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This issue of SDM News looks at the value of equity in the Structured Decision Making^® system and explains the difference between “equity” and “equality.”

A new brief in a four-part series related to girls in detention summarizes major findings and is designed to help inform policy that considers girls’ experiences in the juvenile justice system. To create the series—and the research it is based on—NCCD partnered with the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center in Jacksonville, Florida, with support from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. This brief, titled “Notes to the Field: Girls and Secure Juvenile Detention, Barriers, Opportunities, and Recommendations,” was developed in part to generate dialogue about the harm of systems and awareness of how resources used to incarcerate girls can be redirected to reduce future system involvement and help break the cycles of poverty and incarceration. All four briefs can be found on our website, here.

A fourth research brief from NCCD on girls in detention summarizes results from an online survey of Florida Department of Juvenile Justice staff. The survey sought staff perspectives on why girls are held in secure detention, the needs of detained girls, alternatives to secure detention, and related topics. Titled “Juvenile Justice Staff Perspectives on Girls in Secure Detention,” the brief was created by NCCD in partnership with the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center in Jacksonville, Florida, and with support from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. All four briefs can be found on our website, here.

A brief by NCCD and the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center examines why girls arrested for domestic violence-related charges in Florida were not consistently assigned to domestic violence respite beds rather than secure detention. “Addressing Barriers to Using Respite Beds for Girls Charged With Domestic Violence” is the second brief by NCCD and the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center—both supported by the Jessie Ball DuPont fund—about girls in secure detention in Florida. See the first brief here.

SafeMeasures^® is a full-agency data solution to social service case management. Real-time analyses offer current reports on every client served by your agency. From line staff to administrators, SafeMeasures provides tools for staff in every role to do their jobs well.

Accuracy in decision making is highlighted in this issue of SDM News.

NCCD has released a brief titled “Girls in Secure Detention in Florida” to provide insight on keeping girls who do not pose a public safety risk out of the juvenile justice system. With support from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, NCCD partnered with the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center in Jacksonville, Florida, to produce the brief--one of several publications released on September 25 with an emphasis on the need for prevention and early intervention services and strategies so girls do not become involved in Florida's juvenile justice system.

The July issue of SDM News highlights the first of four values that drive the development of Structured Decision Making^® (SDM) assessments: consistency. See upcoming issues to learn more about the additional SDM^® values of accuracy, equity, and utility.

The latest report on this project describes evaluation activities of the past six months, analysis of 2018 parent/guardian survey results, and evaluation results to date. The goals of the Title IV-E Waiver Project are to determine whether allowing flexibility in the use of project funds helps California counties better achieve safety, permanency, and well-being for children involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems; and to reduce the number of children in foster care while maintaining child safety. NCCD’s study of the project began in late 2015 and is slated for completion in 2020. 

Public child welfare agencies invite families and others to actively participate in agency decisions about where children can safely live. The Team Decision Making™ (TDM) meeting focuses on whether a child must leave home due to safety concerns.

In this NCCD-hosted webinar moderated by Jennifer Cotter, an associate director at NCCD, David Burnes, PhD, introduces the idea of goal attainment scaling (GAS), a client-centered tool to generate intervention plans and measure case resolution in APS and other elder abuse response programs. GAS allows workers to capture nuanced aspects of APS work and its various moving parts involved in case intervention/progression. Without a tool that measures overall case resolutions, the effectiveness of different APS intervention models/practices cannot be systematically compared. Dr. Burnes is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, and an affiliate scientist at Baycrest Health Sciences, Rotman Research Institute. Dr. Burnes’ research centers on understanding and preventing elder abuse in the community, developing/evaluating interventions, and developing intervention outcome measures.

Risk assessment is a mechanism to classify individuals or families based on their likelihood of future system involvement. When any subgroup is overrepresented in the system, risk algorithms must balance the values of equality and equity. Administrators, practitioners, community service providers, researchers, and other subject-matter experts must choose the model that best meets their purpose.