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Wilder Research: Scott County family resource centers linked to drop in child-protection assessments, modest positive return
Summary
Wilder Research told the Scott County board that linked county FRC and state child-protection data show fewer child-protection assessments after families contact FRCs. Using conservative assumptions the study estimates a $1.21 social return per $1 invested from avoided child-protection costs.
Wilder Research presented a county-focused evaluation showing families who engaged with Scott County Family Resource Centers (FRCs) experienced fewer subsequent child-protection system assessments, and that avoided system costs nearly cover program expenses.
Justin Hollis, a Wilder research economist, summarized the core finding: "Child protection involvement among FRC's families is rare. It's really, really uncommon." Wilder linked FRC program rosters with state SSIS child-protection records, cleaned and deduplicated the data, and reported roughly 1,096 child-protection–eligible households in the analytic sample across the study period.
Using layered analyses — pre/post comparisons, cohort replication and a difference-in-differences comparison with nearby Carver County — Wilder reported Scott County saw a substantially larger post-implementation decline in child-protection assessment rates than the comparison county (about a 7.6 percentage-point reduction in Scott County vs. ~0.7 percentage points in Carver). The researchers estimated the gross avoided child-protection benefit at about $604,000, a net benefit after county FRC costs of roughly $107,000, and a conservative benefit-cost ratio of about $1.21 for every $1 invested in FRCs.
Presenters and commissioners stressed the analysis was intentionally conservative and narrowly focused on avoided child-protection costs rather than the broader set of outcomes FRCs may produce (housing stability, employment, school readiness). Board members asked about next steps, including expanding tracked outcomes and improving data collection to capture socioeconomic characteristics of FRC participants.
The presentation will be followed by additional county-specific materials and a planned discussion of how to expand outcome tracking across the statewide FRC network housed at Wilder.
