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I read through the article cited by Mr. Wexler, Evaluation of CASA Representation. He is correct when he states that the study concludes that:

"The well being of children who had a CASA volunteer was largely no different from those who did not have a CASA volunteer..."

However, either he has not read the article thoroughly or else he is being disingenuous to use this as an indictment of the CASA program. In the last two pages of the article, the authors discuss the difficulty of comparing the outcomes of children with and without CASA's since CASA's tend to be assigned to children who are considered at higher risk. To quote the article again:

"If an analysis does not "level the playing field" of those with CASA volunteers and those without at the outset of the case, the findings will reflect these vast differences in who gets a CASA volunteer and who does not, rather than the true impact of having a CASA volunteer."  

The final conclusion of the authors was that they were, in fact, unsuccessful in "leveling the playing field" with regard to the child's situation prior to being assigned a CASA and therefore further studies are needed to fairly assess the impact of the CASA. 

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posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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