Defining Group Care Programs: An Index of Reporting Standards

Group care programs, while ubiquitous, are not clearly differentiated despite differences in the population served, size, auspices, and program activities, to name a few. Words like group care, residential care and residential treatment are often used interchangeably in policy, research and practice. This paper introduces reporting standards that can be used to promote the availability of descriptive information and build towards a nomenclature and classification system that reflects the variety within the service delivery system. These reporting standards were developed and vetted with input from several national group care scholars. An index of reporting standards has implications for state systems, accreditation and licensing groups, practitioners and researchers.