DENNIS ZELLER, PH.D.,
PRINCIPAL
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York’s Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. Dr.
Zeller was the person who initiated turning AFCARS data into longitudinal files, so that states
could assess their own performance on the achievement of permanency more accurately
than the federal outcome measures permit, especially for those without SACWIS or historical
management information systems. The Child Welfare League of America disseminated
nationally the methodology that he developed. Many of the concepts are now incorporated
in the prospective cohort measures adopted by the Administration for Children and Families.
Dr. Zeller co-authored “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek”
published in Child Welfare. He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national
conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics. He received a master’s
degree in social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
From Connecticut Data Collect System Consult – 2007
DENNIS E. ZELLER, PH.D., M.S.S.W., PRESIDENT
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. He participates in all
of the larger projects undertaken by the firm, generally serving as either principal
investigator or project director. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis,
research design and data analysis.
Prior to founding the consulting firm in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy
Planning of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department
of Social Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care
regulations, for proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for
negotiating litigation settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's
preventive service program, the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services,
utilization review procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child
Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster
children preparing for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the
Texas Department of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the
agency.
Much of the consulting work on which Dr. Zeller has led HZA has involved accountability
systems and data analysis. Examples include projects in which Dr. Zeller:
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designed the quality assurance process and reports for the Arkansas Division
of Children and Family Services;
designed the outcome measures and reports for the Pennsylvania Office of
Children Youth and Families and the county agencies serving the child welfare
and juvenile justice programs;
assisted the Connecticut Division of Children Youth and Families in
establishing a needs assessment methodology and calculating the actual
need for services;
designed and carried out the data analysis for an extensive needs
assessment across the entire state of Ohio to provide quantified results
showing how many services were needed, how many services existed and
what the difference between the two was; and
evaluated the performance of the State Central Registry, which accepts
reports of child abuse and neglect, at the New Jersey Division of Youth and
Family Services.
Minimum Qualifications
Experience in Appropriate Field
As shown in his resume, Dr. Zeller has worked in social services for thirty years. Upon
graduation with his social work degree he began working as a planner for the Texas
Department of Human Services, working with income maintenance programs and services
for the elderly. In 1980 he moved to the New York State Department of Social Services
where two years later he became Director of Policy for Family and Children Services, with
approximately 20 staff reporting to him or the supervisors under him. In 1988 he started his
consulting work and, as the paragraphs above indicate, has worked on child welfare,
criminal justice and mental health projects. Continuing work he began in the public agency
in New York, much of the focus of the work he does involves designing and implementing
performance measurement and other accountability systems.
Master’s Degree
Dr. Zeller received a Masters of Science in Social Work in 1977 from the University of Texas
at Austin. A year and a half prior to that, in December of 1975, he had received a doctorate
in philosophy with a concentration in political philosophy from the same university.
Research Based Criminal Justice Programming
This was the focus of the literature review HZA conducted for CSSD towards the end of
2006. Dr. Zeller served as the principal investigator for that project, providing general
oversight of all components. In addition, he wrote most of the final report, which described
the research based programming, and made the presentations to the Juvenile Jurisdiction
Planning and Implementation Committee.
SPSS
Dr. Zeller first did SPSS programming in the 1970s when the only version available was for
mainframe computers, and he has ensured that data analysis staff throughout the company
are competent in that program. His most recent use of SPSS involved calculations for a
workload study the firm conducted in Alaska in 2006. He generally does his file
manipulations with Access then exports the file to SPSS for analysis. He has also worked in
SAS.
Internal/External Stakeholders
Dr. Zeller has demonstrated his ability to interact with internal and external stakeholders in
numerous settings. In the early 1980s, as a representative of state government, he worked
with a group of advocates, county officials and private service providers to develop a new
accountability system related to child welfare cases. As a consultant he has worked with
steering or advisory groups in such states and on such topics as Pennsylvania
(accountability and planning for child welfare and juvenile justice), California (accountability
for child care), Alabama (residential care rate setting) and Virginia (workload measurement).
He has also had several projects where a key component of his role was simply to provide
periodic, ad hoc advice and counsel. The quality assurance project in Arkansas still,
fourteen years after he began work there, involves that role for Dr. Zeller.
Team Environment
Perhaps the best evidence of Dr. Zeller’s ability to work in a team environment is his equal
partnership with Ms. Hornby. To have made the company work successfully for the past 12
years, the partners have had to identify ways to share some decision-making and labor and
to divide other decision-making and labor. That has occurred with remarkably little conflict
or even disagreement.
Travel
Dr. Zeller works in Troy, New York and lives in Albany. Hartford is a two-hour drive from his
house or a 45-minute ride in the company plane. Travel to and from and in and around the
state is not an issue.
CFSR/PIP/QSR SUPPORT
From Pennsylvania Data Gathering, Analysis, and Reporting; Technical Assistance and
Training Proposal – December 2015
Dennis E. Zeller, Principal
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates, starting the firm as a
sole proprietorship in 1988. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis,
research design, data analysis and computer application development. He will provide
oversight and guidance to the team throughout the engagement, and assist Pennsylvania as
it prepares for the third round of the Child and Family Services Reviews.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York’s Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller’s work
since he authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published
by the National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991.
Dr. Zeller was the person who initiated turning AFCARS data into longitudinal files so that
states could assess their own performance on the achievement of permanency more
accurately than the federal outcome measures permitted, especially for those without
SACWIS or historical management information systems. The Child Welfare League of
America disseminated the methodology he developed nationally. His most recent
publication in Child Welfare is on the subject of performance measures and critiques the
federal measures used in the original CFSR. The publication, titled Improving Child Welfare
Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches, was co-authored by Dr. Tom
Gamble.
Dr. Zeller also co-authored “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek”
published in Child Welfare. He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national
conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics. He received a master’s
degree in social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
From Alaska Title IV-E Consultant Proposal – November 2014
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D.,
Principal
Estimated Hours:
Work Location:
107
Troy, New York
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of
Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller has taken a lead role in all of HZA’s Title IV-E claiming and cost allocation studies.
He worked with Ms. Hornby on the financial assessment of the Mississippi Department of
Human Services focusing on redesigning the random moment survey, identifying eligible but
previously unclaimed maintenance costs for foster children and revising the cost allocation
plan. He also oversaw the development of the Colorado random moment survey designed to
capture Title IV-E administrative funds for the costs incurred by child placing agencies and
supervised the firm’s work with the Kansas Department of Corrections which led to changes
in the cost allocation plan and a new method for claiming Title IV-E funds for juveniles.
He also has ten years of experience working in Alaska. For example, he led a statewide
Workload Study for children’s services in 2005; he led a workload analysis for the Division of
Public Assistance in 2006 and led another Workload Study for Children’s Services in 2012.
Also in 2012 he was the principal investigator of the Foster Care Rate Study and, as
mentioned earlier, has signed by the State’s Attorney General’s office to serve as an expert
witness on behalf of the State when foster parent litigation over rates goes to trial in 2015.
Each of these projects has familiarized Dr. Zeller with the operations of the Office of
Children’s Services. He has worked on other projects sponsored by the Alaska Mental Health
Trust Authority as well as the Alaska Court System.
From Pennsylvania Data Gathering, Analysis and Reporting; Technical Assistance and
Training Proposal – October 2012
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller is a principal and the founder of HZA. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise
include policy analysis, research design and data analysis.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York’s Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. Dr.
Zeller was the person who initiated turning AFCARS data into longitudinal files, so that states
could assess their own performance on the achievement of permanency more accurately
than the federal outcome measures permit, especially for those without SACWIS or historical
management information systems.
Dr. Zeller co-authored “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” and
“Improving Child Welfare Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches,” both
published in Child Welfare. He received a master’s degree in social work and a doctorate
from the University of Texas at Austin.
From PA OCYF Data Analysis Re-Bid – May 2012
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D.
Principal
Dennis E. Zeller is a principal and the founder of HZA. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise
include policy analysis, research design and data analysis.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York’s Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. Dr.
Zeller was the person who initiated turning AFCARS data into longitudinal files, so that states
could assess their own performance on the achievement of permanency more accurately
than the federal outcome measures permit, especially for those without SACWIS or historical
management information systems.
Dr. Zeller co-authored “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” and
“Improving Child Welfare Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches,” both
published in Child Welfare. He received a master’s degree in social work and a doctorate
from the University of Texas at Austin.
From New Jersey Production of Longitudinal Data Analysis and Reporting Proposal – April
2012
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller is a principal and the founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York’s Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus for Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. Dr.
Zeller initiated transforming AFCARS data into longitudinal files, so that states, especially
those without SACWIS or historical management information systems, could assess their
own performance on the achievement of permanency more accurately than the federal
outcome measures permit. He has also published an article about appropriate
measurements of child welfare performance (see Zeller, D. and Gamble, T., Improving child
welfare performance: Retrospective and prospective approaches. Child Welfare. 86 (1), 97122).
He began his consulting career in 1988, doing business as Zeller Associates and in 1995
formed Hornby Zeller Associates, Inc. when Helaine Hornby became a partner in the firm.
Together they have grown the company to a staff of 40 full-time employees and have
consulted with social services agencies in more than 30 states.
Relevant Experience
Quality Assurance
Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services
1997 – Present
Since the inception of the privatization of the quality assurance function in Arkansas’
Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in 1997, Dr. Zeller has provided the primary
guidance and leadership to that unit. Prior to the creation of HZA’s Quality Assurance unit in
DCFS, Dr. Zeller designed the legislative report the agency is required to submit on a
quarterly basis, programmed the calculations of the measures in that report using the
agency’s legacy data and programmed some of the analysis needed to utilize both legacy
data and new SACWIS data in the same reports, once the latter system had been
implemented. Since that time, Dr. Zeller has worked with the managers of the unit to design
new reports, such as the monthly compliance report tracking over 30 items from the case
level to the statewide level and to carry out special studies such as workload
measurements, a study of racial disproportionality in foster care and a study of overdue
investigations. To ensure the quality of HZA’s products Dr. Zeller personally reviews many of
them and has trained other staff to review them, as well. He works to ensure that DCFS is
completely satisfied with the functioning of the unit by meeting in person with the agency’s
administration almost every month.
Reference:
Cecile Blucker
Director
Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services
700 Main Street
Little Rock, Arkansas 72203
(501) 682 – 8770
Cecile.Blucker@arkansas.gov
Technical Assistance, Needs Based Planning and Budgeting and CFSR Support
Pennsylvania Office of Children Youth and Families (OCYF)
2002 – Present
Since 2002 HZA has been responsible for creating “data packages” for Pennsylvania’s 67
county Children and Youth Agencies. Dr. Zeller designed the original data packages and
supervised the programming of the measures. These included both descriptive measures
such as point-in-time counts and case flow indicators and outcome measures. Because
Pennsylvania did not (and still does not) have a SACWIS, the basic data sources were
AFCARS and NCANDS data. The initial use of the data was to assist counties in developing
their annual needs based budget and planning requests, but soon thereafter the agency
requested HZA’s help in preparing for its CFSR. As part of that effort, Dr. Zeller designed a
way to turn multiple AFCARS submissions into a single longitudinal file. This resulted in a
much more robust statewide assessment for the CFSR.
During the first years in which HZA was producing the data packages, Dr. Zeller provided
training sessions to both county and regional staff on what the data packages contained,
how to interpret the data and how to use the data in the management of their agencies.
During the last several years, both the production of the data packages and the training
sessions have been transferred to Mr. Zacks, the Project Manager for this initiative, under
Dr. Zeller’s continued oversight. Dr. Zeller also continues to remain involved in
Pennsylvania’s PIP implementation.
Reference:
Cathy Utz
Director
Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare
Office of Children, Youth and Families
Bureau of Policy, Programs and Operations
Health and Welfare Building
Room 105, 625 Forster Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120
(717) 705-2912
cutz@pa.gov
Evaluation Services for Nebraska Family Helpline, Family Navigator and Post Adoption/Post
Guardianship Services
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services
Division of Children’s Behavioral Health
2010 – Present
In 2010, Nebraska implemented three legislatively-funded prevention service programs in
response to issues with the state’s Safe Haven Program. All of the programs, the Nebraska
Family Helpline, Family Navigator and Post Adoption/Post Guardianship Services, were
designed to address youth behavioral health issues. Together with the firm’s other principal,
Helaine Hornby, Dr. Zeller has overseen the development and implementation of the
methodologies for measuring the fidelity, effectiveness and outcomes of those three
programs. Measurements are made in two forms: quarterly reports to the agency and a
web-based dashboard designed to allow both the public and professionals to view the
performance of the providers. Dr. Zeller has written some of the reports and reviews the
others; and, he designed the original content of the dashboard and continues to supervise
its operation and modifications.
The information generated by HZA’s evaluation of these programs was found sufficiently
useful that the Legislature extended the funding for the evaluation a year beyond its original
18-month period, even though neither HZA nor the agency had requested that.
Reference:
Maya Chilese
Gambler’s Assistance Program Manager
Department of Health and Human Services, Behavioral Health
301 Centennial Mall South
Nebraska State Office Building
Lincoln, NE 68509-5026
(402) 471-7792
Maya.Chilese@nebraska.gov
COURT INVOLVEMENT
From Alaska Court System Evaluation of the Fairbanks Juvenile Treatment Court Proposal –
March 2013
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., HZA Principal and Co-principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development. For this project he will serve as Principal Investigator, providing
the overall conceptual guidance and oversight for the project.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. He received a master's degree in social work and a
doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Zeller has managed many projects requiring sampling techniques to compile and analyze
information not available from existing data systems but needed to augment electronically
available data. One example is the Supervisory Review Quality Assurance Project in
Arkansas where HZA pulled data from the statewide system and merged it into a database
we created for reviewers to add quality assurance information after reviewing case records.
The information was then aggregated to produce reports. HZA has participated in all of
HZA’s workload measures studies and is the principal designer of the company’s
workload/case weighting methodologies. Some of these were used to project costs and
staffing requirements. These include: Arizona’s Administration for Children, Youth and
Families (1994 and 1996), for Milwaukee County’s Division of Youth Services (1995), for
Lucas County’s (Ohio) Children’s Services agency (1997), for Nevada’s Division of Child and
Family Services (1997-98), for Arkansas’ Division of Children and Family Services (1997-98
and 2001), for Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services (1998-99), for
Virginia’s Department of Social Services (1999-2001), for Colorado’s Department of Human
Services (2001), for Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services (2001) for Alaska’s
Office of Children Services (2005); and for Alaska’s Division of Public Assistance (2006).
