POSTPONED: Child Protective Service Involvement and Parental Economic Precarity: Evidence from System-Impacted Parents

Feb. 3 update: Margaret Thomas' talk will be rescheduled for the 2026-2027 academic year

The Institute for Research on Poverty hosts seminars on the UW-Madison campus most Thursdays during the academic year. These presentations are free and open to the public. Room 8417.

media release: Margaret Thomas, assistant professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago

The current project explores how parents’ economic well-being is impacted by their involvement with CPS systems. There is a nascent body of evidence indicating that CPS involvement negatively influences parents’ financial well-being through impacts on public benefit receipt, employment challenges, and child support payments if children enter foster care. We build on this literature by providing direct qualitative evidence from parents on the economic consequences of their CPS involvement. Results indicate that CPS-impacted parents experienced direct and indirect economic consequences from involvement with this system. These included universal experiences of some forms of economic harm, including (1) direct costs incurred while navigating the CPS system, including legal costs and transportation costs; (2) work scheduling conflicts and labor force stigma associated with navigating CPS processes; (3) lost public benefits and services; and (4) child support enforcement costs if children entered foster care. We also find some economic benefits experienced by some but not most parents, including (1) receipt of cash or in-kind provisions; (2) linkage to or eligibility for other services; and (3) reduction of costs previously experienced through changes like reduced substance use or domestic violence exposure.