Fred Wulczyn
Biographic Data
| ID | 3092910 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fred Wulczyn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fred |
| FAMILY NAME | Wulczyn |
| SIGNATURE | WULCZYN F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Chicago |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 365 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
What happens after a child protection report during pregnancy? Using administrative data to explore 12-month outcomes
Despite the increasing use of prenatal reporting to child protection in Australia and elsewhere, few large studies have examined the consequences of prenatal reporting. This paper explores the association between prenatal reporting and subsequent child protection involvement in a large Australian jurisdiction, focusing on the timing, incidence and nature of this involvement. Administrative data were obtained for the population of pregnant women/i…
Race, Poverty, and Foster Care Placement in the United States
Although the connections between race, poverty, and foster care placement seem obvious, the link has not in fact been studied extensively. To address this gap, we view poverty and placement through longitudinal and cross-sectional lenses to more accurately capture how changes in poverty rates relate to changes in placement frequency. The longitudinal study examines the relationship between poverty rate changes and changes in the placement of Blac…
Parental absence, early reading, and human capital formation for rural children in China
In this study, we adopt the human capital formation framework to understand the association of the various risk and protective factors in the family settings of rural children with their cognitive performance as measured by vocabulary and math test scores. We examine the role of caregiver reading or storytelling to children at younger age and the deprivation of parental care due to labor migration at different stages of childhood on child perform…
On Causal Inference and the Limits of Disproportionality as a Construct
The unwarranted disparities in our foster care system are the result of historical and structural causes. If we hope to correct these disparities by addressing their root causes, we must measure them carefully. In this article, I ask whether our usual measures of Black child/White child placement differences tell us what we need to know to act on those disparities with greater certainty. I specifically examine the limits of disproportionality as …
Reducing Confounding Bias in Nonexperimental Evaluation
Do intensive in-home services prevent placement
In this paper, we describe our assessment of whether Youth Villages’ Intercept program had a demonstrable impact on the likelihood a young person will be placed in out-of-home care given the young person was at risk of placement by virtue of having been the subject of an investigation for maltreatment. Intercept is an integrated approach to intensive in-home parenting skill development that offers a variety of evidence-based and best practices to…
Race/ethnicity and running away from foster care
Running away from foster care is fairly common, but there is no body of research that explores explicitly the question of whether Black and Hispanic youth run away from foster care at rates that are different from those for White youth. Using data from 17 states, I measured the probability of running away from foster care for Black, Hispanic, and White youth. This approach yields an unambiguous measure of disparity based on the odds ratio, a stan…
Returning to foster care
This study uses longitudinal administrative data from twenty U.S. states to examine the risk of returning to foster care after children are either reunified with their parents or placed with guardians outside the foster care system. Our sample for this analysis includes all children who, before age 18, exited their first spell to either reunification or placement with guardians between 2003 and 2010 with follow-up through December 31, 2017 (N = 6…
Foster Care in a Life Course Perspective
To understand what placement outside of one's home means to the young people involved, we must understand foster care from a life course perspective. I analyze young people's experiences in foster care from this perspective, accounting for when foster care happens, how long it lasts, and what happens when foster care placements end. I show that the population of children coming into foster care is younger and less urban than it was 20 years ago. …
Foster Care Dynamics and System Science
Although system is a word frequently invoked in discussions of foster care policy and practice, there have been few if any attempts by child welfare researchers to understand the ways in which the foster care system is a system. As a consequence, insights from system science have yet to be applied in meaningful ways to the problem of making foster care systems more effective. In this study, we draw on population biology to organize a study of adm…
Explaining variations in state foster care maintenance rates and the implications for implementing new evidence-based programs
Research to practice in child welfare systems
Poverty, social disadvantage, and the black/white placement gap
I Thought I Hated Data”
Social work is an applied profession using a combination of theory, research, and practice to meet the needs of client populations. First-hand experiential learning is central to social work education. Just as students learn clinical skills by interacting with clients in a practice setting, students need a forum to use real data to develop their skills in accessing, understanding, interpreting, and presenting answers to pertinent social work rese…