Over the past decade, Dr. Zeller organized the evaluation and data units for three statewide
children and youth agencies: Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada. These units are still
operating in whole or in part by HZA in two of the states and have been taken over by the
agency in one. The units produce federal outcome reports and management reports for
legislators and agency administrators. He has overseen evaluations in departmental priority
areas as they are defined or change each year. For example, in Arkansas the state was
particularly concerned with the over- representation of minorities in the foster care system
and HZA studied that phenomenon in an attempt to pinpoint the reasons. One of the
revelations, not documented elsewhere in the literature, is that minorities have larger
families and a single confirmed report of child abuse may often result in the removal of
multiple children, causing greater incidence of minorities in foster care but not in child
protection reports. Dr. Zeller has examined the causes for rises in the substitute care
population (Erie County, Pennsylvania), in the relationship between welfare reform and child
welfare services (Arkansas, no increase in child welfare), and the value of intensive family
services on improved outcomes for children (Arkansas).
Among other projects, Dr. Zeller is currently conducting the cost study for the Co-occurring
State Incentive Grant (COSIG) in Maine. This study will entail the analysis of MaineCare data
and other data sources from Maine Medical Center, Aroostook Mental Health and Crisis and
Counseling to determine the cost of serving people with co-occurring disorders. The All
Claims data base which includes private insurers may be accessed as well. HZA’s evaluation
of COSIG will include tracking 300 co-occurring clients per year to track services utilization
and outcomes. This experience will help Department understand the limits of critical data
sets for subsequent evaluation activities.
He received a master's degree in social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at
Austin.
From Florida Adult Drug Court Statewide Evaluation Proposal – July 2010
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., Co-principal Investigator: Dennis E. Zeller is a Principal and founder of
Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis,
research design, data analysis and computer application development.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all social service regulations, for proposing and
negotiating Department-sponsored legislation, and for negotiating litigation settlements. He
was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases, and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Court performance and drug courts have been the focus of several of Dr. Zeller’s projects. In
the Reassessment of Court Performance conducted for Wisconsin’s Director of State Courts
Office, Dr. Zeller directed the data analysis of the CHIPS data in CCAP, the court’s case filing
system. HZA measured participant outcomes for a period prior to the changes in state law
enacted in 2002 and for a period after to discern whether the changes had any effect.
CCAP, while adequate and efficient as a case management system, was found not to
function well as a management reporting tool. Dr. Zeller proposed that a standard set of
codes be used by courts to record statuses and actions, which would provide a clear history
of cases to be accessed by the courts, the identification of distinct events, and the data
needed to generate performance and outcome measures.
At a 2009 summit sponsored by the Wisconsin Director of State Courts, Dr. Zeller led a twohour training session focusing on methods for improving the court and social service system
response to multiple placements of children in foster care, re-entry into care, and delayed
permanency. He also addressed judges and court personnel attending a statewide
conference in North Carolina on the results of HZA’s court study there. Dr. Zeller directed a
service needs assessment of court supervision services of 16 and 17-year-olds conducted
on behalf of the Connecticut Judicial Branch. In this role, he met with judges, law
enforcement officials and service providers to identify the needs and barriers to accessing
services faced by older youth. He also testified before the legislative subcommittee
overseeing the effort to raise the age of jurisdiction over juvenile offenders in Connecticut.
He has provided guidance in the evaluation of the effectiveness of the mental health court
in Anchorage, Alaska, and has worked with the firm’s Florida staff on quality assurance
reviews and other projects over the past five years. He earned his Ph.D. and a Master’s
Degree in Social Work at the University of Texas, Austin.
From Juvenile Court Assessment Proposal – North Carolina – 2007
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W.
Dennis E. Zeller is a Principal and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis. He will serve
as the Principal Investigator for this engagement.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the state's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek,” published in Child
Welfare, which addresses both foster care and adoption issues relating to the use of
relatives as placement resources. His most recent publication in Child Welfare is on the
subject of performance measures and critiques the federal measures used in the original
Child and Family Services Review. It is called, “Improving Child Welfare Performance:
Retrospective and Prospective Approaches” and is co-authored by Dr. Tom Gamble. He has
spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare,
research and statistics.
Dr. Zeller has worked with courts in several projects. In the Reassessment of Wisconsin’s
Court Performance in Children in Need of Protection or Services, Dr. Zeller directed the data
analysis of CHIPS data in the state’s Consolidated Court Automation Programs, as well as
the assessment of the system’s capacity for performance measurement. Outcomes were
measured for periods before and after changes in state law were enacted in 2002 to discern
whether the changes had any effect. CCAP, while adequate and efficient as a case
management system, was found not to function well as a management reporting tool to
measure compliance and outcomes achieved. Dr. Zeller proposed that a standard set of
codes be used by courts to record statuses and actions which would provide a clear history
of cases to be accessed by the courts, the identification of distinct events, and the data
needed to generate performance and outcome measures. Modifications to the set of codes
have since been made.
In 2006 and 2007 Dr. Zeller directed the service needs assessment of court supervision
services of 16 and 17 year-old youth conducted on behalf of the Connecticut Judicial Branch
and Department of Children and Families. He met with judges, law enforcement officials
and service providers to identify the needs and barriers which older youth have in accessing
services, particularly in regard to health and educational needs. A series of services,
programs and interventions were identified to benefit and support youth as the maximum
age of juveniles involved in the courts is raised. More recently he has provided guidance in
the evaluation of the program effectiveness of a coordinated resources project being
undertaken by a mental health court in Anchorage, Alaska.
From State Level Strategies DSCO Proposal – Wisconsin – 2008
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W.
Affiliation:
Project Role:
Time Commitment:
HZA Principal
Co-Principal Investigator
168 Hours
Experience:
Dennis E. Zeller is a Principal and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all social service and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Court performance has been the focus of several projects which he has been involved. In
the Reassessment of Court Performance in Children in Need of Protection or Services for
Wisconsin’s Director of State Courts Office, Dr. Zeller directed the data analysis of the CHIPS
data in CCAP. Outcomes were measured for a period prior to the changes in state law
enacted in 2002 and for a period after to discern whether the changes had any effect.
CCAP, while adequate and efficient as a case management system, was found not to
function well as a management reporting tool to measure compliance and outcomes
achieved. Dr. Zeller proposed that a standard set of codes be used by courts to record
statuses and actions which would provide a clear history of cases to be accessed by the
courts, the identification of distinct events, and the data needed to generate performance
and outcome measures.
Dr. Zeller just returned from the Wisconsin Summit sponsored by DSCO where he led a twohour session focusing on methods for improving the court and social service system
response to multiple placements of children in foster care, re-entry and delayed
permanency.
Dr. Zeller directed the service needs assessment of court supervision services of 16 and 17
year old conducted on behalf of the Connecticut Judicial Branch and Department of Children
and Families. He met with judges, other law enforcement officials and service providers to
identify the needs and barriers which older youth have in accessing services, particularly in
regard to health and educational needs. A series of services, programs and interventions
were identified to benefit and support youth as the maximum age of juveniles involved in the
courts is raised. More recently he has provided guidance in the evaluation of the program
effectiveness of a coordinated resources project being undertaken by a mental health court
in Anchorage, Alaska.
Dr. Zeller has extensive experience in evaluation research and outcome measurement. Dr.
Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare
which addresses both foster care and adoption issues relating to the use of relatives as
placement resources. His most recent publication in Child Welfare is on the subject of
performance measures and critiques the federal measures used in the original Child and
Family Services Review. It is called, “Improving Child Welfare Performance: Retrospective
and Prospective Approaches” and is co-authored by Dr. Tom Gamble. He has spoken broadly
at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and
statistics.
For first and second round Child and Family Services Reviews, Dr. Zeller assisted several
states with the Self-assessment, Quality Services Review and/or Program Improvement
Plan. On behalf of Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, he wrote Section IV of the
statewide assessment for the first CFSR round which encompassed the data analysis and
interpretation of the outcome measures. He is performing this same function in Arkansas
and Pennsylvania for the second round of CFSRs. Pennsylvania implemented a Quality
Services Review process, as part of the Commonwealth’s PIP, in which each county or
cluster of smaller counties would be reviewed, using a tool similar to that used for the
federal review. An average of 15 cases, eight substitute care and seven in-home cases,
were selected for each of the reviews. Dr. Zeller provided guidance to the data analysts
responsible for assessing and reporting the county or cluster results, including the
development of a weighting measure to report statewide results. In preparation for the
CFSR in Nevada, he created the state’s Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting
System (AFCARS) files from three separate data sources, a function which the state’s newly
implemented Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) was unable
to do.
NEEDS ASSESSMENT
From Ohio Children’s Trust Fund: Statewide Child Maltreatment Needs Assessment &
Evaluation Services Proposal – July 2010
Lead Researcher with Three Years of Experience in Research and Analysis in Social Science
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., is the Lead Researcher for this engagement. Dr. Zeller
started the research firm as Zeller Associates in 1988. Even before forming the partnership
with Ms. Hornby in 1995, he worked with her on evaluations of the child welfare systems in
Arizona, Kansas, Oregon and South Carolina, and he collaborated with her on a federal
study of kinship care.
Dr. Zeller designed HZA’s 1998 needs assessment for protective services in Ohio and then
personally conducted the analysis of the data. He also designed the methodology and
supervised the analysis for validity and reliability studies of risk assessments in both Ohio
and Kansas. Dr. Zeller created the methodologies HZA has used to estimate workloads of
both child welfare and other social service caseworkers, ensuring that the time that gets
measured is the time needed to handle the cases in conformity with policy requirements.
Those workload studies have been conducted in Alaska, Nevada, Montana, Arkansas,
Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota and Virginia, as well as in the counties of Milwaukee
(Wisconsin), Lucas (Ohio), Westchester (New York) and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania).
In addition to the time-limited projects, Dr. Zeller has developed systems of ongoing
performance and outcome measurement for Pennsylvania and Arkansas. This involved
identifying appropriate outcome indicators, identifying the data needed to measure
achievement of those indicators and then implementation of the data collection and
analysis to produce them. This work began with Dr. Zeller’s 1991 monograph entitled
“Model Child Welfare Management Indicators,” and it has informed nearly every evaluation
the company has conducted since that time.
Lead Researcher: Dennis E. Zeller, the firm’s other principal, will serve as the Lead
Researcher. He will oversee the identification of secondary data sources, the design of
quantitative and qualitative data collection tools and all data analyses. He will attend
meetings of the OCTF Board and will assist making presentations to key stakeholders.
Ms. Hornby and Dr. Zeller often combine their knowledge, experience and expertise, working
together to lead project efforts. Such is the case in the leadership they provide to the publicprivate Quality Assurance Unit which operates as an arm within the Arkansas Division of
Children and Family Services. They provide conceptual guidance in the development of
program methodologies for special studies conducted on behalf of the state’s program,
ensuring methodologies will satisfy the quantitative and qualitative needs of the Division in
making informed decisions for program improvement. They also provide combined
leadership to the new Service Quality and Practice Improvement Unit which conducts Quality
Services Peer Reviews in support of the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services’
Program Improvement Plan and Practice Model initiative.
From IA- Alternative Assessment – 2% Student Data Entry – 2009
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal/Project Director
Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data
analysis. For this project he will serve as Project Director.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek,” published in Child
Welfare, which addresses both foster care and adoption issues relating to the use of
relatives as placement resources. His most recent publication, “Improving Child Welfare
Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches” and co-authored by Dr. Tom
Gamble, is on the subject of performance measurement and critiques the federal measures
used in the original Child and Family Services Review. He received a master's degree in
social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
In 1997, along with Ms. Hornby, Dr. Zeller initiated HZA’s privatized Quality Assurance Unit in
the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. This unit, located inside the agency,
is responsible for the legislatively mandated Quarterly Performance Report on child welfare
issues, as well as for the monthly Compliance Outcome Report, which tracks compliance on
more than 30 items at all levels from the case to statewide. Dr. Zeller designed the original
legislative report after recommending its content to the agency and the legislature in a
report in 1993. At the present time, for each study conducted by its Arkansas unit, Dr. Zeller
reviews the research methodology prior to its submission to the agency.
As principal investigator for HZA’s data analysis efforts in Pennsylvania (see corporate
qualifications above), Dr. Zeller designed the original and several subsequent methodologies
for the county data packages. This included re-designing some of the federal CFSR
measures from retrospective to prospective, developing a methodology for transforming
AFCARS files into longitudinal files (because Pennsylvania has no data on children in out-ofhome care other than AFCARS data) and explaining the changes and their meanings to state
and county administrators in annual training sessions following the release of the spring
data packages.
From Georgia Foster Care Needs Assessment Proposal – 2006
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Principal Researcher and President
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. He participates in all
of the larger projects undertaken by the firm, generally serving as either principal
investigator or project director. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis,
research design, data analysis and computer application development.
Prior to founding the consulting firm in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy
Planning of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department
of Social Services, a county administered, state supervised system. In that role he was
responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing and negotiating
Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation settlements. He was
instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Much of the consulting work on which Dr. Zeller has led HZA has involved one or more of
three factors: litigation settlements, performance measurement and data analysis. It was
to address the requirements of litigation settlements that Dr. Zeller:




first helped the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services initiate its
quality assurance process;
assisted the Connecticut Division of Children Youth and Families in
establishing a needs assessment methodology and calculating the actual
need for services;
designed and carried out the data analysis for an extensive needs
assessment across the entire state of Ohio to provide quantified results
showing how many services were needed, how many services existed and
what the difference between the two was; and
evaluated the performance of the State Central Registry, which accepts
reports of child abuse and neglect, at the New Jersey Division of Youth and
Family Services.
Ongoing performance measurement systems, which is one of the additional products HZA is
offering DHR/DFCS as part of this project, have been Dr. Zeller’s primary focus since he
authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. A
combination of the child welfare litigation across the country and the increasing federal
emphasis on outcome measurement as part of the Child and Family Services Reviews
(CFSR) has intensified those efforts. As noted above, the quality assurance effort in
Arkansas began with and continues to have as its centerpiece a quarterly report to the state
legislature detailing the child welfare system’s compliance with process requirements and
achievement of outcomes. Dr. Zeller was also the person who first began turning AFCARS
data into longitudinal files, so that Pennsylvania could assess its own performance on the
achievement of permanency more accurately than the federal outcome measures permit. It
is almost certainly due to the efforts he initiated and HZA staff carried out that the
Administration for Children and Families is now planning to introduce prospective cohort
measurement into its outcome measures.
