In-Home Service Use and Family Risk for Child Welfare Involved Families: Findings from Washington State

This report describes in-home service utilization and family risk factors for families involved in the Washington State child welfare system from 2013 to 2016. In-home services are available to child welfare-involved families for the purposes of strengthening parenting capacity and supporting child safety. Family risk was measured from a variety of administrative data sources and included measures of domestic violence, parent criminality, parent substance abuse, parent mental illness, economic stress, homelessness, and prior child welfare involvement. Results show that more than half of child welfare-involved families experienced five or more family risk factors, yet only one out of ten families received an in-home service. The rate of in-home service use was especially low (6 percent) for families with children who remained at home, while half of the families with a child in a long-term out-of-home placement received an in-home service.