Presented By: Causal Inference in Education Research Seminar (CIERS)
Causal Inference in Education Research Seminar (CIERS): The Causal Impact of Removing Children from Abusive and Neglectful Homes
Eric Chyn - Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Virginia
Abstract:
This paper uses administrative data to measure causal impacts of removing children from families investigated for abuse or neglect. We use the removal tendency of quasi-experimentally assigned child protective service investigators as an instrument for whether authorities removed and placed children into foster care. We measure the impacts on educational outcomes by gender and age at removal. We find significant reductions in special education program participation and significant increases in standardized test scores for girls removed before the age of six. There are no detectable impacts on the test scores of girls removed at older ages or boys of any age. We measure impacts of removal on teenage pregnancy, juvenile convictions, high school dropout, and college attendance for children removed at older ages, and we do not find significant effects. We investigate mechanisms driving our findings such as foster care placement, school mobility, and the quality of school attended, and discuss the results in the context of the literature on early-life interventions.
This paper uses administrative data to measure causal impacts of removing children from families investigated for abuse or neglect. We use the removal tendency of quasi-experimentally assigned child protective service investigators as an instrument for whether authorities removed and placed children into foster care. We measure the impacts on educational outcomes by gender and age at removal. We find significant reductions in special education program participation and significant increases in standardized test scores for girls removed before the age of six. There are no detectable impacts on the test scores of girls removed at older ages or boys of any age. We measure impacts of removal on teenage pregnancy, juvenile convictions, high school dropout, and college attendance for children removed at older ages, and we do not find significant effects. We investigate mechanisms driving our findings such as foster care placement, school mobility, and the quality of school attended, and discuss the results in the context of the literature on early-life interventions.
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