Center for Child Well-Being briefs court and county leaders on parent/child help program

Judges and staff from the Maricopa County Juvenile Court joined members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for a presentation on the results of a program designed to help parents and their children following cases of neglect or abuse. Judy Krysik, an associate social work professor and director of the Center for Child Well Being, discussed the Center's evaluation of the Cradle to Crayons program January 27.

Maricopa County has the largest implementation of Safe Babies Court Teams in the nation. The approach is rated a promising evidence based practice by the California Evidence Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare. The 2016 ASU evaluation included data on 8,398 infants and toddlers who entered out of home care in Maricopa County between 2010 and 2014.

"The evaluation findings support Cradle to Crayons as a preferred approach in terms of reducing the time to children being reunified or adopted, and stability or not re-entering care within the 12 month period following adoption or reunification," Krysik said.

Cradle to Crayons utilizes a team approach that focuses on how the courts, child welfare agency, and related community partners can work together to improve and expedite services for infants and toddlers in out of home care. The goal is to protect these children from further harm and address any damage already done. The program is based on a national model called Safe Babies Court Teams built to utilize evidence based practices. 

"The Court and the community are anxiously awaiting next year’s evaluation results as it takes time to evaluate the outcomes of the program – the 2016 evaluation was examining outcomes from children who entered out of home care from 2010 through 2012," said Krysic. "With the great need it is important that the county is good stewards of their resources and implement practices that have the greatest chances of long term success."