Family reunification in a social structural context
Evaluating contract agency performance in achieving reunification
Sibling placements in longitudinal perspective
Family Reunification
Unintended consequences of the push for accountability
Closing the gap
Placement Stability and Movement Trajectories
We discuss placement stability and movement patterns among children placed in family and group foster care. Although placement stability has been a focus of child welfare policy and practice, little research explores the actual patterns of movement while a child is in out‐of‐home care. We apply event count and movement trajectory models to unravel these patterns. The models were tested with a group of children placed out of home in New York City.…
The placement of infants in foster care
The fundamental question explored in this study concerns the relationship between age and the risk of placement into foster care, the likelihood a child will leave placement, and the likelihood a child will return to foster care having been discharged. The study is based on the experiences of more than 690,000 children in 11 states over an eight‐year period, from 1990 to 1997. The results suggest quite strongly that very young children are at gre…
The Effect of Population Dynamics on Performance Measurement
The methodological issues involved in measuring the outcomes of programs are not straightforward. For example, in the case of foster care, overlapping stays in care for various entry cohorts influence how outcomes are perceived. In this article we combine the results from a simulation model with empirical research to explore the way basic population dynamics and sampling strategy jointly affect understanding of one outcome, placement duration. Th…
Federal fiscal reform in child welfare services
A Statistical and Methodological Framework for Analyzing the Foster Care Experiences of Children
The attention now being paid to child welfare outcomes raises a number of important questions for researchers and practitioners. Among the most important questions are those that pertain to the issue of change and the statistical and methodological models used to understand how the delivery of services influences the path of change. In this article, I recommend that the study of change be divided into studies of individual-level and aggregate-lev…
Placement Stability and Movement Trajectories
We discuss placement stability and movement patterns among children placed in family and group foster care. Although placement stability has been a focus of child welfare policy and practice, little research explores the actual patterns of movement while a child is in out‐of‐home care. We apply event count and movement trajectory models to unravel these patterns. The models were tested with a group of children placed out of home in New York City.…
Family Reunification
The placement of infants in foster care
The fundamental question explored in this study concerns the relationship between age and the risk of placement into foster care, the likelihood a child will leave placement, and the likelihood a child will return to foster care having been discharged. The study is based on the experiences of more than 690,000 children in 11 states over an eight‐year period, from 1990 to 1997. The results suggest quite strongly that very young children are at gre…
Caseload Dynamics and Foster Care Reentry
In recent years, foster care caseloads have been on the rise. This article examines foster care reentry in New York State to determine what role, if any, foster care reentry plays in caseload dynamics. In addition, the placement histories of individual foster children are studied in an effort to uncover the characteristics of children that are associated with reentry. Last, the analysis examines the relationship between brief placements and cohor…
Sibling placements in longitudinal perspective
Unintended consequences of the push for accountability
A Statistical and Methodological Framework for Analyzing the Foster Care Experiences of Children
The attention now being paid to child welfare outcomes raises a number of important questions for researchers and practitioners. Among the most important questions are those that pertain to the issue of change and the statistical and methodological models used to understand how the delivery of services influences the path of change. In this article, I recommend that the study of change be divided into studies of individual-level and aggregate-lev…
Closing the gap
Poverty, social disadvantage, and the black/white placement gap
Federal fiscal reform in child welfare services
The Effect of Population Dynamics on Performance Measurement
The methodological issues involved in measuring the outcomes of programs are not straightforward. For example, in the case of foster care, overlapping stays in care for various entry cohorts influence how outcomes are perceived. In this article we combine the results from a simulation model with empirical research to explore the way basic population dynamics and sampling strategy jointly affect understanding of one outcome, placement duration. Th…
Family reunification in a social structural context
On Causal Inference and the Limits of Disproportionality as a Construct
