1. Integrating GIS & Cost Analyses: Mapping
School Transportation for Foster Youth
Dr. Joan Pennell R.V. Rikard
jpennell@ncsu.edu rvrikard@ncsu.edu
Professor & Center Director Research Manager
Center for Family & Community Engagement
http://www.cfface.org

2. Fostering Youth Educational Success (YES!)
http://cfface.chass.ncsu.edu/Fostering_Yes/index.php
Who are the Partner Organizations? What is Fostering YES?
Cumberland County Department of A project to support foster youth
Social Services, Public Schools, success in their school, home, and
Mental Health, and County Court community. This project gives foster youth
collaborate with North Carolina a say in their educational planning and
State University. builds community capacity.
Why is the Project Needed?
Who funds the Project? Foster youth have frequent changes
A U.S. Department of Health & Human in where they live and go to
Services, Administration for Child and school, leading to increased grade-
Families, Children’s Bureau grant supports level retentions. On average, foster
the project. youth in Cumberland County attend
six schools.

3. Trauma & Academic Performance
• Foster youth traumatized by:
– Child abuse and neglect
– Removal and placement
– Separation from school of origin & friends
• Trauma leads to hyper arousal, lack of self-control,
& learning disabilities
• Enter care with histories of absences, truancy,
expulsions, and school transfer
• These problems compounded in care
• Age out of care at risk of depression,
homelessness, unemployment, & incarceration

4. Impact of School Changes
• A positive school experience can offset
trauma and promote wellbeing
• Fostering Connections 2008 legislation
mandates child welfare to strive for school
stability
• Foster youth experience educational
instability--transfers, delays, disruptions,
ostracism
• Lose average of 4-6 months of educational
progress for every school move

5. Purpose:
1. Develop a pragmatic method to estimate transportation
costs as well as maximizing revenue streams and strategic
placement of foster youth.
2. The method employs a set of focused cost models and
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data to develop and
inform strategic planning.

6. Data Sharing Strategy
Foster
Youth ID
CCS School
Performance
Data
DSS – GIS Data
(School of Origin
Address, School
Placement
Address, Foster
Placement Adress)
NOTE: Foster Youth ID is first three letters of last name, 4 digit birth year, 2 digit birth month, 2 digit birth date.
For example: ABC20000131

7. Location: Cumberland County, NC

8. Data
Cumberland Match Cumberland
County Process Public
with 1st Schools
DSS Placement
Address
N =278 N = 137 N =268

9. Data (cont.)
Concern: is there a significant difference between youth
with and without first placement address?
• Lack of demographic data (i.e., age, sex,
race/ethnicity).
• However, using grade level of youth as of July, 2011.
With alpha at 0.05 and df-t: 263.7; p= 0.48579. No
concern of significant difference.

10. Methods
What we know:
1. Hourly wage for Cumberland County Social
Worker is $26.16.
2. The average weekly price of gasoline from July
2008 – July 2011 is $2.821
What we don’t know:
1. Distance (in miles) and,
2. Duration (in minutes) to transport a foster youth.
1. Energy Information Administration
http://tonto.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_R1Y_DPG&f=W

11. Methods (cont.)
Develop a Google Maps Application Programming
Interface (API) to calculate distance and duration

12. It is possible to generate a database of average
miles and average minutes using a Google Maps
API.

13. First Placement

14. Second Placement

15. Third Placement

16. Foster Youth Transportation Cost per
Placement Event
$12,000.00
n = 106
$10,000.00
$8,000.00
n = 134 n = 58
$6,000.00
$4,000.00
$2,000.00
$-
First Second Third
Placement Event

17. Limitations
1. Limited demographic data,
2. Limited educational data,
3. Few explanatory variables,
4. Cross sectional, and
5. Only examine fiscal costs not human costs
BUT….
1. Some very stark findings,
2. Emphasis on cost, time, and movement

18. Implications
Cumberland County DSS automated data
collection system – Placement and Removals
and Family Planning Meetings.
State of NC moving to data sharing system: NC
Educational Stability Task Force.
Adoption of metric to measure progress – for
example: Number of Retentions, Number of
School Moves.

19. References
Bateman, I. J., Garrod, G. D., Brainard, J. S., & Lovett, A. A. (1996). Measurement
issues in the travel cost method: A geographical information systems approach.
Journal of Agricultural Economics, 47(1-4), 191–205. doi:10.1111/j.1477-
9552.1996.tb00684.x
Boardman, A. E., Greenberg, D. H., Vining, A. R., & Weimer, D. L. (2001). Cost-Benefit
Analysis: Concepts and Practice (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Carlson, D., Reder, S., Jones, N., & Lee, A. (2006). Homeless student transportation
project evaluation ( No. WA-RD 665.1). Washington State Transportation Center
(TRAC). Retrieved from http://evans.washington.edu/files/665.1.pdf

20. References
National Working Group on Foster Care and Education. (2011, July). Education is the
lifeline for youth in foster care. Research Highlights on Education and Foster
Care. Retrieved
from http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/pdf/EducationalOutcomesFactSh
eet.pdf
Ray, A. (1984). Cost-benefit analysis: Issues and methodologies. World Bank.
Stotland, J., McInerney, M., Feierman, J., Burdick, K., McNaught, K., & Kelly, K. (2011).
Fostering Connections Implementation Toolkit (p. 140). Retrieved from
http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/child/education/publications/t
oolkit_combined_with_cover.authcheckdam.pdf
Wang, F. (2006). Quantitative methods and applications in GIS. CRC Press.
Yuan, M. (2001). Representing complex geographic phenomena in GIS. Cartography
and Geographic Information Science, 28(2), 83–96.

21. Integrating GIS & Costs Analyses: Mapping
School Transportation for Foster Youth
Dr. Joan Pennell R.V. Rikard
jpennell@ncsu.edu rvrikard@ncsu.edu
Professor & Center Director Research Manager
Center for Family & Community Engagement
http://www.cfface.org