Dr. Zeller has also taken the lead for HZA in other areas of resource measurement, involving
both foster care and other children’s services. Principal among these have been his efforts
with foster care rate-setting and workload measurement. In particular, the foster care ratesetting systems he and Ms. Hornby developed together in a variety of states, most recently
Washington where both the child welfare and the developmental disabilities units have
implemented the system, provides a basis for connecting the needs of the child with the
capacities and expectations made of the foster parents. The scoring system underlying
those systems provide the foundation for the ongoing monitoring system offered DHR/DFCS
as part of this project.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION/OUTCOME MEASUREMENT
From the Center for the Support of Families Nebraska Child Welfare Privatization
Assessment Proposal – July 2012
Dr. Zeller is President and founder of HZA. His major areas of expertise include policy
analysis, research design and data analysis.
Prior to founding the consulting firm in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy
Planning of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department
of Social Services where he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations,
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation, including that resulting from
Congress having passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978, and negotiating
litigation settlements. He negotiated with and presented the state’s final ICWA legislation to
the tribes, participating in a celebration with members of the Seneca tribe upon passage. Dr.
Zeller was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program, the
uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, and other aspects of New York’s
Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979.
Over the past decade, he has directed projects for the Arkansas Division of Children and
Family Services; the Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families; the West Virginia
Department of Health and Human Resources; the Ohio Department of Job and Family
Services; and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, aimed at measuring
outcomes and performance. Focusing on state and federal outcome measures, he has
produced management reports for statewide and local consumption by legislators, agency
directors and program managers. In a number of the projects, including those performed in
Arkansas and West Virginia, he has assessed the impact that private providers have had in
keeping children safe, obtaining permanency and preserving their well-being.
From Maine CDC Data Analysis Youth Tobacco Rates Proposal – November 2010
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., HZA Principal: As founder and President of HZA, Dr. Zeller is an expert
in quantitative research and evaluation. Dr. Zeller designed HZA’s 1998 needs assessment
for protective services in Ohio and then personally conducted the analysis of the data. He
also designed the methodology and supervised the analysis for validity and reliability studies
of risk assessments in both Ohio and Kansas. Dr. Zeller created the methodologies HZA has
used to estimate workloads of child welfare and other social service caseworkers in Alaska,
Nevada, Montana, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota and Virginia. He was also the
principal researcher of the AdoptOHIO project discussed above. Dr. Zeller will oversee the
statistical analyses required for this project and will help to interpret the results.
From Florida DCF Data Analytics Performance Measures for CFSR Proposal – 2009
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal/Project Director
Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data
analysis. For this project he will serve as Project Director.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek,” published in Child
Welfare, which addresses both foster care and adoption issues relating to the use of
relatives as placement resources. His most recent publication, “Improving Child Welfare
Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches” and co-authored by Dr. Tom
Gamble, is on the subject of performance measurement and critiques the federal measures
used in the original Child and Family Services Review. He received a master's degree in
social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
In 1997, along with Ms. Hornby, Dr. Zeller initiated HZA’s privatized Quality Assurance Unit in
the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. This unit, located inside the agency,
is responsible for the legislatively mandated Quarterly Performance Report on child welfare
issues, as well as for the monthly Compliance Outcome Report, which tracks compliance on
more than 30 items at all levels from the case to statewide. Dr. Zeller designed the original
legislative report after recommending its content to the agency and the legislature in a
report in 1993. At the present time, for each study conducted by its Arkansas unit, Dr. Zeller
reviews the research methodology prior to its submission to the agency.
As principal investigator for HZA’s data analysis efforts in Pennsylvania (see corporate
qualifications above), Dr. Zeller designed the original and several subsequent methodologies
for the county data packages. This included re-designing some of the federal CFSR
measures from retrospective to prospective, developing a methodology for transforming
AFCARS files into longitudinal files (because Pennsylvania has no data on children in out-ofhome care other than AFCARS data) and explaining the changes and their meanings to state
and county administrators in annual training sessions following the release of the spring
data packages.
From Nevada LCB Performance Audit Proposal – 2007
Dennis E. Zeller, Principal
Education:
M.S.S.W., University of Texas, 1977
Ph.D., University of Texas, 1975
B.A., University of Oklahoma, 1970
Employment History:
President, Hornby Zeller Associates, 1/95 to Present
Principal, Zeller Associates, 12/88 to 1/95
Director, New York State Department of Social Services, Bureau of Policy Planning, Division
of Family and Children’s Services, 8/80 to 12/88
Planner, Texas Department of Human Services, 5/77 to 7/80
Role in Project and Evaluative Areas:
Co-principal Investigator; Lead, Policy Analysis; Lead, Analysis of Administrative Data
Relevant Experience:
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. He received a master's degree in social work and a
doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Zeller has extensive experience working with Nevada’s Department of Health and Human
Services, Division of Child and Family Services, beginning in 1997, when HZA conducted a
time and workload management study of foster care and licensing workers and supervisors.
Dr. Zeller developed the methodology and instruments, conducted the data analysis and
projected the need for increased staffing.
When the Program Evaluation and Data Unit in Nevada was established, a private-public
collaboration, as project director for the engagement, Dr. Zeller provided oversight and
overall conceptual guidance in the development of a series of management reports which
were designed to provide an overview of activity in child welfare, child mental health and
juvenile justice and report on workload, outcome and performance. In preparation of the
state’s CFSR, Dr. Zeller created an AFCARS file from multiple data sources, including UNITY
and provider payment files, allowing a sample of cases to be selected for review and the
state’s data profile to be created. As part of the Unit’s development of management
reporting tools, written and oral guidance was provided to state and local administrators to
guide them in implementing the use of the tools in their monitoring and decision-making
efforts.
From 2002 to 2004, Dr. Zeller assisted the Division with development of a Project
Management and Cost Allocation Plan for Organizational Restructuring. Dr. Zeller supported
the Division in learning about and developing the skills needed to undertake the new roles it
would play upon implementation of ACR 53 Unification. He trained staff in developing cost
allocation plans for obtaining federal funds, the processes needed to manage the transition
from state to county administration and carrying out their functions under the new structure.
Recently Dr. Zeller served as Principal Investigator for a needs assessment conducted on
behalf of Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services to determine the gaps in foster
care services. Using a case record review to identify the placement service needs of
children and surveys of providers, gaps were identified for Fulton and DeKalb counties. A
similar review was conducted of Ohio’s child welfare and foster care program in 1998. In
this instance Dr. Zeller developed an extensive methodology in which cases were reviewed
to determine service needs to prevent removal and encourage reunification; providers were
interviewed to quantify the availability of services and key stakeholders were interviewed to
determine the benefits of services as well as reasons for services not being delivered.
On behalf of HZA’s Quality Assurance activities conducted on behalf of Erie County,
Pennsylvania Children and Youth Services Agency, in 2006 a case review was conducted of
active in-home and out-of-home care cases to determine if cases should be closed. Given
the increasing size of Erie’s caseload, concerns were raised that cases were remaining open
unnecessarily so. Dr. Zeller developed a methodology and instrument by which cases were
reviewed to determine if decisions to continue to maintain cases in an ongoing status were
appropriate.
In 2005 Dr. Zeller served as Principal Investigator for a project which was conducted to
measure the ability of New Jersey’s State Central Registry to satisfy legal protocol and state
requirements. He developed the methodology and a data collection tool by which reviews of
paper records and later onsite observations were conducted to measure the accuracy of the
decisions made and appropriateness of actions taken by abuse hotline call takers. Based
on the findings of the review, a subsequent project was initiated in 2006 in which tapes of
calls were listened to using a structured instrument. Where it was identified that a call taker
needed to improve his or her professionalism, accuracy or efficiency, guidance was given to
the call taker in conjunction with the supervisor.
Beginning with a contract in 2001 with the University of Pittsburgh on behalf of the
Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families, HZA has been assisting the
Commonwealth with standardized data collection and reporting activities. As Principal
Investigator, Dr. Zeller designed a methodology and work plan for the project which involved
extensive analyses of AFCARS and NCANDS data, in addition to focus group, mail survey
data and case readings. Training on methodologies and ways to analyze and interpret data
was provided to staff. Data analysis and development of alternative outcome measures
were included in the continuing assistance provided to the Commonwealth through the
state’s Program Improvement Plan process. Dr. Zeller was instrumental in the development
of semi-annual county packages which are generated to provide case flows, point-in-time
measures providing case characteristics, outcome measures using prospective analyses
developed by Dr. Zeller to assess safety and permanency, and, added this spring, current
federal composite measures.
Dr. Zeller is co-principal investigator for Arkansas’ Division of Children and Family Services
(DCFS) Quality Assurance Unit. He works closely with each of HZA’s six full-time staff who
are located inside the Division, operating largely as part of the agency. In this role, Dr. Zeller
and Ms. Hornby design and review the research, data analyses and reports produced for
both internal and external consumption. The Unit is responsible for monitoring contracted
service providers and conducting special studies, including analyses of foster care
caseloads, workload analyses and estimates of the impact of welfare reform on child
welfare caseloads. For each study conducted in Arkansas, Dr. Zeller develops a research
methodology and submits it to the agency for approval.
In recognition of its achievements in the areas of quality assurance and data analysis, the
State of Arkansas and HZA received an award in the fall of 2001 from the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services to serve as mentors to other states. In 2001, Dr. Zeller
began serving as project director for the Arkansas Mentor Grant. The goal of the project was
to enable mentee states, including Rhode Island, Oklahoma and Nevada, to enhance their
data analysis capacities and make better use of their SACWIS data for management
reporting. Dr. Zeller worked closely with both Ms. Hornby and the staff in Arkansas
throughout the engagement. He held weekly staff meetings with all members of the Quality
Assurance Unit to review progress against the work plan, identify any areas of difficulty,
review work that would be completed over the subsequent two weeks and identify problems
and achievements and respond to staff questions.
POLICY/ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
From Maine Child Welfare Organizational Assessment Proposal – July 2015
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., MSSW: Dr. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates.
He serves as the Principal Investigator for nearly all of HZA’s evaluations of child welfare
programs. Dr. Zeller has taken the lead not only on evaluations of specific programs but also
on the establishment of performance and outcome monitoring systems for entire state child
welfare systems. In the mid-1990’s he designed and supervised the implementation of
HZA’s quality assurance function within the Arkansas Division of Children and Family
Services (DCFS), which was given to HZA in 1997. The work in Arkansas was expanded in
2009 to include the supervision of a continuous quality improvement initiative within DCFS
as part of the State’s Program Improvement Plan in response to its CFSR.
More recently Dr. Zeller has provided guidance and conceptual oversight for several
federally funded initiatives, including the Title IV-E Waiver and a Diligent Recruitment Grant,
both awarded to Arkansas. He provides guidance in the development of the evaluation plans
and methodologies as well as the data collection instruments. Dr. Zeller carefully monitors
the analyses and reporting which are taking place over a five-year time span.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Zeller has directed projects for many other states, including the
Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families; New Jersey Department of Children and
Families; West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources; Oklahoma Department
of Human Services and Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Each of the
projects were aimed at measuring outcomes and performance. Focusing on state and
federal outcome measures, Dr. Zeller has produced reports using SACWIS and Adoption and
Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) data for statewide and local
consumption by legislators, agency directors and program managers. In a number of
projects, including those performed in Arkansas, West Virginia and Nebraska, he has
assessed the impact that private providers have had in keeping children safe, obtaining
permanency and preserving well-being.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine. He co-authored
“Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek,” published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. Dr. Zeller earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work and his
Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
From Kansas Audit Analysis Services Proposal – October 2010
Dennis E. Zeller
Prior to founding the consulting firm in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy
Planning of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department
of Social Services, a county administered, state supervised system. In that role he was
responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing and negotiating
Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation settlements. He was
instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller has taken the lead not only on evaluations of specific programs but also on the
establishment of performance and outcome monitoring systems for entire state child
welfare systems. In the mid 1990s he designed and supervised the implementation of
HZA’s quality assurance function, which was given to HZA in 1997. The unit is responsible
for production of the Quarterly Performance Report, a legislatively mandated document
designed to allow the Legislature to monitor the Department’s performance. Dr. Zeller
designed the initial version of that report in 1993 and continues to ensure that it meets the
agency’s needs.
Similarly, in Pennsylvania Dr. Zeller designed the original and several later versions of the
“county data packages,” which HZA produces twice a year for each of the Commonwealth’s
67 counties. These data reports, which rely almost solely on AFCARS and NCANDS data
because Pennsylvania has no statewide tracking system, provide the counties with
measures of their own performance in terms of both process and outcomes, as well as
information about their caseloads sizes and flows. All of the data are broken down by
demographic and service related characteristics to help the agencies target their
improvement efforts. The data packages are an essential tool for the counties as they
prepare their annual Needs Based Plans and Budgets.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. Dr.
Zeller was the person who initiated turning AFCARS data into longitudinal files, so that states
could assess their own performance on the achievement of permanency more accurately
than the federal outcome measures permit, especially for those without SACWIS or historical
management information systems.
Dr. Zeller co-authored “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek”
published in Child Welfare. He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national
conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics. His most recent
publication, Improving Child Welfare Performance: Retrospective and Prospective
Approaches and co-authored by Dr. Tom Gamble, is on the subject of performance
measurement and critiques the federal measures used in the original Child and Family
Services Review. He received a master's degree in social work and a doctorate from the
University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Zeller is currently leading HZA’s evaluation of West Virginia’s child abuse prevention
programs. He is supervising the analysis of the data the state obtained from its recent
administration of the Family Support Outcome Survey and will be overseeing the
development of new survey tools over the coming year and a half. The evaluation will utilize
indicators of the presence and strength of protective factors as a means of measuring the
impact of child abuse prevention programs.
In recent years, Dr. Zeller designed and led both the needs assessment for Georgia’s foster
care system and the performance audit of Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services. The
first of these involved not only comparing the foster home resources available in each
county with the number of children removed from their homes in those counties, but also
projections of the likely rates of removals in the future. This was done by age group and zip
code based on past trends.
The second of these projects relied less on the kind of primary, quantitative data HZA often
collects and more on a combination of existing secondary information and qualitative
information gathered from a wide variety of DHS staff, community partners, stakeholders
and consumers. The essential technique in this instance was triangulation, i.e., using
multiple methods of data collection and multiple sources of information, to avoid the biases
inherent in any single method or source. The results were sufficiently convincing to result in
legislation requiring the agency to implement 25 of HZA’s 26 recommendations.
PROGRAM DESIGN/IMPLEMENTATION
From Iowa NYTD Baseline and Follow-up Population Data Collection
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W. Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller is the founding principal of HZA. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise
include policy analysis, research design and data analysis.
As noted above, prior to founding the consulting firm in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of the
Bureau of Policy Planning of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York
State Department of Social Services, a county administered, state supervised system. In
that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing
and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation settlements.
