From the abstract: "As part of the federal Permanency Innovations Initiative, this local grantee implemented an evidence-based intervention to improve outcomes for children with serious emotional disturbance. The project approach integrates the tenets of implementation science and program evaluation. Formative evaluation used a small sample (n = 76) to assess implementation integrity and statistical association to recommend whether the intervention was ready for summative evaluation (SE). Results showed that most process expectations were met. Statistical findings suggested that the intervention was associated with higher rates of reunification for treatment families as compared to families receiving services-as-usual. Thus, the intervention was recommended for SE."