Identifying Quality Assurance Best Practices in New York City Foster Care Provider Agencies

In an effort to strengthen the infrastructure of the nonprofit community serving foster children in New York City, the Capstone team worked with the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to compare the strategic planning, quality improvement, and data management practices among a diverse set of agencies contracted by ACS to provide foster care services. The team gathered information from the agencies' quality improvement and evaluation staff at leadership and team member levels and analyzed it in the context of a literature review of best practices in child welfare. The team summarized the practices in place and highlighted the elements that appeared to have the greatest effectiveness on performance improvement. Ultimately, the team made recommendations to ACS regarding ways the agency can foster implementation of similar promising practices among all providers, including those with less sophisticated systems.