He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform
case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster
care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. He received a master's degree in social work and a
doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Beginning in 2001 HZA has been assisting the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Office of
Children, Youth and Families with standardized data collection and reporting activities. As
Principal Investigator, Dr. Zeller designed a methodology and work plan for the project which
involved extensive analyses of AFCARS and NCANDS data. He provided training on
methodologies and ways to analyze and interpret data. Data analysis has been included in
the continuing assistance HZA provides to the Commonwealth for both rounds of the Child
and Family Services Reviews and Program Improvement Plan. Dr. Zeller was instrumental in
the development of semi-annual county packages which are generated to provide case flow
data, point-in-time measures providing case characteristics, outcome measures using
prospective analyses developed by Dr. Zeller to assess safety and permanency, and federal
composite measures.
Dr. Zeller is co-principal investigator for Arkansas’ Division of Children and Family Services
(DCFS) Quality Assurance Unit and the Service Quality and Practice Improvement Unit. He
works closely with HZA’s 14 full-time staff who are located inside the Division. In this role,
Dr. Zeller and Ms. Hornby design and review the research, data analyses and reports
produced for both internal and external consumption. The Quality Assurance Unit is
responsible for evaluating compliance with regulatory and policy requirements, assessing
outcomes using state SACWIS data, monitoring contracted service providers and conducting
special studies, including analyses of growing overdue investigation caseloads, family
preservation services and barriers to achieving outcomes.
The Service Quality and Practice Improvement Unit, which opened in the summer of 2009,
conducts case reviews following protocols similar to those employed for the CFSR to
measure strengths and areas needing improvement. Unit staff work closely with county and
area directors, supervisors and caseworkers to ensure they understand the effects their
actions have on the state meeting national outcome standards and, in turn, meeting the
needs of the children and families served. Dr. Zeller has played a central role in the firm’s
development of automated processes for collecting survey data and generating federallyrequired data. He works closely with HZA’s research and technical staff to develop
automated processes, data collection instruments and analytic tools to measure
performance and outcomes.
From Ohio Victim of Crime Data Entry and Reporting System Proposal – February 2010
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal and Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., is the founding principal of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr.
Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis.
For this project he will serve as Principal Investigator, providing the overall conceptual
guidance and oversight for the project.
Dr. Zeller is an expert in management reporting and quality assurance. He has directed
projects for the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services; Pennsylvania’s Office of
Children, Youth and Families; and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, all with a
focus on data management and reporting. These projects involved the production of federal
child welfare outcome reports, as well as management reports for legislators and agency
administrators. Dr. Zeller meets with client agencies to determine their needs and tailors
project methodologies, work plans, products and deliverables to meet those needs.
Dr. Zeller has played a key role in the firm’s development of automated processes for
measuring outcomes using a wide variety of data from state and local agencies. He has
provided oversight in the use of administrative data and related system reporting
capabilities, and has worked with HZA’s research staff to develop automated processes and
analytic tools to measure outcome performance at the state, county and regional levels.
In response to Pennsylvania’s lack of a statewide child welfare information system for
counties to use to manage cases, from the point of intake or report of maltreatment through
to case closure, Dr. Zeller initiated the development of ChildNet-PA, a case management
system in use by 11 counties across the Commonwealth. Factors which were considered
important in the design of the system included ease of navigation, compliance with federal
reporting requirements and quality of data. He provided guidance to developers in the
design of the input system and reporting module, assisting in the development of case flow,
status, outcome and performance measure reports.
Before founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, and
was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases, and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. Prior to his work
in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human Services, performing
research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek,” published in Child
Welfare, as well as “Improving Child Welfare Performance: Retrospective and Prospective
Approaches,” also published in Child Welfare.
PROGRAM EVALUATION
From Allegheny County Predictive Risk Modeling Tool Evaluation Proposal – January 2016
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal Investigator: Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of
Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis,
research design and data analysis.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. Dr.
Zeller initiated turning AFCARS data into longitudinal files, so that states could assess their
own performance on the achievement of permanency more accurately than the federal
outcome measures permit, especially for those without SACWIS or historical management
information systems. He also managed the project evaluating the child abuse hotline in
New Jersey and a project conducting quality assurance reviews of Florida’s hotline for child
and adult abuse.
From South Carolina Grant Writing and Evaluation Services Proposal – October 2015
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., President
Dr. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. He serves as the Principal
Investigator for nearly all of HZA’s evaluations of child welfare programs. Dr. Zeller has taken
the lead not only on evaluations of specific programs but also on the establishment of
performance and outcome monitoring systems for entire state child welfare systems. In the
mid-1990’s he designed and supervised the implementation of HZA’s quality assurance
function within the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which was
given to HZA in 1997. The work in Arkansas was expanded in 2009 to include the
supervision of a continuous quality improvement initiative within DCFS as part of the State’s
Program Improvement Plan in response to its CFSR.
More recently Dr. Zeller has provided guidance and conceptual oversight for several
federally funded initiatives, including the IV-E Waiver and a Diligent Recruitment Grant, both
awarded to Arkansas and the Title IV-E Waiver Evaluations in Maine and West Virginia. He
provides guidance in the development of the evaluation plans and methodologies as well as
the data collection instruments. Dr. Zeller carefully monitors the analyses and reporting
which are taking place over a five-year time span.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Zeller has directed projects for many other states, including the
Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families; Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority,
New Jersey Department of Children and Families; West Virginia Department of Health and
Human Resources; Oklahoma Department of Human Services and Nebraska Department of
Health and Human Services. Each of the projects was aimed at measuring outcomes and
performance. Focusing on state and federal outcome measures, Dr. Zeller has produced
reports using SACWIS and Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System
(AFCARS) data for statewide and local consumption by legislators, agency directors and
program managers. In a number of projects, including those performed in Arkansas, West
Virginia and Nebraska, he has assessed the impact that private providers have had in
keeping children safe, obtaining permanency and preserving well-being.
Dr. Zeller has performed cost analyses for child welfare programs in several states. For
Arkansas, Dr. Zeller and the HZA staff measured the fiscal impact of contracted services,
including intensive family services, residential facilities, outpatient counseling and foster
family homes. He has also guided HZA’s cost analyses of foster care rate setting projects in
Washington, Alaska and New Jersey and served as a subject matter expert in litigation of
foster care rates in the states of Washington’ and Alaska.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine. He co-authored
“Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” and “Improving Child Welfare
Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches,” both published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. Dr. Zeller earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work and his
Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
From West Virginia Title IV-E Waiver Evaluation Proposal – May 2015
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Principal Investigator: Dr. Zeller is President and founder
of Hornby Zeller Associates. He serves as the Principal Investigator for nearly all of HZA’s
evaluations of child welfare programs. Dr. Zeller has taken the lead not only on evaluations
of specific programs but also on the establishment of performance and outcome monitoring
systems for entire state child welfare systems. In the mid-1990’s he designed and
supervised the implementation of HZA’s quality assurance function within the Arkansas
Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which was given to HZA in 1997. The work
in Arkansas was expanded in 2009 to include the supervision of a continuous quality
improvement initiative within DCFS as part of the State’s Program Improvement Plan in
response to its CFSR.
More recently Dr. Zeller has provided guidance and conceptual oversight for several
federally funded initiatives, including the IV-E Waiver and a Diligent Recruitment Grant, both
awarded to Arkansas and the Title IV-E Waiver Evaluation in Maine. He provides guidance in
the development of the evaluation plans and methodologies as well as the data collection
instruments. Dr. Zeller carefully monitors the analyses and reporting which are taking place
over a five-year time span.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Zeller has directed projects for many other states, including the
Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families; New Jersey Department of Children and
Families; West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources; Oklahoma Department
of Human Services and Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Each of the
projects was aimed at measuring outcomes and performance. Focusing on state and federal
outcome measures, Dr. Zeller has produced reports using SACWIS and Adoption and Foster
Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) data for statewide and local consumption by
legislators, agency directors and program managers. In a number of projects, including
those performed in Arkansas, West Virginia and Nebraska, he has assessed the impact that
private providers have had in keeping children safe, obtaining permanency and preserving
well-being.
Dr. Zeller has performed cost analyses for child welfare programs in several states. For
Arkansas, Dr. Zeller and the HZA staff measured the fiscal impact of contracted services,
including intensive family services, residential facilities, outpatient counseling and foster
family homes. He has also guided HZA’s cost analyses of foster care rate setting projects in
Washington, Alaska and New Jersey and served as a subject matter expert in litigation of
foster care rates in the states of Washington’ and Alaska.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine. He co-authored
“Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” and “Improving Child Welfare
Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches,” both published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. Dr. Zeller earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work and his
Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
From Maine IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project Evaluation Service Proposal – March 2015
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., Principal Investigator; Outcome/Effectiveness Co-Lead
Dr. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. He serves as the Principal
Investigator for nearly all of HZA’s evaluations of child welfare programs. Dr. Zeller has taken
the lead not only on evaluations of specific programs but also on the establishment of
performance and outcome monitoring systems for entire state child welfare systems. In the
mid-1990’s he designed and supervised the implementation of HZA’s quality assurance
function within the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which was
given to HZA in 1997. The work in Arkansas was expanded in 2009 to include the
supervision of a continuous quality improvement initiative within DCFS as part of the State’s
Program Improvement Plan in response to its CFSR.
More recently Dr. Zeller has provided guidance and conceptual oversight for several
federally funded initiatives, including the IV-E Waiver and a Diligent Recruitment Grant, both
awarded to Arkansas. He provides guidance in the development of the evaluation plans and
methodologies as well as the data collection instruments. Dr. Zeller carefully monitors the
analyses and reporting which are taking place over a five-year time span.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Zeller has directed projects for many other states, including the
Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families; New Jersey Department of Children and
Families; West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources; Oklahoma Department
of Human Services and Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Each of the
projects were aimed at measuring outcomes and performance. Focusing on state and
federal outcome measures, Dr. Zeller has produced reports using SACWIS and Adoption and
Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) data for statewide and local
consumption by legislators, agency directors and program managers. In a number of
projects, including those performed in Arkansas, West Virginia and Nebraska, he has
assessed the impact that private providers have had in keeping children safe, obtaining
permanency and preserving well-being.
Dr. Zeller has performed cost analyses for child welfare programs in several states. For
Arkansas, Dr. Zeller and his staff measured the fiscal impact of contracted services,
including intensive family services, residential facilities, outpatient counseling and foster
family homes. He has also guided HZA’s cost analyses of foster care rate setting projects in
Washington, Alaska and New Jersey and served as a subject matter expert in for the State of
Washington’s Attorney General in litigation of foster care rates.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since he
authored the monograph Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine. He co-authored
“Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek,” published in Child Welfare. He
has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare,
research and statistics. Dr. Zeller earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work and his
Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
From Healthy Homes Mississippi Program Evaluation Proposal – December 2014
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Co-principal Investigator
As noted earlier, prior to founding HZA in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of
Policy Planning of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State
Department of Social Services. In that role, he was responsible for all child welfare and child
care regulations, for proposing and negotiating department-sponsored legislation, and for
negotiating litigation settlements, including litigation regarding kinship care and foster
children preparing for independence. He was instrumental in implementing the State's
preventive service program, the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services,
utilization review procedures for foster care cases, and other aspects of New York's Child
Welfare Reform Act of 1979. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas
Department of Human Services, working primarily on issues related to income maintenance
and services to the elderly and disabled.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author of
“Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek?” published in Child Welfare. He
has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare,
research and statistics. He received a Master's degree in social work and a Doctorate from the
University of Texas at Austin.
From West Virginia Child Abuse Prevention Grantees Protective Factors Evaluation Proposal –
December 2013
Dennis E. Zeller, PhD., MSSW, Principal Investigator
Prior to founding HZA in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning of the
Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social Services.
In that role, he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing
and negotiating department-sponsored legislation, and for negotiating litigation settlements,
including litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence. He
was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases, and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. Prior to his work in
New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human Services, working primarily on
issues related to income maintenance and services to the elderly and disabled.
Dr. Zeller has taken the lead not only on evaluations of specific programs but also on the
establishment of performance and outcome monitoring systems for entire state child welfare
systems. In the mid 1990’s he designed and supervised the implementation of HZA’s quality
assurance function within the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which
was given to HZA in 1997. The unit, which continues today, is responsible for the production of
standard, ad hoc and specific subject matter reports, some of which are legislatively mandated
to allow the Legislature to monitor the Department’s performance. The work in Arkansas was
expanded in 2009 to provide support to DCFS in its expanding quality assurance initiatives
implemented as part of the State’s Program Improvement Plan in response to its Child and
Family Services Review.
Over the past decade, he has provided guidance and conceptual oversight for several federally
funded initiatives, as well as others stemming from state enacted programs including West
Virginia. Dr. Zeller is currently overseeing the evaluation of the implementation of Jacob’s Law
which was designed to assess children for the trauma they may already have experienced from
abuse and removal and to support foster families in dealing with difficult behaviors to avoid
future disruptions. He was an integral member of the evaluation team formed to support DHHR
in its development of the State’s Family Survey which is used to assess the impact of West
Virginia’s prevention programs.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author of
“Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek,” published in Child Welfare. He
has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare,
research and statistics. He received a Master's degree in social work and a Doctorate from the
University of Texas at Austin.
From Colorado Prevention Evaluation Proposal – November 2013
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator, 5% Time
Dr. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates and was formerly Director of the
Bureau of Policy Planning of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State
Department of Social Services. While there he was responsible for all child welfare and child
care regulations, for proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for
negotiating litigation settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive
services program, the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services and
utilization review procedures for foster care cases. He also negotiated litigation regarding
kinship care and foster children preparing for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he
was a planner for the Texas Department of Human Services, performing research and policy
analysis.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus for Dr. Zeller since he
authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center in 1991. Dr. Zeller initiated turning AFCARS data into
longitudinal files, so that states could assess their own achievement of permanency outcomes
more accurately than the federal measures permit, especially for those without a SACWIS. The
Child Welfare League of America disseminated nationally the methodology and syntax that he
developed. Many of the concepts are now incorporated in the prospective cohort measures
adopted by the Administration for Children and Families. Dr. Zeller co-authored “Kinship Care in
America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” and “Improving Child Welfare Performance:
Retrospective and Prospective Approaches,” both published in Child Welfare. He has spoken
broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and
statistics.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Zeller has directed projects aimed at measuring outcomes and
performance for the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services; the Pennsylvania Office
of Children, Youth and Families; the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources;
the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services; and the Nebraska Department of Health and
Human Services. He has produced management reports using Statewide Automated Child
Welfare Information System (SACWIS) and Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System
(AFCARS) data for statewide and local consumption by legislators, agency directors and
program managers. He has a doctorate and a Master’s of Science in Social Work from the
University of Texas.
