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Investing in Babies: How the Safe Babies Approach Reduces Foster Care Costs and Improves Outcomes
Key Takeaways
- Positive economic impact: States implementing Safe Babies could save up to $18.9 million over five years.
- Benefit-cost ratio: Safe Babies shows either a positive or neutral benefit-cost ratio under various scenarios.
- Significant savings: Even small reductions in the length of stay in foster care can lead to substantial financial benefits.
- Local context matters: The fiscal impact depends on factors like the state’s average length of stay in foster care, state foster care per diem rates, and local implementation choices.
A recent benefit-cost report by the Center for State Child Welfare Data, Chapin Hall evaluates the economic impact of implementing ZERO TO THREE’s Safe Babies approach. This approach aims to improve the well-being of children under 3 in the child welfare system by reducing their time in foster care.
Return on investment
The study estimated how Safe Babies affects foster care costs by comparing current spending with an approach that is proven to reduce the time children spend in foster care.
- Population-level impact: In one scenario, the simulation model projects that implementing Safe Babies could reduce the number of children in foster care by 146 over five years, resulting in savings of $18.9 million.
- Site-level impact: The study shows that the cost-effectiveness of Safe Babies varies by site, influenced by factors like the cost of providing Safe Babies and the state’s average length of stay in foster care.
Even small reductions in length of stay produce large financial results that favor increasing costs with Safe Babies on the one hand while lowering the time spent in foster care on the other.
State leaders and policymakers should consider investing in the Safe Babies approach to achieve significant economic benefits and improve outcomes for infants and toddlers in the child welfare system. The study provides a framework for identifying communities where Safe Babies can be most cost-effective, offering a valuable tool for making informed decisions about child welfare investments.
ZERO TO THREE deeply appreciates Ballmer Group for its generous support of our work to scale the Safe Babies approach. We’d like to especially thank Connie Ballmer for her vision and commitment to transforming the child welfare system so that all babies thrive. Ballmer Group is committed to improving economic mobility for children and families in the United States, funding leaders and organizations that have demonstrated the ability to reshape opportunity and reduce systemic inequities.
