| In 1999, the U.S. Surgeon General reported that residential treatment centers were ineffective and community-based interventions were better for the treatment of mental illness in children and youth. Since this time, many cities have begun attempting community-based interventions, not only for practice purposes but also for financial reasons, as residential treatment centers, and other interventions, i.e. special education and juvenile detention centers, are extremely expensive.;In-Home and Community Based Services is a promising practice out of Ohio that was brought to the District of Columbia in Fiscal Year 2005 to provide services to the child welfare and juvenile justice populations. This study looks at this promising practice's effectiveness on the community functioning, academic achievement, school functioning and the number of disruption of placements for fifty (n=50) Black foster children that were referred into the program.;A repeated measures MANCOVA analysis was utilized and revealed statistically significant differences in mean test scores for community functioning and academic achievement. These results demonstrate the potential effectiveness of In Home Community Based Services (IHCBS) for Black children in foster care in the District of Columbia and possibly similar communities.;The research findings imply that this promising practice, IHCBS, should be adopted into Washington, D.C.'s array of services provided, as well as utilized by school psychologists as an alternative to special education, juvenile detention and residential treatment centers. |