The unwarranted disparities in our foster care system are the result of historical and structural causes. If we hope to correct these disparities by addressing their root causes, we must measure them carefully. In this article, I ask whether our usual measures of Black child/White child placement differences tell us what we need to know to act on those disparities with greater certainty. I specifically examine the limits of disproportionality as …
Race/ethnicity and running away from foster care
Running away from foster care is fairly common, but there is no body of research that explores explicitly the question of whether Black and Hispanic youth run away from foster care at rates that are different from those for White youth. Using data from 17 states, I measured the probability of running away from foster care for Black, Hispanic, and White youth. This approach yields an unambiguous measure of disparity based on the odds ratio, a stan…
Returning to foster care
This study uses longitudinal administrative data from twenty U.S. states to examine the risk of returning to foster care after children are either reunified with their parents or placed with guardians outside the foster care system. Our sample for this analysis includes all children who, before age 18, exited their first spell to either reunification or placement with guardians between 2003 and 2010 with follow-up through December 31, 2017 (N = 6…
Foster Care in a Life Course Perspective
To understand what placement outside of one's home means to the young people involved, we must understand foster care from a life course perspective. I analyze young people's experiences in foster care from this perspective, accounting for when foster care happens, how long it lasts, and what happens when foster care placements end. I show that the population of children coming into foster care is younger and less urban than it was 20 years ago. …
Evaluating contract agency performance in achieving reunification
I Thought I Hated Data”
Social work is an applied profession using a combination of theory, research, and practice to meet the needs of client populations. First-hand experiential learning is central to social work education. Just as students learn clinical skills by interacting with clients in a practice setting, students need a forum to use real data to develop their skills in accessing, understanding, interpreting, and presenting answers to pertinent social work rese…
Parental absence, early reading, and human capital formation for rural children in China
In this study, we adopt the human capital formation framework to understand the association of the various risk and protective factors in the family settings of rural children with their cognitive performance as measured by vocabulary and math test scores. We examine the role of caregiver reading or storytelling to children at younger age and the deprivation of parental care due to labor migration at different stages of childhood on child perform…
Do intensive in-home services prevent placement
In this paper, we describe our assessment of whether Youth Villages’ Intercept program had a demonstrable impact on the likelihood a young person will be placed in out-of-home care given the young person was at risk of placement by virtue of having been the subject of an investigation for maltreatment. Intercept is an integrated approach to intensive in-home parenting skill development that offers a variety of evidence-based and best practices to…
Caseload Dynamics and Foster Care Reentry
In recent years, foster care caseloads have been on the rise. This article examines foster care reentry in New York State to determine what role, if any, foster care reentry plays in caseload dynamics. In addition, the placement histories of individual foster children are studied in an effort to uncover the characteristics of children that are associated with reentry. Last, the analysis examines the relationship between brief placements and cohor…
A Statistical and Methodological Framework for Analyzing the Foster Care Experiences of Children
The attention now being paid to child welfare outcomes raises a number of important questions for researchers and practitioners. Among the most important questions are those that pertain to the issue of change and the statistical and methodological models used to understand how the delivery of services influences the path of change. In this article, I recommend that the study of change be divided into studies of individual-level and aggregate-lev…
Federal fiscal reform in child welfare services
The Effect of Population Dynamics on Performance Measurement
The methodological issues involved in measuring the outcomes of programs are not straightforward. For example, in the case of foster care, overlapping stays in care for various entry cohorts influence how outcomes are perceived. In this article we combine the results from a simulation model with empirical research to explore the way basic population dynamics and sampling strategy jointly affect understanding of one outcome, placement duration. Th…
The placement of infants in foster care
The fundamental question explored in this study concerns the relationship between age and the risk of placement into foster care, the likelihood a child will leave placement, and the likelihood a child will return to foster care having been discharged. The study is based on the experiences of more than 690,000 children in 11 states over an eight‐year period, from 1990 to 1997. The results suggest quite strongly that very young children are at gre…
Closing the gap
Placement Stability and Movement Trajectories
