This federally-funded study examined factors that influenced the decision not to substantiate a child protective services (CPS) referral after a child protective services investigation in Washington State. The study was conducted in three distinct phases. Phase I: Child Protective Record Review consisted of a review of administrative records. Records were extracted from the state child protective database (CAMIS) and a rich dataset of child, family and allegation variables was created. The variables include demographic information, variables coded from the Washington Assessment of Risk Matrix (WARM) and the Modified Maltreatment Classification System (MMCS) as well as variables derived from a public assistance records match. The Phase I data file includes 2000 cases. Phase II: Child Protective Caseworker Survey was a mail and telephone survey of child protective services caseworkers in Washington State. All current child protective caseworkers in Washington State who had more than six months of job experience were invited to participate in the telephone and mail surveys. The Phase II data file includes the 106 respondents who answered both the telephone and mail surveys. Phase III: Child Protective Client Survey was a telephone survey of investigated CPS clients approximately 90 days post investigation. This dataset also includes records extracted from the state child protective database similar to those in the Phase I dataset. In addition to variables related to the interviews, the variables include demographic information, variables coded from the WARM and the Maltreatment MMCS as well as variables derived from a public assistance records match. The Phase III data includes data from 303 clients with completed interviews. The data from Phases I, II and III cannot be combined, as there is no common unit of analysis.

Investigators: English, D., Brummel, S., Graham, J. C. & Coghlan, L..