Child Welfare Measures Library

The Child Welfare Measures Library is a compendium of common measures that Children’s Bureau discretionary grant recipients, their evaluators, and other child welfare professionals and researchers can use to measure changes in child and family outcomes.

The 160 measures collect data at 3 levels (child, family, and system) across 10 domains (child development, family functioning, health and wellness, mental health and substance abuse, organizational change, parenting, resilience, social support, trauma, and well-being). The measures were selected for three primary reasons:

• They address issues that may result in child welfare system involvement, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, substance abuse, and domestic violence.
• They relate to child, family, and systems-level domains that child welfare services attempt to address, such as behavioral health, access to social supports, and parenting skills.
• They are commonly used by Children’s Bureau grantees and other child welfare organizations and researchers.

The resource includes tables that organize the measures by domain and links to more information. Some of the measures are copyrighted, while others are in the public domain. Some are available online and others must be obtained from the publisher. Information on accessing the measures is included when available.