From Washington State Competitive Federal MIECHV Program Evaluation Proposal – July
2013
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W. will serve as Co-Principal Investigator with Ms. Hornby providing
conceptual guidance and oversight to the evaluation as well. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise
include policy analysis, research design and data analysis. In recent years, he has directed process
and outcome focused projects for the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services, West
Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, the Maine Department of Health and Human
Services, and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Zeller is presently providing guidance and oversight of a process, outcome and cost-neutrality
evaluation of the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services’ Title IV-E Waiver. In this role, Dr.
Zeller is providing guidance in the development of the evaluation plan and methodology and data
collection instruments. He will carefully monitor the analyses and reporting which will take place
over the next five years.
Currently, Dr. Zeller serves as an expert witness for the Washington Attorney General’s
Office to provide expert witness services in the case of FPAWS v. Quigley, et al. (formerly FPAWS v.
Dreyfus, et al.). The scope of work includes a report about the foster care rate assessment forms,
policies and practices created by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
and the role of HZA in that process.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the National
Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author of “Kinship Care in
America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare. He has spoken broadly at
state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics. Dr.
Zeller earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work and his Doctorate from the University of Texas at
Austin.
From Washington Title IV-E Waiver Evaluation Proposal with PCG– June 2013
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D.
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major areas
of expertise include policy analysis, research design, and data analysis.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning of
the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures
for foster care cases and other aspects of New York’s Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. Prior
to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human Services,
performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since he
authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. Dr. Zeller
was the person who initiated turning AFCARS data into longitudinal files, so that states could
assess their own performance on the achievement of permanency more accurately than the
federal outcome measures permit, especially for those without SACWIS or historical
management information systems. The Child Welfare League of America disseminated
nationally the methodology that he developed. Many of the concepts are now incorporated in
the prospective cohort measures adopted by the Administration for Children and Families.
Dr. Zeller co-authored “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek”
published in Child Welfare. He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences
in the areas of child welfare, research, and statistics.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Zeller has directed projects for the Arkansas Division of Children
and Family Services; the Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families; the West Virginia
Department of Health and Human Resources; the Ohio Department of Job and Family
Services; and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, aimed at measuring
outcomes and performance. Focusing on state and federal outcome measures, he has
produced management reports using Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System
(SACWIS) and Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS) data for
statewide and local consumption by legislators, agency directors and program managers. In a
number of the projects, including those performed in Arkansas and West Virginia, he has
assessed the impact that private providers have had in keeping children safe, obtaining
permanency and preserving their well-being.
From Wisconsin DMC Program Evaluation Services Proposal – March 2013
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph. D.
Principal Investigator
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all social service regulations, for proposing and
negotiating Department-sponsored legislation, and for negotiating litigation settlements. He
was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases, and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency. He will serve as the
Principal Investigator for this engagement.
Court performance and drug courts have been the focus of several of Dr. Zeller’s projects. In
the Reassessment of Court Performance conducted for Wisconsin’s Director of State Courts
Office, Dr. Zeller directed the data analysis of the CHIPS data using AFCARS files. HZA
measured participant outcomes for a period prior to the changes in state law enacted in
2002 and for a period after to discern whether the changes had any effect. CCAP, while
adequate and efficient as a case management system, was found not to function well as a
management reporting tool. Dr. Zeller proposed that a standard set of codes be used by
courts to record statuses and actions, which would provide a clear history of cases to be
accessed by the courts, the identification of distinct events, and the data needed to
generate performance and outcome measures.
At a 2009 summit sponsored by the Wisconsin Director of State Courts, Dr. Zeller led a twohour training session focusing on methods for improving the court and social service system
response to multiple placements of children in foster care, re-entry into care, and delayed
permanence. He also addressed judges and court personnel attending a statewide
conference in North Carolina on the results of HZA’s court study there. Dr. Zeller directed a
service needs assessment of court supervision services of 16 and 17-year-olds conducted
on behalf of the Connecticut Judicial Branch. In this role, he met with judges, law
enforcement officials and service providers to identify the needs and barriers to accessing
services faced by older youth. He also testified before the legislative subcommittee
overseeing the effort to raise the age of jurisdiction over juvenile offenders in Connecticut.
He has provided guidance in the evaluation of the effectiveness of the mental health court
in Anchorage, Alaska, and has worked with the firm’s Maine staff in its assessment of
statewide and local drug court efforts.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek,” published in Child
Welfare, which addresses both foster care and adoption issues relating to the use of
relatives as placement resources. His most recent publication in Child Welfare is on the
subject of performance measures and critiques the federal measures used in the original
Child and Family Services Review. It is called, “Improving Child Welfare Performance:
Retrospective and Prospective Approaches” and is co-authored by Dr. Tom Gamble. He has
spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare,
research and statistics. He earned his Ph.D. and a Master’s Degree in Social Work at the
University of Texas, Austin.
From Massachusetts Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Proposal – February 2013
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal Investigator. In his 24 years as a management consultant,
Dr. Zeller has led child welfare evaluations in over a dozen states. He is currently overseeing
HZA’s Title IV-E Demonstration Waiver Evaluation in Arkansas. He meets regularly with the
Department of Children and Family Services advisory team members and federal
representatives to help in defining baseline measurements, logic models and protocols.
Since implementation of the federal Child and Family Services Reviews, Dr. Zeller has been
a vital contributor to Pennsylvania’s Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF). He
authored portions of the statewide assessment, conducted an independent review of the
federal outcome measures and helped OCYF to successfully negotiate the use of
longitudinal outcome measures prior to their implementation. He has provided similar
support to Arkansas with its CFSR reviews. He has supported implementation of Program
Improvement Plans in several states (e.g., New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Arkansas), with a focus
on performance measurement. Between 2010 and 2012, he oversaw development of the
methodology, data collection tools and analyses of three prevention programs developed by
Nebraska in response to its Safe Haven Program. At the end of 2012, under legislative
mandate, he provided guidance in the assessment of the privatization of Nebraska’s child
welfare system. The team was also charged with measuring the cost and outcomes of
residential placements. He testified before the legislature on the study’s results.
Dr. Zeller has performed cost analyses for child welfare programs in several states. For
Arkansas, Dr. Zeller and his staff measured the fiscal impact of contracted services, including
intensive family services, residential facilities, outpatient counseling, foster family homes and
psychiatric evaluations. Dr. Zeller has also guided HZA’s cost analyses of foster care rate
setting projects as in Washington, Alaska and New Jersey and served as subject matter expert
in Washington’s litigation of foster care rates.
From Maine CDC Population Health Proposal – February 2013
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W.
Principal
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis.
Dr. Zeller is an expert in management reporting and quality assurance. He has directed
projects for Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services, Nevada Division of Child and
Family Services, Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families and Ohio Department
of Job and Family Services with a focus on data management and quality assurance. Dr.
Zeller meets with clients to determine their reporting needs. The project methodologies,
work plan, products and deliverables are then tailored to meet those needs.
Over the past decade, Dr. Zeller organized the evaluation and data units for three statewide
children and youth agencies: Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada. These units are still
operating in whole or in part by HZA in two of the states, and have been taken over by the
agency in the other; they produce federal child welfare outcome reports and management
reports for legislators and agency administrators. He has overseen evaluations in
departmental priority areas as they are defined or change over time. For example, in
Arkansas the state was particularly concerned with the over-representation of minorities in
the foster care system and HZA studied that phenomenon in an attempt to pinpoint the
reasons. One of the revelations, not documented elsewhere in the literature, is that
minorities have larger families and a single confirmed report of child abuse may often result
in the removal of multiple children, causing greater incidence of minorities in foster care but
not in child protection reports. Dr. Zeller has examined the causes for an increase in the
substitute care population (in Erie County, Pennsylvania), in the relationship between
welfare reform and child welfare services (in Arkansas; no increase in child welfare), and the
value of intensive family services on improved outcomes for children (in Arkansas).
Dr. Zeller initiated the cost study for the Co-occurring State Incentive Grant in Maine, from
which Maine’s current Co-occurring State Integration Initiative was developed. This study
entailed a detailed analysis of MaineCare data and other data sources from consumers from
three pilot sites (Maine Medical Center’s Spring Harbor Hospital, Aroostook Mental Health
Center, and Crisis and Counseling Centers) to determine the cost of serving people with cooccurring mental health conditions and substance use disorders. HZA’s comprehensive cost
evaluation also involved pulling information from the All Payer Claims Database (which
includes data from private insurers in addition to the pilot site databases) and tracking 300
clients with co-occurring disorders per year to determine service utilization and outcomes.
Program enrollees were found to be more likely to receive a greater number of services and
a wider array at a slightly less than overall average cost, receive fewer but more expensive
physical health services, receive more alcohol and drug treatment services at a lower overall
average cost and be placed in a residential setting but for significantly less time and at a
much lower overall average cost. The experience gained from this evaluation was helpful in
understanding the limits of critical data for subsequent evaluation activities for this ongoing
initiative as well as for others.
Dr. Zeller has also helped states obtain grant funding. In recognition of its achievements in
the areas of quality assurance and data analysis, the State of Arkansas and HZA received an
award in the fall of 2001 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve
as mentors to other states; Dr. Zeller served as project director for the Arkansas Mentor
Grant. The goal of the project was to enable mentee states (Rhode Island, Oklahoma and
Nevada) to enhance their data analysis capacities and make better use of their SACWIS
data for management and outcome reporting. He also developed an evaluation design as
part of the grant request for funding to support MeHAF’s I3 Initiative.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for litigation settlements.
He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform
case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster
care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the National
Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author of “Kinship
Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek?” published in Child Welfare. He has spoken
broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and
statistics.
From Alaska Technical Assistance Mental Health Trust Beneficiary Study Update –
September 2012
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator
nDennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis. For this
project he will serve as Co-Principal Investigator, along with Ms. Hornby, providing overall
conceptual guidance and oversight for the project.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. He received a master's degree in social work and a
doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Zeller manages the Supervisory Review Quality Assurance Project in Arkansas where HZA
pulls data from the statewide system and merges it into a database created for supervisors
to record quality assurance information after they review case records. The information is
then aggregated to produce reports. For the evaluation of Maine’s Trauma-Informed System
of Care, Dr. Zeller developed an algorithm for matching involved youth with medical payment
data, assessing the delivery of services and the costs of that care. For a workload study
conducted for Minnesota, he guided the data analysis needed to measure the time staff
have available for casework and the time standards for working with a wide array of case
types. This last effort took the measurement of resource need a step further by linking
workload to the achievement of positive outcomes and satisfaction of practice standards.
Dr. Zeller oversaw the development of the automated tool for Minnesota’s county
administrators, managers and supervisors as well as Quality Assurance staff to use in
making those connections.
Over the past decade, Dr. Zeller organized the evaluation and data units for three statewide
children and youth agencies: Arkansas, Nevada and Pennsylvania. The units produce
federal outcome reports and management reports for legislators and agency administrators.
He has overseen evaluations in departmental priority areas as they are defined or change
each year. For example, in Arkansas the state was particularly concerned with the overrepresentation of minorities in the foster care system and HZA studied that phenomenon in
an attempt to pinpoint the reasons. One of the revelations, not documented elsewhere in
the literature, is that minorities have larger families and a single confirmed report of child
abuse may often result in the removal of multiple children, causing greater incidence of
minorities in foster care but not in child protection reports. Dr. Zeller has examined the
causes for rises in the substitute care population (Erie County, Pennsylvania), in the
relationship between welfare reform and child welfare services (Arkansas, no increase in
child welfare), and the value of intensive family services on improved outcomes for children
(Arkansas).
Dr. Zeller served as the lead investigator in three Alaska based projects. For the first and
second Workload studies conducted on behalf of OCS and that for DPA, he oversaw the data
analysis conducted to determine time needed to handle cases sufficiently and project
staffing needs. He assisted in the data analysis of the previous study of Alaska Mental Health
Trust beneficiaries.
From West Virginia Evaluation of Jacob’s Law Implementation Proposal – February 2011
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Project Leader
With a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Texas, as well as Ph.D. and over
thirty years of experience, Dr. Zeller exceeds the Project Leader requirement. Dr. Zeller’s
major areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis in the
fields of child welfare and social services. Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller
was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning of the Division of Family and Children's
Services at the New York State Department of Social Services. In that role, he was
responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing and negotiating
Department-sponsored legislation, and for negotiating litigation settlements, including
litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence in New York.
He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive services program, the uniform
case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster
care cases, and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. Prior to his
work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human Services, working
primarily on issues related to income maintenance and services to the elderly and disabled.
Since forming Hornby Zeller Associates in 1988, Dr. Zeller and the other principal partner,
Helaine Hornby, have grown the firm to have a national presence in child welfare evaluation,
with a staff of 40 people and offices in five states. At HZA, Dr. Zeller oversees the
quantitative research methodologies, checks the integrity of the data analyses and reviews
the final products. He is currently serving as the Project Leader for the evaluation of West
Virginia’s prevention services program. Some of the other child welfare evaluations he has
directed include the Validity and Reliability Study of the Family Risk Assessment Matrix in
Ohio, the Performance Audit of the Department of Human Services in Oklahoma and the
Administrative Case Review Statewide Evaluation in Arkansas.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Improving Child Welfare Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches,”
published in Child Welfare. He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national
conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics.
From West Virginia Child Abuse and Protection Grantees Protective Factors Evaluation
Project Proposal – April 2010
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., HZA President and Principal Investigator
Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data
analysis in the fields of child welfare and social services. Prior to founding the consulting
firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning of the Division of Family and
Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social Services. In that role, he was
responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing and negotiating
Department-sponsored legislation, and for negotiating litigation settlements, including
litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence. He was
instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases, and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare
Reform Act of 1979. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas
Department of Human Services, working primarily on issues related to income maintenance
and services to the elderly and disabled.
Since forming Hornby Zeller Associates in 1988, he, together with Ms. Hornby, have grown
the firm to have a national presence in social service evaluation, with a staff of 40 people. At
HZA, Dr. Zeller oversees the quantitative research methodologies, checks the integrity of the
data analyses and reviews the final products.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and coauthor of
“Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek,” published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. He received a master's degree in social work and a
doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
From Maine Disease Program Support Proposal – May 2010
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W.
Principal
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis.
Dr. Zeller is an expert in management reporting and quality assurance. He has directed
projects for Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services, Nevada Division of Child and
Family Services, Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families and Ohio Department
of Job and Family Services with a focus on data management and quality assurance. Dr.
Zeller meets with clients to determine their reporting needs. The project methodologies,
work plan, products and deliverables are then tailored to meet those needs. Over the past
decade, Dr. Zeller organized the evaluation and data units for three statewide children and
youth agencies: Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada. These units are still operating in whole
or in part by HZA in two of the states and have been taken over by the agency in the other.
