Testing the CrOss Systems Technical Assistance for Retaining Staff (COSTARS) Model for Improving Staff Retention Among Child Welfare Workers and Peer Supporters, and Implementation of Evidence Based Interventions.

Conditions

• Child Maltreatment
• Implementation
• Opioid Use Disorder
• Peer Recovery Supporters
• Substance Use Disorder

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

18 Years - N/A

Healthy Volunteers

Accepted

Interventions

• COSTARS — OTHER
  CrOss System Technical Assistance for Retaining Staff (COSTARS) is designed to help child welfare supervisors support the case workers and family peer mentors on their teams so that they can deliver programs like Ohio START to families affected by substance use disorder. COSTARS will deliver personalized coaching support to child welfare supervisors by a pair of coaches: one with child welfare expertise and one with lived recovery/child welfare experience. Supervisors will participate in a group training that emphasizes supportive supervision practices, and then receive up to two years of ongoing coaching support that involves monthly calls, and written feedback based on recorded supervision sessions.
• Implementation As Usual — OTHER
  Implementation as Usual includes training on the model, monthly technical assistance calls focused on model fidelity, regular audits of programmatic data, and monthly group calls with implementers from across the state.

Study Details

The goal of this study is to test whether the CrOss System Technical Assistance for Retaining Staff (COSTARS) supervision leadership institute can promote workforce stability and improved implementation outcomes within the Ohio START child welfare program. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Among supervisors, caseworkers, and family peer mentors, what is the effect of COSTARS on staff retention and perceptions of the work environment? * What is the effect of COSTARS on service timeliness, implementation fidelity, and parent outcomes within Ohio START? Researchers will compare public children services agencies implementing COSTARS to those implementing supervision practices as usual to see if there are differences between groups in the outcomes described above. Participating supervisors will: * Complete a 6-hour training workshop in the FOCUS model of supervision. * Participate in monthly group coaching sessions with other supervisors, for approximately one year. * Receive individualized feedback from coaches about their supervision performance.

Key Dates

First listed

Feb 27, 2026

Start date

Jul 28, 2026

Status verified

Jul 2026

Primary completion

Aug 31, 2030

Completion

Aug 31, 2030

Study Design

Enrollment

200 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

CROSSOVER

Primary purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Arms

• Experimental: COSTARS
  To receive the COSTARS intervention
• Active Comparator: Implementation As Usual
  Implementation As Usual

Primary Outcome Measure

Change Over Time in Employee Intention to Leave Position, as Assessed by the Turnover Intention Scale (TIS-6) [ Time Frame: Collected at Baseline, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, and Year 5 ]

Locations (1)

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