This study examined the effectiveness of the Snohomish County (WA) family drug treatment court (FDTC) in addressing the three main goals of the Adoption and Safe Families Act.
Family drug treatment courts (FDTC) have been widely accepted as a promising intervention for substance‐abusing parents involved in the child welfare system. Although the number of FDTC programs has increased over the past decade, questions remain about the effectiveness of these courts. Using propensity score matching, the current evaluation of the Snohomish County FDTC found that participants were more likely to have their children returned, experienced stronger treatment completion rates, and had less use of foster care compared to matched nonparticipants. Implications for replication and further analysis are discussed. (publisher abstract modified)