Kansas Family First Prevention’s three-year evaluation shows prevention services and supports protect family integrity

Since it was signed into law in 2018, the Family First Prevention Services Act created new opportunities for supporting children and families with the use of federal foster care funds for prevention programs. Kansas launched the Kansas Family First Prevention in 2019 with CPPR and the KU School of Social Welfare contracted as research partners to design and complete a 3-year evaluation of its community-based prevention programs. Our KU School of Social Welfare partners recently wrote an article about the results we’ve seen after examining the impact of community-based prevention programs. Here's what we learned: 

• More than 3,000 children in Kansas who were at risk of being removed from their homes and placed in foster care are still living with their families 
• Between October 2019 and February 2023, Family First made 3,898 referrals. 
• 88% of children and youth who were referred to Family First services remained in their homes 12 months after the referral was made instead of being placed into foster care—nearly meeting the program’s goal of 90%. 
• Only 5% of children and youth were placed in foster care during an open Family First case, which exceeded the program goal of fewer than 10% placed in foster care while receiving Family First services. 

Read more about the data and what we look forward to with the new grant period in July 2023.