The units produce federal child welfare outcome reports and management reports for
legislators and agency administrators. He has overseen evaluations in departmental priority
areas as they are defined or change each year. For example, in Arkansas the state was
particularly concerned with the over-representation of minorities in the foster care system
and HZA studied that phenomenon in an attempt to pinpoint the reasons. One of the
revelations, not documented elsewhere in the literature, is that minorities have larger
families and a single confirmed report of child abuse may often result in the removal of
multiple children, causing greater incidence of minorities in foster care but not in child
protection reports. Dr. Zeller has examined the causes for rises in the substitute care
population (Erie County, Pennsylvania), in the relationship between welfare reform and child
welfare services (Arkansas, no increase in child welfare), and the value of intensive family
services on improved outcomes for children (Arkansas).
Dr. Zeller initiated the cost study for the Co-occurring State Incentive Grant in Maine, from
which Maine’s current Co-occurring State Integration Initiative was developed. This study
entailed a detailed analysis of MaineCare data and other data sources from involving
consumers from three pilot sites: Maine Medical Center’s Spring Harbor Hospital, Aroostook
Mental Health Center, and Crisis and Counseling Centers, to determine the cost of serving
people with co-occurring mental health conditions and substance use disorders. HZA’s
comprehensive cost evaluation involved pulling information as well from the All Claims
database, which includes data from private insurers in addition to the pilot site databases,
tracking 300 clients with co-occurring disorders per year to determine service utilization and
outcomes. Program enrollees were found to be more likely to receive a greater number of
services and a wider array at a slightly less than overall average cost, receive fewer but more
expensive physical health services, receive more alcohol and drug treatment services at a
lower overall average cost and be placed in a residential setting but for significantly less
time and at a much lower overall average cost.
The experience gained from this evaluation was helpful in understanding the limits of critical
data for subsequent evaluation activities for this ongoing initiative as well as for others.
He also has helped states obtain grant funding. In recognition of its achievements in the
areas of quality assurance and data analysis, the State of Arkansas and HZA received an
award in the fall of 2001 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve
as mentors to other states and in 2001, Dr. Zeller served as project director for the
Arkansas Mentor Grant. The goal of the project was to enable mentee states (Rhode Island,
Oklahoma and Nevada) to enhance their data analysis capacities and make better use of
their SACWIS data for management and outcome reporting. He also developed an
evaluation design as part of the grant request for funding to support MeHAF’s I3 Initiative.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency. Dr. Zeller is the
author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the National Child
Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author of “Kinship
Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare. He has
spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare,
research and statistics.
From NY State Performance Plan Parent Survey – 2009
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Principal. As founder of the company, Dr. Zeller has been
intimately involved in each project with large data collection requirements. He has designed
the methodologies for the Ohio Needs Assessment and HZA’s Quality Assurance studies in
Erie County, for example. Each of these required managing the distribution, collection,
analysis and reporting of survey data with stakeholders.
Over the past decade, Dr. Zeller organized the evaluation and data units for three statewide
children and youth agencies: Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada. These units are still
operating in whole or in part by HZA in two of the states and have been taken over by the
agency in one. The units produce federal outcome reports and management reports for
legislators and agency administrators.
Prior to founding HZA, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning of the Division
of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social Services. In
that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing
and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation settlements.
He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform
case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster
care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency. In Texas, he was
responsible for planning and administering a survey to 25 thousand stakeholders
From Nebraska Behavioral Health Line Evaluation – 2009
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal Investigator: Dr. Zeller will serve as Principal Investigator
for this project. In that role, he will provide overall conceptual guidance and ensure that all
products are designed for ease of understanding by non-technical staff and stakeholders.
He will serve on the Management Team to review project methodologies, data analysis and
final products.
From Alaska DOC Mental Health Trust Proposal – 2006
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal and Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development. For this project he will serve as Principal Investigator, providing
the overall conceptual guidance and oversight for the project.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. He received a master's degree in social work and a
doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Zeller has managed many projects requiring sampling techniques to compile and analyze
information not available from existing data systems but needed to augment electronically
available data. One example is the Supervisory Review Quality Assurance Project in
Arkansas where HZA pulled data from the statewide system and merged it into a database
we created for reviewers to add quality assurance information after reviewing case records.
The information was then aggregated to produce reports. HZA has participated in all of
HZA’s workload measures studies and is the principal designer of the company’s
workload/case weighting methodologies. Some of these were used to project costs and
staffing requirements. These include: Arizona’s Administration for Children, Youth and
Families (1994 and 1996), for Milwaukee County’s Division of Youth Services (1995), for
Lucas County’s (Ohio) Children’s Services agency (1997), for Nevada’s Division of Child and
Family Services (1997-98), for Arkansas’ Division of Children and Family Services (1997-98
and 2001), for Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services (1998-99), for
Virginia’s Department of Social Services (1999-2001), for Colorado’s Department of Human
Services (2001), for Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services (2001) and for Alaska’s
Office of Children Services (2005)
Over the past decade, Dr. Zeller organized the evaluation and data units for three statewide
children and youth agencies: Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada. These units are still
operating in whole or in part by HZA in two of the states and have been taken over by the
agency in one. The units produce federal outcome reports and management reports for
legislators and agency administrators. He has overseen evaluations in departmental priority
areas as they are defined or change each year. For example, in Arkansas the state was
particularly concerned with the over- representation of minorities in the foster care system
and HZA studied that phenomenon in an attempt to pinpoint the reasons. One of the
revelations, not documented elsewhere in the literature, is that minorities have larger
families and a single confirmed report of child abuse may often result in the removal of
multiple children, causing greater incidence of minorities in foster care but not in child
protection reports. Dr. Zeller has examined the causes for rises in the substitute care
population (Erie County, Pennsylvania), in the relationship between welfare reform and child
welfare services (Arkansas, no increase in child welfare), and the value of intensive family
services on improved outcomes for children (Arkansas).
Dr. Zeller is currently conducting the cost study for the Co-occurring State Incentive Grant
(COSIG) in Maine. This study will entail the analysis of MaineCare data and other data
sources from Maine Medical Center, Aroostook Mental Health and Crisis and Counseling to
determine the cost of serving people with co-occurring disorders. The All Claims data base
which includes private insurers may be accessed as well. HZA’s evaluation of COSIG will
include tracking 300 co-occurring clients per year to track services utilization and outcomes.
This experience will help Department understand the limits of critical data sets for
subsequent evaluation activities.
He received a master's degree in social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at
Austin.
From MEHAF Evaluation Proposal – 2006
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W.
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. He participates in all
of the larger projects undertaken by the firm, generally serving as either principal
investigator or project director. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis,
research design, data analysis and computer application development.
Dr. Zeller is an expert in management reporting and quality assurance. He has directed
projects for Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services, Nevada Division of Child and
Family Services, Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families and Ohio Department
of Job and Family Services with a focus on data management and quality assurance. Dr.
Zeller meets with clients to determine their reporting needs. The project methodologies,
work plan, products and deliverables are then tailored to meet those needs. Dr. Zeller has
designed evaluation and research projects and has implemented these projects through the
deployment of staff resources.
Over the past decade, Dr. Zeller organized the evaluation and data units for three statewide
children and youth agencies: Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada. These units are still
operating in whole or in part by HZA in two of the states and have been taken over by the
agency in one. The units produce federal child welfare outcome reports and management
reports for legislators and agency administrators. He has overseen evaluations in
departmental priority areas as they are defined or change each year. For example, in
Arkansas the state was particularly concerned with the over- representation of minorities in
the foster care system and HZA studied that phenomenon in an attempt to pinpoint the
reasons. One of the revelations, not documented elsewhere in the literature, is that
minorities have larger families and a single confirmed report of child abuse may often result
in the removal of multiple children, causing greater incidence of minorities in foster care but
not in child protection reports. Dr. Zeller has examined the causes for rises in the substitute
care population (Erie County, Pennsylvania), in the relationship between welfare reform and
child welfare services (Arkansas, no increase in child welfare), and the value of intensive
family services on improved outcomes for children (Arkansas).
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author of
“Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare. He
has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare,
research and statistics.
He received a master's degree in social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at
Austin.
Dr. Zeller is currently conducting the cost study for the Co-occurring State Incentive Grant
(COSIG) in Maine. This study will entail the analysis of MaineCare data and other data
sources from Maine Medical Center, Aroostook Mental Health and Crisis and Counseling to
determine the cost of serving people with co-occurring disorders. The All Claims data base
which includes private insurers may be accessed as well. HZA’s evaluation of COSIG will
include tracking 300 co-occurring clients per year to track services utilization and outcomes.
This experience will help MeHAF understand the limits of critical data sets for subsequent
evaluation activities.
He has also helped states obtain grant funding. In recognition of its achievements in the
areas of quality assurance and data analysis, the State of Arkansas and HZA received an
award in the fall of 2001 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve
as mentors to other states and in 2001, Dr. Zeller served as project director for the
Arkansas Mentor Grant. The goal of the project was to enable mentee states (Rhode Island,
Oklahoma and Nevada) to enhance their data analysis capacities and make better use of
their SACWIS data for management and outcome reporting. He is currently developing an
evaluation design for MeHAF’s I3 Initiative.
From Rhode Island DCYF Evaluation Proposal – 2006
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W.
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. He participates in all
of the larger projects undertaken by the firm, generally serving as either principal
investigator or project director. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis,
research design, data analysis and computer application development.
For all engagements, including Quality Assurance projects for Arkansas Division of Children
and Family Services, Nevada Division of Child and Family Services, Pennsylvania Office of
Children, Youth and Families and Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Dr. Zeller
meets with the client to determine their reporting needs. The project methodologies, work
plan, products and deliverables are then tailored to meet those needs. Dr. Zeller has also
developed internal staffing resources and conducted training sessions for staff hired who
were less familiar with the subject matter or strategy. Throughout the course of each
project, Dr. Zeller has made changes to the work plan, products and/or deliverables as the
clients’ needs have evolved.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author of
“Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare. He
has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare,
research and statistics.
He received a master's degree in social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at
Austin.
Work of Direct Relevance to DCYF
Over the past decade, Dr. Zeller organized the evaluation and data units for three statewide
children and youth agencies: Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada. These units are still
operating in whole or in part by HZA in two of the states and have been taken over by the
agency in one. The units use many of the same concepts and techniques that DCYF is
proposing, such as producing federal child welfare outcome reports, monitoring Program
Improvement Plans for the Child and Family Services Reviews, providing consultation and
technical assistance to specific departmental programs, and disseminating findings at
professional conferences and publications. He has overseen evaluations in departmental
priority areas as they are defined and change each year. For example, in Arkansas the state
was particularly concerned with the over representation of minorities in the foster care
system and HZA studied that phenomenon in an attempt to pinpoint the reasons. One of
the revelations, not documented elsewhere in the literature, is that minorities have larger
families and a single confirmed report of child abuse may often result in the removal of
multiple children, causing greater incidence of minorities in foster care but not in child
protection reports. Dr. Zeller has examined the causes for rises in the substitute care
population (Erie County, Pennsylvania), in the relationship between welfare reform and child
welfare services (Arkansas, no increase in child welfare), and the value of intensive family
services on improved outcomes for children (Arkansas). (See Section on Previous
Experience and Background for more complete descriptions and references.)
He has also helped states obtain grant funding. In recognition of its achievements in the
areas of quality assurance and data analysis, the State of Arkansas and HZA received an
award in the fall of 2001 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve
as mentors to other states and in 2001, Dr. Zeller served as project director for the
Arkansas Mentor Grant. The goal of the project was to enable mentee states (Rhode Island
being one but also Oklahoma and Nevada) to enhance their data analysis capacities and
make better use of their SACWIS data for management and outcome reporting. HZA’s focus
was Nevada; the project allowed us to develop a series of compliance, performance and
outcome reports using UNITY, Nevada’s SACWIS.
Regarding juvenile justice, he was principal investigator in a project for the Delaware
Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families which evaluated the
effectiveness and cost efficiency of the Alternatives to Incarceration program compared to
the state’s secure facility. This project entailed the examination of recidivism data,
controlling for other factors relating to severity of offense, age at first offense, and
demographics of clients for youth leaving alternative care facilities compared to the state’s
training school.
From Evaluation of New Haven Pilot Program Proposal – 2007
DENNIS E. ZELLER, PH.D., M.S.S.W., PRESIDENT
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. He participates in all
of the larger projects undertaken by the firm, generally serving as either principal
investigator or project director. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis,
research design and data analysis.
Prior to founding the consulting firm in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy
Planning of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department
of Social Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care
regulations, for proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for
negotiating litigation settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's
preventive service program, the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services,
utilization review procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child
Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster
children preparing for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the
Texas Department of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the
agency.
Much of the consulting work on which Dr. Zeller has led HZA has involved performance
measurement and data analysis. Examples include projects in which Dr. Zeller:



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first helped the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services initiate its
quality assurance process;
assisted the Connecticut Division of Children Youth and Families in
establishing a needs assessment methodology and calculating the actual
need for services;
designed and carried out the evaluation of the Alternatives to Incarceration
program in Delaware, developing and utilizing the “cost of success” concept
for the first time; and
evaluated the performance of the State Central Registry, which accepts
reports of child abuse and neglect, at the New Jersey Division of Youth and
Family Services.
Dr. Zeller was the Principal Investigator on the Connecticut Service Needs Study for 16 and
17 Year Old Court Involved Youth completed in 2007. He is currently the Principal
Investigator on the Alaska Department of Corrections Adult Mental Health Trust Beneficiary
Study.
Areas and levels of responsibility: Dr. Zeller will serve as Project Director with overall
responsibility for the timeliness and quality of the projects.
From GEAR UP – Maine Proposal – Biennial Program Evaluation – 2007
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. He participates in all
of the larger projects undertaken by the firm, generally serving as either principal
investigator or project director. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis,
research design, data analysis and computer application development.
Dr. Zeller is an expert in management reporting and quality assurance. He has directed
projects for Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services, Nevada Division of Child and
Family Services, Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families and Ohio Department
of Job and Family Services with a focus on data management and quality assurance. Dr.
Zeller meets with clients to determine their reporting needs. The project methodologies,
work plan, products and deliverables are then tailored to meet those needs. Dr. Zeller has
designed evaluation and research projects and has implemented these projects through the
deployment of staff resources.
Over the past decade, Dr. Zeller organized the evaluation and data units for three statewide
children and youth agencies: Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada. These units are still
operating in whole or in part by HZA in two of the states and have been taken over by the
agency in one. The units produce federal child welfare outcome reports and management
reports for legislators and agency administrators.
