This case study presents the research methods, practicalities, and challenges to implementing experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation designs in child welfare agencies. The evaluation tested the effectiveness of family group decision making in preventing children receiving in-home child protective services from another child maltreatment report or entering foster care. This study focuses on two sites, one which employed a randomized controlled trial design and one which used a quasi-experimental propensity score matching approach. Buy-in among front-line staff, survey response rates, and administrative data quality presented challenges for the project, which were addressed to the extent possible throughout the process
