Child Welfare Involvement In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Doubled For Children After Parental Opioid-Related Overdose Death

In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, child welfare involvement doubled among children whose parent died following an opioid-related drug overdose. The rate of involvement rose from 10.6% at the time of the parent’s death to 19.8% five years later. During the five-year period, about 8.5% of the children had experienced out-of-home placement. Dependency-related court involvement also increased, from 7.2% at the time of the parent’s death to 11.3%. However, the rate of delinquency-related court involvement remained relatively low across the five-year period.

Within three months after the parent . . .