The intersection of child welfare services and public assistance: An analysis of dual-system involvement and successful family preservation completion on a maltreatment re-report

Families involved in child welfare services (CWS) and public social services simultaneously, known as dual-system families, have been shown to be at higher risk for repeat child abuse and neglect compared to CWS-only families, yet few studies have examined these families' characteristics and whether programs like Family Preservation (FP) might help protect their children from a re-report to CPS. Using administrative data on families receiving FP between January 2013 and December 2014 (including a subset of dual-system families), we examined the effect of demographic characteristics and successful FP completion on a maltreatment re-report between 2013 and 2017. Dual-system families differed from CWS-only families on demographics including mother's age, child race/ ethnicity, and child age. Controlling for demographics, multivariable survival analyses revealed that dual-system involvement was associated with increased risk of a re-report while successful FP completion was associated with decreased risk of a re-report. An interaction effect of dual-system involvement by FP completion was tested but not significant, and the effect of FP completion was similar for CWS-only families and dual-system families. Our findings highlight the vulnerability of dual-system families and suggest that successful FP completion can help protect against the risk of a maltreatment re-report for both dual-system families and CWS-only families.