Dr. Zeller is currently conducting the cost study for the Co-occurring State Incentive Grant
(COSIG) in Maine. This study will entail the analysis of MaineCare data and other data
sources from Maine Medical Center, Aroostook Mental Health and Crisis and Counseling to
determine the cost of serving people with co-occurring disorders. The All Claims data base
which includes private insurers may be accessed as well. HZA’s evaluation of COSIG will
include tracking 300 co-occurring clients per year to track services utilization and outcomes.
In recognition of its achievements in the areas of quality assurance and data analysis, the
State of Arkansas and HZA received an award in the fall of 2001 from the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services to serve as mentors to other states and in 2001, Dr. Zeller
served as project director for the Arkansas Mentor Grant. The goal of the project was to
enable mentee states (Rhode Island, Oklahoma and Nevada) to enhance their data analysis
capacities and make better use of their SACWIS data for management and outcome
reporting.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author of
"Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek" published in Child Welfare. He
has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare,
research and statistics.
He received a master's degree in social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at
Austin.
From Minnesota MFIP Evaluation Proposal – 2007
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., HZA Principal and Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development. For this project he will serve as Principal Investigator, providing
the overall conceptual guidance and oversight for the project.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller designed and organized HZA’s evaluation and data operations in Arkansas and
Pennsylvania and he directed the evaluation for Ohio’s adoption program. He supervises
the firms’ most detailed and complex quantitative analyses.
From Nevada Clark County Proposal – 2007
DENNIS E. ZELLER, M.S.S.W., PH.D.: Prior to founding HZA, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau
of Policy Planning of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State
Department of Social Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child
care regulations, for proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for
negotiating litigation settlements.
Dr. Zeller has participated in all of HZA’s workload measures studies and is the principal
designer of the company’s workload methodologies. He also led the design of the
methodologies HZA has used in most of its data analysis and quality assurance projects,
including those in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada. In addition, over the past couple of
years he took the lead jointly with Ms. Hornby in HZA’s rewrite of New Jersey’s child welfare
regulations and policy manuals. Dr. Zeller will assist Ms. Hornby in the assessment phase of
this project and will divide responsibilities with her in the procedure writing phase.
From Connecticut Sex Abuse Proposal – 2008
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Lead Analyst
Dennis E. Zeller is a Principal and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis. Prior to
founding the consulting firm in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations and
policy, for proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating
litigation settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service
program, the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis.
Dr. Zeller has provided conceptual leadership and oversight for the performance of
evaluation and quality assurance services for Ohio’s adoption program; the study of the
State Central Registry in New Jersey, the Quality Assurance contract in Arkansas, and the
Data Quality work in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” and “Improving Child
Welfare Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches” both published in Child
Welfare . He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of
child welfare, research and statistics.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
From Adoption Services Quality Assurance Proposal – Ohio – 2007
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Project Director (called Manager in the RFP)
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. He will serve as
Project Director. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis, research
design, data analysis and computer application development.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller has extensive experience in adoption, quality assurance and large group
assessment and facilitation. Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management
Indicators, published by the National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of
Southern Maine, and co-author of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy
Seek” published in Child Welfare which addresses both foster care and adoption issues
relating to the use of relatives as placement resources. His most recent publication in Child
Welfare is on the subject of performance measures and critiques the federal measures used
in the original Child and Family Services Review. It is called, “Improving Child Welfare
Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches” and is co-authored by Dr. Tom
Gamble. He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of
child welfare, research and statistics. He received a master's degree in social work and a
doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
He has actively participated in the adoption quality assurance project in Ohio and has led
many of the large group assessments there. He has overseen the data analyses, reviewed
the reports, assisted with the development of recommendations, and participated in client
visits.
When the Program Evaluation and Data Unit in Nevada was established, as project director
for the engagement, Dr. Zeller provided oversight and overall conceptual guidance in the
development of a series of management reports which were designed to provide an
overview of activity in child welfare, child mental health and juvenile justice and report on
workload, outcome and performance. In preparation of the state’s CFSR, Dr. Zeller created
an AFCARS file from multiple data sources, including UNITY, that state’s SACWIS, and
provider payment files, allowing a sample of cases to be selected for review and the state’s
data profile to be created. As part of the Unit’s development of management reporting tools,
written and oral guidance was provided to state and local administrators to guide them in
implementing the use of the tools in their monitoring and decision-making efforts.
From 2002 to 2004, Dr. Zeller assisted the Division with development of a Project
Management and Cost Allocation Plan for Organizational Restructuring. Dr. Zeller supported
the Division in learning about and developing the skills needed to undertake the new roles it
would play upon implementation of ACR 53 Unification. He trained staff in developing cost
allocation plans for obtaining federal funds, the processes needed to manage the transition
from state to county administration and carrying out their functions under the new structure.
Recently Dr. Zeller served as Principal Investigator for a needs assessment conducted on
behalf of Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services to determine the gaps in foster
care services. Using a case record review to identify the placement service needs of
children and surveys of providers, gaps were identified for Fulton and DeKalb counties. A
similar review was conducted of Ohio’s child welfare and foster care program in 1998. In
this instance Dr. Zeller developed an extensive methodology in which cases were reviewed
to determine service needs to prevent removal and encourage reunification; providers were
interviewed to quantify the availability of services and key stakeholders were interviewed to
determine the benefits of services as well as reasons for services not being delivered.
On behalf of HZA’s Quality Assurance activities conducted for the Erie County, Pennsylvania
Children and Youth Services Agency, in 2006 a case review was conducted of active in-home
and out-of-home care cases to determine if cases should be closed. Given the increasing
size of Erie’s caseload, concerns were raised that cases were remaining open unnecessarily.
Dr. Zeller developed a methodology and instrument by which cases were reviewed to
determine if decisions to continue to maintain cases in an ongoing status were appropriate.
In 2005 Dr. Zeller served as Principal Investigator for a project to measure the ability of New
Jersey’s State Central Registry to satisfy legal protocol and state requirements. He
developed the methodology and a data collection tool by which reviews of paper records and
later onsite observations were conducted to measure the accuracy of the decisions made
and appropriateness of actions taken by abuse hotline call takers. Based on the findings of
the review, a subsequent project was initiated in 2006 in which tapes of calls were listened
to using a structured instrument. Where it was identified that a call taker needed to improve
his or her professionalism, accuracy or efficiency, guidance was given to the call taker in
conjunction with the supervisor.
Beginning with a contract in 2001 with the University of Pittsburgh on behalf of the
Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families, HZA has been assisting the
Commonwealth with standardized data collection and reporting activities. As Principal
Investigator, Dr. Zeller designed a methodology and work plan for the project which involved
extensive analyses of AFCARS and NCANDS data, in addition to focus group, mail survey
data and case readings. Training on methodologies and ways to analyze and interpret data
was provided to staff. Data analysis and development of alternative outcome measures
were included in the continuing assistance provided to the Commonwealth through the
state’s Program Improvement Plan process. Dr. Zeller was instrumental in the development
of semi-annual county packages which are generated to provide case flows, point-in-time
measures providing case characteristics, outcome measures using prospective analyses
developed by Dr. Zeller to assess safety and permanency, and, added this spring, current
federal composite measures.
Dr. Zeller is co-principal investigator for Arkansas’ Division of Children and Family Services’
Quality Assurance Unit. He works closely with each of HZA’s seven full-time staff who are
located inside the Division, operating largely as part of the agency. In this role, Dr. Zeller
and Ms. Hornby design and review the research, data analyses and reports produced for
both internal and external consumption. The Unit is responsible for monitoring contracted
service providers and conducting special studies, including analyses of foster care
caseloads, workload analyses and estimates of the impact of welfare reform on child
welfare caseloads. For each study conducted in Arkansas, Dr. Zeller develops a research
methodology and submits it to the agency for approval.
In recognition of its achievements in the areas of quality assurance and data analysis, the State
of Arkansas and HZA received an award in the fall of 2001 from the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services to serve as mentors to other states. In 2001, Dr. Zeller began serving as
project director for the Arkansas Mentor Grant. The goal of the project was to enable mentee
states, including Rhode Island, Oklahoma and Nevada, to enhance their data analysis capacities
and make better use of their SACWIS data for management reporting. Dr. Zeller worked closely
with both Ms. Hornby and the staff in Arkansas throughout the engagement. He held weekly
staff meetings with all members of the Quality Assurance Unit to review progress against the
work plan, identify any areas of difficulty, review work that would be completed over the
subsequent two weeks and identify problems and achievements and respond to staff questions.
RATE SETTING
From Illinois Time and Rate Study Proposal – December 2014
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Principal Investigator
Dr. Zeller is the founding principal of HZA with expertise in policy analysis, research design
and data analysis. As Principal Investigator for this project, he will provide project oversight
and guidance during all phases of the project. Dr. Zeller will ensure that all products are
designed for ease of understanding by non-technical and non-financially-oriented staff and
stakeholders.
He has taken the lead for studies involving resource management, involving both ratesetting and workload measurement. For instance, Dr. Zeller served as the principal
investigator for the two rate-setting projects completed for Washington Department of Social
and Health Services, one for Alabama Department of Human Resources, and four for New
Jersey Department of Human Services. For the Washington Department of Social and
Health Services redesign of foster home rates, Dr. Zeller not only developed and designed
the foster care rate system for child welfare, he also supervised the development of an
automated system to calculate those rates based on the needs of the children and the
foster families’ efforts to address those needs. The entire system was sufficiently well
received that a year later, HZA was asked to develop a coordinated system of foster home
rates for developmentally disabled children in Washington.
More recently Dr. Zeller was retained as an expert witness by the Attorney General of
Washington State in FPAWS v Dreyfus, et al. Dr. Zeller, along with Dr. Kiaer who will serve as
the Project Manager for this engagement and Ms. Hallenbeck who serves as the firm’s
Director of Project Operations, provided a report about the rate assessment forms, policies
and practices created in 2000 by the Department in conjunction with Hornby Zeller,
including the extent to which those policies are still being implemented in the way intended.
Dr. Zeller has also provided testimony by deposition.
Dr. Zeller created the methodologies HZA has used for its measurement of time to estimate
workloads of social services agencies. He provides oversight in the use of data and related
system reporting capabilities to measure the percentage of time staff are involved in case
and non-case specific activities and the time needed to handle specific types of cases. He
works closely with HZA’s research and technical staff to develop automated processes, data
collection instruments and analytic tools to measure performance and workload.
From Alaska Foster Care Rate Study Proposal – June 2012
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal
Dr. Zeller is the founding principal of HZA with expertise in policy analysis, research design
and data analysis. Prior to founding the consulting firm in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of
the Bureau of Policy Planning of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New
York State Department of Social Services. In that role he was responsible for all child
welfare and child care regulations, for proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored
legislation and for negotiating litigation settlements. He was instrumental in implementing
the State's preventive service program, the uniform case record for foster care and
preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of
New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding
kinship care and foster children preparing for independence. Prior to his work in New York,
he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human Services, performing research and
policy analysis for the agency.
Between 2001 and 2003 Dr. Zeller worked alongside Ms. Hornby in conducting all of the
firm’s rate redesign projects. Beyond the work described below about these projects, he
guided an analysis of the impact of increasing foster home rates in New Jersey on the costs
of future adoption subsidies.
For the Washington Department of Social and Health Services redesign of foster home rates,
Dr. Zeller not only developed and designed, with Ms. Hornby, the foster care rate system for
child welfare, he also supervised the development of an automated system to calculate
those rates based on the needs of the children and the foster families’ efforts to address
those needs. The entire system was sufficiently well received that a year later, HZA was
asked to develop a coordinated system of foster home rates for developmentally disabled
children in Washington.
More recently Dr. Zeller has been retained as an expert witness by the Attorney General of
Washington State in FPAWS v Dreyfus, et al. Dr. Zeller will, along with Ms. Hornby and other
HZA staff, provide a report about the rate assessment forms, policies and practices created
in 2000 by the Department in conjunction with Hornby Zeller, including the extent to which
those policies are still being implemented in the way intended. Dr. Zeller also anticipates
testifying in that case, both by deposition and in court.
Since early 2010, Dr. Zeller has worked with Ms. Hornby on the financial assessment of the
Mississippi Department of Human Services. His primary functions there have focused on
redesigning the random moment survey, identifying eligible but previously unclaimed
maintenance costs for foster children and revising the cost allocation plan.
TIME STUDY
From Virginia DSS Random Moment Sampling Application Proposal – July 2015
Dennis E. Zeller is the President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis. Ongoing
performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller’s work since he
authored the monograph Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published in 1991 by
the National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine. Dr. Zeller
developed the methodology behind the provision of AFCARS data as longitudinal files, so
that states could assess their own performance on permanency measures more accurately
than federal outcome measures originally permitted; this methodology was later
disseminated nationally by The Child Welfare League of America, and many of the concepts
are now incorporated in the prospective cohort measures adopted by the Administration for
Children and Families. Dr. Zeller also co-authored Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes
Should Policy Seek (Child Welfare, 2009).
Prior to founding the firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning of the
Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. He also served as a planner for the Texas Department of Human Services,
performing research and policy analysis. He received a master’s degree in social work and a
doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
From Colorado Web-Based Email Random Moment Time Study System and Services
Proposal – March 2013
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Dennis Zeller, one of the firm’s principals, will oversee the development and ongoing
support of the RMTS as Principal Investigator. Dr. Zeller plays a similar role for the random
moment sampling of Colorado’s Child Placement Agencies (CPAs). He has served as the
principal investigator for each of the firm’s workload studies, ensuring the adequacy and
integrity of sample selections as well as the data collected. That work, as will be later
described, has encompassed child welfare, adult services, Medicaid, employment and
public assistance programs. Dr. Zeller oversaw the financial assessment of Mississippi’s
child welfare program. Changes were proposed to the state’s random moment sampling
process which were designed to increase federal funding while making the process far less
burdensome to participants.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York’s Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
From Colorado Implementing a Time Study/RMS Methodology for Claiming Title IV-E
Allowable Administrative Costs of Child Placement Agencies Proposal – February 2010
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W. Principal and Co-Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller is the founding principal of HZA. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise
include policy analysis, research design and data analysis. For this project he will serve as
Co-Principal Investigator.
Dr. Zeller has played a central role in the firm’s development of automated processes for
measuring outcomes and allocating resources. As principal designer of the company’s
workload and case weighting methodologies, he has provided oversight in the use of data
and related system reporting capabilities to measure the percentage of time staff are
involved in case and non-case specific activities and the time needed to handle specific
types of cases. He works closely with HZA’s research and technical staff to develop
automated processes, data collection instruments and analytic tools to measure
performance and workload.
As the Primary Investigator for the Georgia Title IV-E study, Dr. Zeller provided guidance to
staff responsible for identifying areas of improvement in determining eligibility at the case
level and for increasing federal funding through the foster care program through its
associated training and administrative cost components. He also developed
recommendations to amend the state’s cost allocation plan and random moment sample
survey to realize an increase in Title IV-E funding for administrative expenditures.
