About the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well Being

NSCAW is the first national probability study of child welfare services involvement that includes direct assessments of children and their caregivers. Further, NSCAW collects data on substance abuse needs and treatment use from parents and child welfare workers and allows for combining this information with data gathered on the safety and child well-being outcomes for children. These data allow for a comprehensive examination of caregivers with substance abuse problems involved in the child welfare system. We have chosen, in this analysis, to focus on the children and families receiving in-home services because they make up the majority of child welfare cases and because the NSCAW data are not able to provide comprehensive information or reliable estimates about the children in out-of-home care, at this time.