the QIC-ChildRep Best Practice Model and coaching and supplemental training on the outcomes of children in the child welfare system. Our Research Design includes quantitative and qualitative measures and a control group for comparisons. The analysis of the empirical data from this project will help move the field toward a common understanding of what constitutes good representation for children. This research is being conducted in our two Research and Demonstration sites.

The QIC-ChildRep Best Practice Model is informed by current State Laws, our first year Needs Assessment, Academic Literature Review, and is largely based on the 1996 ABA Standards of Practice for Lawyers Who Represent Children in Abuse and Neglect Cases (ABA Standards).

The Flint MDT Study

While the QIC-ChildRep Best Practice Model evaluation was able to measure the impacts of training lawyers on the Six Core Skills, this evaluation was not able to test the effects of collaborating with other professionals, which the needs assessment identified as an effective way to improve the quality of child representation and was incorporated into the QIC-ChildRep Best Practice Model. The QIC-ChildRep remained interested in studying multidisciplinary approaches with as much rigor as the evaluation of the effects of Best Practice Model training and decided to pursue a smaller separate evaluation of multidisciplinary teams at another site. The Flint MDT Study presents both a description of a team of lawyers and social workers' successes and challenges over two years and the impacts the approach had on child welfare outcomes.