TRAINING
From Texas Statewide Intake Specialist – Job Analysis – 2009
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Co-Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates, Inc. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development in the field of child welfare. Prior to founding the consulting firm,
Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning of the Division of Family and
Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social Services. In that role he was
responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing and negotiating
Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation settlements. He was
instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency. Dr. Zeller also received
two graduate degrees from the University of Texas, Austin, an M.S.S.W. from the School of
Social Work and a Ph.D.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare
and Improving Child Welfare Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches also
published in Child Welfare (2007). He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national
conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics.
Dr. Zeller has personally worked in over 30 states, generally performing evaluations,
developing data for child welfare managers, analyzing data for litigation, advising on
management reporting, developing quality assurance systems, and performing workload
studies. He designed the methodologies for the review of State Central Registry in New
Jersey and the Quality Assurance review of the Florida Abuse Hotline.
References
Cathy Utz
Director, Bureau of Policy and Program Development
Department of Public Welfare
Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families
P.O. Box 2675
Harrisburg, PA 17105
717-705-2912
cutz@state.pa.us
Michelle Jensen-Goodwin
Wisconsin Director of State Courts Office
110 E. Main Street
Madison, WI 53701
608-266-1557
Michelle.Jensen-Goodwin@wicourts.gov
Pat Page, Former Director
Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services
13703 St. Michael,
Little Rock, AR 72211
501-379-9635.
patkpage@comcast.net
From Florida Abuse Hotline Training Proposal – 2006
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W.
Project Position: Consulting Principal
Work Experience: See write up and resume
Contact Number: 518 273-1614
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development.
Prior to founding the consulting firm in 1988, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy
Planning of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department
of Social Services, a county administered, state supervised system. In that role he was
responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing and negotiating
Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation settlements. He was
instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. He received a master's degree in social work and a
doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Zeller took the lead on the review of the New Jersey State Central Registry in 2005,
performing the data analysis, writing the final report and presenting the findings to the
Department. In addition, he organized and supervised the mentoring of New Jersey’s hotline
counselors in 2006, including presenting to a Departmental advisory committee charged
with reviewing alternative methods of handling calls. He has headed up HZA’s Quality
Assurance subcontract in Florida and has spent time reviewing calls, analyzing data and
writing reports for the Florida Abuse Hotline.
From Texas SWI proposal – 2009
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Co-Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates, Inc. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development in the field of child welfare. Prior to founding the consulting firm,
Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning of the Division of Family and
Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social Services. In that role he was
responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing and negotiating
Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation settlements. He was
instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency. Dr. Zeller also received
two graduate degrees from the University of Texas, Austin, an M.S.S.W. from the School of
Social Work and a Ph.D.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare
and Improving Child Welfare Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches also
published in Child Welfare (2007). He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national
conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics.
Dr. Zeller has personally worked in over 30 states, generally performing evaluations,
developing data for child welfare managers, analyzing data for litigation, advising on
management reporting, developing quality assurance systems, and performing workload
studies. He designed the methodologies for the review of State Central Registry in New
Jersey and the Quality Assurance review of the Florida Abuse Hotline.
References
Cathy Utz
Director, Bureau of Policy and Program Development
Department of Public Welfare
Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families
P.O. Box 2675
Harrisburg, PA 17105
717-705-2912
cutz@state.pa.us
Michelle Jensen-Goodwin
Wisconsin Director of State Courts Office
110 E. Main Street
Madison, WI 53701
608-266-1557
Michelle.Jensen-Goodwin@wicourts.gov
Pat Page, Former Director
Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services
13703 St. Michael,
Little Rock, AR 72211
501-379-9635.
patkpage@comcast.net
VALIDATION STUDY
From Florida DJJ A Positive Achievement Change Tool (PACT) Validation Study Proposal –
September 2010
Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller is a Principal and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design and data analysis.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all children’s services regulations, for proposing
and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation, and for negotiating litigation settlements.
He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program, the uniform
case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster
care cases, and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller was the principal data analyst for HZA’s examination of the South Carolina risk
assessment, worked on the development of Arizona’s risk assessment system, performed
the data analysis for the Lucas County evaluation and has led most of the efforts creating
the Arkansas and Lucas County quality assurance units’ efforts. He guided the data
analysts responsible for the complex analyses of both the Kansas and Ohio risk assessment
tools. His is also the principal investigator for the various outcome and workload studies
performed by the firm, including creating the initial programming needed for HZA’s ongoing
work in Arkansas.
In addition, Dr. Zeller led the company’s work on the juvenile justice project in Delaware.
This included developing profiles of clients based on demographic characteristics and
offense history so that cost comparisons could be made among the agencies contracted
with the state to provide services as alternatives to incarceration. Together with Ms. Hornby
he also led the analysis of the classification of juvenile females in Louisiana.
WORKLOAD STUDY
From Colorado Child Welfare Caseload Study Proposal – November 2015
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., Principal
Given Dr. Zeller’s long experience in conducting the workload studies performed by HZA,
dating as far back as 1994 when a study was performed for Arizona’s Administration for
Children, Youth and Families, he will serve as an advisor on this project. Dr. Zeller developed
the methodology which the firm uses to develop time standards and the formula that states
and counties use to calculate staff need.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York’s Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. Dr.
Zeller was the person who initiated turning AFCARS data into longitudinal files, so that states
could assess their own performance on the achievement of permanency more accurately
than the federal outcome measures permit, especially for those without SACWIS or historical
management information systems. The Child Welfare League of America disseminated
nationally the methodology that he developed. Many of the concepts are now incorporated
in the prospective cohort measures adopted by the Administration for Children and Families.
Dr. Zeller co-authored “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek”
published in Child Welfare. He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national
conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics. He received a master’s
degree in social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Zeller will contribute 64 hours to the caseload study.
From Oklahoma APS Workload Study Proposal – August 2014
Principal Investigator Dennis Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W.
Dennis Zeller, one of the firm’s two principals, is familiar with both the geography and the
culture of his native state, Oklahoma, where his family still resides. A graduate of the
University of Oklahoma, he went on to receive a Ph.D. and Master’s Degree in Social Work
from the University of Texas, Austin. He has spent his career in public social services, first as
a data analyst for the State of Texas and later as the Director of Policy Planning for the
Department of Social Services for the State of New York. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise
include policy analysis, research design, and statistical data analysis. He has designed and
updated the methodologies for HZA’s workload studies and has participated in all of them.
For this project he will serve as Principal Investigator, providing the overall conceptual
guidance and oversight for the project. He will oversee the data analysis and report writing
and will participate in meetings with OU and state staff.
From Colorado Child Welfare County Caseworker Workload Study Proposal – October 2013
DENNIS E. ZELLER, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Prior to founding the
consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning of the Division of
Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social Services. In that
role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing and
negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation settlements. He
was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program, the uniform case
record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care
cases and other aspects of New York’s Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also
negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence.
Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human
Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since
he authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. Dr.
Zeller was the person who initiated turning AFCARS data into longitudinal files, so that states
could assess their own achievement of permanency outcomes more accurately than the
federal measures permit, especially for those without SACWIS or historical management
information systems. The Child Welfare League of America disseminated nationally the
methodology and syntax that he developed. Many of the concepts are now incorporated in
the prospective cohort measures adopted by the Administration for Children and Families.
Dr. Zeller co-authored “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” and
“Improving Child Welfare Performance: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches,” both
published in Child Welfare. He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national
conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics.
Dr. Zeller is the principal designer of the company’s workload/case weighting methodologies
and oversees all of HZA’s workload measures studies. In past years, he performed much of
the data analysis himself whereas now he guides and monitors HZA’s data analysts and
developers of the analytic tools provided to clients to measure workload need. Together, Dr.
Zeller and Ms. Hornby were featured speakers at a national workload measures conference
in Santa Fe, New Mexico in December of 2005.
From Virginia Division of Juvenile Justice Workload Analysis Proposal – September 2013
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Dr. Zeller has led all of HZA’s workload measures studies and is the principal designer of the
company’s workload/case weighting methodologies. His experience on previous projects
includes managing the varying workload analysis projects conducted for states, counties and
cities across the nation. In addition, he has carried out much of the data analysis, supervising the
analysis of the remainder, and providing guidance in the development of the analytic tools by
which clients can continue to measure workload need. Dr. Zeller has extensive experience with
Juvenile Justice agencies. Last month, for example, he testified before the Juvenile Board of the
Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement on the results of HZA’s disproportionate minority
contact study. He also testified before the legislature in Connecticut on the results of HZA’s
“raise the age” study concerning juveniles treated in the adult corrections system. As a result of
the legislature amended the law to include 16 and 17 year olds in the juvenile system.
From Washington Workload CCD Study – 2009
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., HZA Principal and Principal Investigator, 128 hours
Dr. Zeller has participated in all of HZA’s workload measures studies and is the principal
designer of the company’s workload/case weighting methodologies. His experience on
previous projects includes managing the varying workload analysis projects conducted for
states, counties and cities across the nation. In addition, he has carried out much of the
data analysis, supervising the analysis of the remainder, and providing guidance in the
development of the analytic tools by which clients can continue to measure workload need.
While Dr. Zeller will participate in most phases of the project, he will serve as the lead in
selection of the case and random moment samples, and calculation of time available and
time needed to handle cases.
From Colorado Workload Study Proposal – 2006
DENNIS E. ZELLER, PH.D., PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development. For this project he will serve as Principal Investigator, providing
the overall conceptual guidance and oversight for the project.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. Dr. Zeller has participated in all of HZA’s workload
measures studies and is the principal designer of the company’s workload/case weighting
methodologies. His experience on previous projects include managing the workload
analysis project for Arizona’s Administration for Children, Youth and Families (1994 and
1996), for Milwaukee County’s Division of Youth Services (1995), for Lucas County’s (Ohio)
Children’s Services agency (1997), for Nevada’s Division of Child and Family Services
(1997-98), for Arkansas’ Division of Children and Family Services (1997-98 and 2001), for
Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services (1998-99), for Virginia’s
Department of Social Services (1999-2001), for Colorado’s Department of Human Services
(2001), for Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services (2001), for Alaska’s Office of
Children Services (2005), for Alaska’s Division of Public Assistance (2006) and for
Westchester’s Department of Social Services (2006). He had lead responsibility for
developing findings, conclusions, and recommendations for these studies. In addition, he
has carried out much of the data analysis for the workload studies in the first five years and
supervised the analysis in the remainder of the years. Dr. Zeller and Ms. Hornby were
featured speakers at a national workload measures conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico in
December of 2005 sponsored by one of the national resource centers. Dr. Zeller has a Ph.D.
and Master of Science degree in social work from the University of Texas in Austin.
From Westchester NY Child Welfare Workload Study – 2006
DENNIS E. ZELLER, PH.D., M.S.S.W., PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major
areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer
application development. For this project he will serve as Principal Investigator, providing
overall conceptual guidance and oversight for the project as well as specific input into the
final report and recommendations. Most of his work will be performed in HZA’s
headquarters in Troy, New York, although he is expected to make one and possibly more
visits to Westchester County.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare.
He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child
welfare, research and statistics. He received a master's degree in social work and a
doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Zeller has participated in all of HZA’s studies evaluating child welfare agencies and has
designed all of the company’s workload/case weighting studies. In addition, he has carried
out much of the data analysis, supervising the analysis of the remainder.
From Child Welfare Workload and Analysis Study – Minnesota Proposal – Workload Study –
2008
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal and Principal Investigator
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr.
Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and
product development. For this project he will serve as Principal Investigator, providing the
overall conceptual guidance and oversight for the project. He will also lead the analysis
components.
Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning
of the Division of Family and Children's Services at the New York State Department of Social
Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for
proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation
settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State's preventive service program,
the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review
procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York's Child Welfare Reform Act
of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing
for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department
of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.
Dr. Zeller is the author of Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the
National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, and co-author
of “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare
as well as “Improving Child Welfare Performance: Retrospective and Prospective
Approaches” in Child Welfare. He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national
conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics. He received both a
master's degree in social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Zeller has participated in all of HZA’s workload measures studies and is the principal
designer of the company’s workload/case weighting methodologies. His experience on
previous projects include managing the varying workload analysis projects conducted for
states, counties and cities across the nation, as described above. In addition, he has
carried out much of the data analysis, supervising the analysis of the remainder, and
providing guidance in the development of the analytic tools by which clients can continue to
measure workload need. Dr. Zeller and Ms. Hornby were featured speakers at a national
workload measures conference in Sante Fe, New Mexico in December of 2005.
He has played a key role in the firm’s development of automated processes for measuring
outcomes using the federal CFSR measures which assess safety, permanency and wellbeing. Using data received from states the firm has contracted with, he has provided
oversight in the use of data, ranging from SACWIS systems to AFCARS and NCANDS files. He
has worked with HZA’s research staff to develop automated processes to measure outcome
performance at the state, county and regional levels.
REVENUE MAXIMIZATION
From Kansas Cost Allocation Services Proposal – November 2013
Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Dr. Zeller has led all of HZA’s Title IV-E claiming and cost allocation studies. He is also the
principal designer of the company’s workload/case weighting methodologies using Random
Moment Time Studies. The experience is described below in such states as Mississippi,
Georgia and Nevada. Dr. Zeller also has extensive experience with Juvenile Justice agencies.
Last month, for example, he testified before the Juvenile Board of the Louisiana Commission
on Law Enforcement on the results of HZA’s disproportionate minority contact study. He also
testified before the legislature in Connecticut on the results of HZA’s “raise the age” study
concerning juveniles treated in the adult corrections system. As a result of the legislature
amended the law to include 16 and 17 year olds in the juvenile system.
REFERENCES
Reference
Cecile Blucker
Director
Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services
700 Main Street
Little Rock, AR 72203
(501) 682-8770
Cecile.blucker@arkansas.gov
Cathy Utz
Director
Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare
Office of Children, Youth and Families
Bureau of Policy, Programs and Operations
Health and Welfare Building
Room 105, 625 Forster Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120
(717) 705-2912
cutz@pa.gov
Maya Chilese
Gambler’s Assistance Program Manager
Department of Health and Human Services
Behavioral Health
301 Centennial Mall South
Nebraska State Office Building
Lincoln, NE 68509-5026
(402) 471-7792
Maya.chilese@nebraska.gov
Utilized
1. NJ Longitudinal Data Analysis
2. CSF NE CW Privatization Assessment
1. NJ Longitudinal Data Analysis
2. CSF NE CW Privatization Assessment
1. NJ Longitudinal Data Analysis
2. CSF NE CW Privatization Assessment