Education
The Impact of Child Welfare System Involvement on School Stability – An Evaluation of Pittsburgh Public School Students
Child welfare out-of-home placements are stressful events, compounded by the fact they may result in a youth changing schools. Research shows mid-year school changes to be disruptive both academically and socially. This report examines child welfare imposed mobility, identifying system challenges as well as the positive factors that have led to an overall decrease in ...
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Report Series: Improving Educational and Well-Being Outcomes: School-DHS Data Sharing in Allegheny County
Integrating school data with the Department of Human Services Data Warehouse allows unprecedented collaboration between human services and school social workers. This group of reports and data briefs relate to data-sharing agreements between DHS and local school districts. They describe the ways in which shared information has informed strategies designed to improve school outcomes for ...
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Sharing Data to Support Homeless Students in Allegheny County
Schools districts and human service systems define homelessness differently (as mandated by their respective regulatory and funding entities), resulting in many youth who are known to only one system. While being homeless is a disruptive experience that often hurts educational achievement, homeless youth are afforded additional supports to counteract these impacts. This report examines the ...
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School-Based Probation in Allegheny County: Examining the Costs and Benefits
Intensive supervision programs like school-based probation are increasingly viewed as a way to generate savings to society, by preventing or reducing the likelihood of crime, as well as to improve outcomes for the juvenile offenders through an emphasis on education and employment opportunities. Allegheny County examined a number of outcomes for Pittsburgh Public School students ...
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Addressing School Absenteeism
An increased focus on school attendance has led to the implementation of a number of strategies designed to reduce absenteeism and its related impact on academic outcomes. The implications of chronic absenteeism are particularly relevant for students involved in human services, who account for a disproportionate number of chronically absent students. This brief addresses the ...
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Truancy Prevention Programs in Allegheny County
DHS analyzed data and conducted interviews about the services provided and outcomes achieved by two Allegheny County truancy prevention programs. This report details those activities and provides information about ways in which truancy prevention and intervention efforts could be improved. Click to read the data brief. ...
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ACHIEVE After-School Program
The ACHIEVE after-school program evolved from DHS’s data-sharing agreement with the Pittsburgh Public Schools and was designed as an intervention for under-performing middle school students who were also involved in human services. ACHIEVE ran for two years and had inconsistent results. Overall, it did not result in improved school performance for the participating students. This ...
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Human Services Involvement of Home-Schooled and Cyber Charter School-Enrolled Students in Pittsburgh Public Schools
At the end of the 2011-2012 school year, about three percent of Pittsburgh Public School students were enrolled in a cyber charter school and less than one percent of Pittsburgh Public School students were being home-schooled. An analysis showed that these students had very little human service involvement, as described in this data brief. Click ...
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Improving Educational Outcomes for Child Welfare-Involved Youth: Allegheny County’s Implementation of the Child Welfare Education Screen
In response to federal, state and local priorities, DHS implemented the Pennsylvania General and Special Education/Disability Accommodation Screen (Education Screen) in partnership with provider agencies and local school districts. The Education Screen was designed to increase collaborative efforts between DHS and school districts, with a focus on improved educational outcomes for students. Implementation included appointment ...
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2010 Local Government Case Competition: Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pathways to the Promise
Fifty-five graduate students from local universities participated in the 4th Local Government Case Competition. The focus of this year’s competition was on narrowing the academic achievement gap for students involved in human services and raising the bar for all Pittsburgh Public School students. Specifically, participants were asked to consider how to make more students “Promise ...
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Starting Early Together – Assessing a System of Care Initiative
Starting Early Together, a program of Allegheny County’s System of Care Initiative, was designed to serve children under six with serious emotional disturbances, and their families, in four high-need Allegheny County communities. The program combined service coordination with formal family supports, and was intended to transform the mental health system for children and families and ...
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2009 Allegheny County DHS Local Government Case Competition: Building the Homewood Children’s Village
The 3rd annual Case Competition was designed to engage local graduate students in developing a five-year strategic plan for the Homewood Children’s Village. Student teams approached the challenge from a variety of perspectives, but the team that ultimately won the competition impressed the judges with their knowledge of Homewood’s existing assets and their ability to ...
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Homewood: A Community Profile
This profile of the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Homewood (and subsequent Addendum) was compiled by DHS to assess demographic changes and examine quality of life issues-poverty, education, health care-in Homewood and in the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County to accurately assess the community’s assets and needs. Click here to view the full report. Click here ...