Family First Prevention and Services Act – Kinship Care Services

Thus, while it is important to continue to refine the HTST and training practices toward Tool validation, the Institute does not recommend that the HTST be used as sole determining factor of youth trafficking victimization at this time.

In FY 20-21, the Institute partnered with the DCF on the creation of an Inventory of kinship practice in Florida. As Florida readied for the implementation of the Family First Prevention and Services Act, the Institute set out to assist the Department to have their Kinship Navigator Programs accepted onto the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse (Clearinghouse) and rated as Promising, Supported, or Well Supported, as a rating supports the Florida’s ability to drawdown Title IV-E prevention funding. Of note, there are currently no Kinship Navigator Programs that meet criteria for this designation. The Clearinghouse has specific requirements and, due to emergent issues, the State has not been able to be added to the Clearinghouse yet. That goal remains as the Institute continues to assist partners with the requirements, including evaluations and outcomerelated published manuscripts.

For child welfare agencies that endeavor to build enough evidence for their kinship services programming, the Institutes offers the following recommendations:

❖ Attrition of participants in kinship navigator services was a persistent issue throughout this work; therefore, it is vital that organizations consider this ahead of time and create contingency plans for their evaluation goals.

Thorough tracking of study participation— including assignment to groups and attrition— is critical.

❖ Consider the use of quasi-experimental designs,

While randomized controlled trials are not impossible, practical barriers can arise that obstruct their full execution.

❖ Collect appropriate baseline measures to demonstrate group equivalency. Although the Clearinghouse does not require random assignment for a quasi-experimental design, they do require the evaluation of a treatment and a comparison condition.

As Florida organizations work to achieve a promising, supported, or well-supported Clearinghouse designation for their Kinship Navigator programs, the Institute is available for consultation regarding program evaluation.