Typologies of Family Dependency Treatment Court Participants: Parental Characteristics and Differential Child Placement Outcomes

Abstract

Background: Family Dependency Treatment Court (FDTC) is a problem-solving court for parents who have child welfare involvement and designed to address parental substance misuse by providing treatment and wrap-around services, with the goal of reunifying parents with their children. Objectives: This study aimed to identify different classes of FDTC parents and compare how child placement outcomes differ by class. Parental characteristics and permanent placement outcomes for 354 parents participating in a Central Florida FDTC were assessed using administrative data. An exploratory latent class analysis was conducted to classify parents. Results: Results revealed three distinct classes of FDTC participants: 1) co-occurring issues, 2) racial/ethnic minority participants, and 3) prescription opioid, meth, and heroin users. Regression analyses showed that parents with co-occurring issues were over two times more likely to achieve permanency (OR = 2.05, p < .05), and were two times less likely to terminate their parental rights (TPR) compared to the other two classes. Conclusions: Implications for tailoring FDTC procedures to parents’ individual needs, combating racial/ethnic disparities in access to services and placement outcomes, and improved child welfare and placement outcomes are discussed.

Keywords:

• Family dependency treatment court
• substance use treatment
• co-occurring issues
• racial/ethnic minority

Acknowledgements

The Hillsborough County 13th Judicial Circuit Court Family Dependency Treatment Court.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.