Academic research led by the MIT Sloan School of Management, United States, found that increasing the quality of legal representation for children in foster care in Chile accelerates their departure from foster care and improves overall child well-being, all this saving money.
The researchers used data provided by Mi Abogado, a specialized program in legal defense for children and adolescents of the former National Service for Minors (Sename), which improves their legal representation by providing them with a lawyer with a reduced workload, together with the access to a psychologist and a social worker to facilitate access to social services.
The study’s lead author and spokesperson, Joseph Doyle, is an American economist, Erwin H. Schell Professor of Management and Co-Director of Health Systems Innovation at MIT Sloan, as well as Co-Chairman of the Abdul Poverty Action Lab’s Health Sector Latif Jameel. His research focuses primarily on the public economics of health care and child welfare. in conversation with The counterProfessor Doyle explains the details and positive results of the trial carried out in our country.
— According to the study, in Chile, children in foster homes spend an average of 3 years in foster care, 50% more than in other middle- and high-income countries. In your opinion, what are the causes of this? What is the deficit of the Chilean legal system?
—The results show that improved legal aid and case management can reduce reception time, and that such investments actually save money. This suggests that improving the quality of reception services can reduce this length of stay.
There is substantial variation in length of stay between jurisdictions, including between US States, depending on local policies and practices. It is difficult to say what the optimal length of stay in foster care should be: longer means longer family rehabilitation services, such as mental health care and drug treatment, coupled with concerns that children spend too much time in foster care. One feature of our study is that we can examine whether a program designed to reduce red tape and facilitate family rehabilitation speeds children’s release from foster care and improves other child welfare measures.
—Is this the motivation for carrying out the study in Chile, or are there other reasons?
—Chile is a very good place to do research, because the country is very advanced in this area and has very good data that can be analyzed. One big advantage is that measures of child well-being can be measured over time in ways that are not feasible in other countries. More importantly, this innovative program to improve legal aid for foster children started in a structured way, allowing it to be rigorously evaluated. By doing so, you learn whether the programs are really working to improve child well-being, which should help inform public policy decisions going forward.
—What were the key results of the children who participated in the program?
—First, the children who accessed the program were reunited with their families more quickly (they spent 25% more time with their family during the 2 years we studied). Second, child safety measures suggest that children were not returned to homes from unsafe environments, as they were not more likely to re-enter the child protection system. Third, we also see that children are less likely to be involved in criminal justice, with an approximate 30% reduction in crime reporting. Finally, the program improved school attendance, especially at times when attendance rates were low across all schools, increasing attendance levels from 45 to 50%.
—What would be the main cause of the improvements in results?
—The research suggests that the main cause of the improvement in results was derived from the greater attention of the lawyer assigned to the case, which allowed him to have more time to visit the minor, the family and the staff of the residence, in an effort to expedite rehabilitation and family reunification.
—Regarding the cost of legal intervention, why would it be profitable for the State?
—We found that for every dollar spent on the program, the child protection system saves more than 3 dollars thanks to the reduction of time in foster care. Hosting is expensive. If families can be safely reunited more quickly, money can likely be saved while improving outcomes for families.
—Although the Mi Abogado program already exists in Chile and aims to improve the legal representation of children in foster care, what would it take to extend it to the entire system?
—Our results speak of improvements for children living in group homes. They suggest that the program should continue and, if anything, receive more support to maintain the lower number of cases that we observed in our 2-year period. The program is also available for children in foster care, and its application should be evaluated in that context as well (research we are working on). If the program expands further, it will be important to maintain the quality of legal aid, so it would be prudent to consider supporting the training of lawyers joining it.