We discuss placement stability and movement patterns among children placed in family and group foster care. Although placement stability has been a focus of child welfare policy and practice, little research explores the actual patterns of movement while a child is in out‐of‐home care. We apply event count and movement trajectory models to unravel these patterns. The models were tested with a group of children placed out of home in New York City.…
Family Reunification
Unintended consequences of the push for accountability
Sibling placements in longitudinal perspective
Evaluating contract agency performance in achieving reunification
Family reunification in a social structural context
I Thought I Hated Data”
Social work is an applied profession using a combination of theory, research, and practice to meet the needs of client populations. First-hand experiential learning is central to social work education. Just as students learn clinical skills by interacting with clients in a practice setting, students need a forum to use real data to develop their skills in accessing, understanding, interpreting, and presenting answers to pertinent social work rese…
Poverty, social disadvantage, and the black/white placement gap
Explaining variations in state foster care maintenance rates and the implications for implementing new evidence-based programs
Research to practice in child welfare systems
Foster Care Dynamics and System Science
Although system is a word frequently invoked in discussions of foster care policy and practice, there have been few if any attempts by child welfare researchers to understand the ways in which the foster care system is a system. As a consequence, insights from system science have yet to be applied in meaningful ways to the problem of making foster care systems more effective. In this study, we draw on population biology to organize a study of adm…
Race/ethnicity and running away from foster care
Running away from foster care is fairly common, but there is no body of research that explores explicitly the question of whether Black and Hispanic youth run away from foster care at rates that are different from those for White youth. Using data from 17 states, I measured the probability of running away from foster care for Black, Hispanic, and White youth. This approach yields an unambiguous measure of disparity based on the odds ratio, a stan…
Returning to foster care
This study uses longitudinal administrative data from twenty U.S. states to examine the risk of returning to foster care after children are either reunified with their parents or placed with guardians outside the foster care system. Our sample for this analysis includes all children who, before age 18, exited their first spell to either reunification or placement with guardians between 2003 and 2010 with follow-up through December 31, 2017 (N = 6…
Foster Care in a Life Course Perspective
To understand what placement outside of one's home means to the young people involved, we must understand foster care from a life course perspective. I analyze young people's experiences in foster care from this perspective, accounting for when foster care happens, how long it lasts, and what happens when foster care placements end. I show that the population of children coming into foster care is younger and less urban than it was 20 years ago. …
Reducing Confounding Bias in Nonexperimental Evaluation
Do intensive in-home services prevent placement
In this paper, we describe our assessment of whether Youth Villages’ Intercept program had a demonstrable impact on the likelihood a young person will be placed in out-of-home care given the young person was at risk of placement by virtue of having been the subject of an investigation for maltreatment. Intercept is an integrated approach to intensive in-home parenting skill development that offers a variety of evidence-based and best practices to…
Race, Poverty, and Foster Care Placement in the United States
Although the connections between race, poverty, and foster care placement seem obvious, the link has not in fact been studied extensively. To address this gap, we view poverty and placement through longitudinal and cross-sectional lenses to more accurately capture how changes in poverty rates relate to changes in placement frequency. The longitudinal study examines the relationship between poverty rate changes and changes in the placement of Blac…
Parental absence, early reading, and human capital formation for rural children in China
In this study, we adopt the human capital formation framework to understand the association of the various risk and protective factors in the family settings of rural children with their cognitive performance as measured by vocabulary and math test scores. We examine the role of caregiver reading or storytelling to children at younger age and the deprivation of parental care due to labor migration at different stages of childhood on child perform…
On Causal Inference and the Limits of Disproportionality as a Construct
The unwarranted disparities in our foster care system are the result of historical and structural causes. If we hope to correct these disparities by addressing their root causes, we must measure them carefully. In this article, I ask whether our usual measures of Black child/White child placement differences tell us what we need to know to act on those disparities with greater certainty. I specifically examine the limits of disproportionality as …
Psychology (20 works) · Child Welfare and Adoption (16 works) · Medicine (16 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (14 works) · Foster care (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Nursing (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Economics (9 works)