The functional purpose of assessment is to gather information for decision makers. Families, professionals in the helping fields, agency administrators and funding sources are typical decision makers that rely on information to assist them in their decision making. Assessment data can help professionals in several ways:

1. Assessment data can assist professionals in deciding if parents have achieved an acceptable level of parenting competence. This is of critical importance in placement or re-unification decisions.
2. Assessment data can also help determine if the instruction or program would need to be modified to meet the needs of the families being served.
3. Funding sources make gathering research and evaluation data on the effectiveness of program mandatory for future or continued funding. Agencies who gather assessment data stand a much higher probability in receiving funding.

• The NSCS is a criterion referenced, self-report inventory designed to provide comprehensive information about the "quality of life" issues that families face as they attempt to put into practice the new parenting beliefs, knowledge and skills.
• The AAPI-2 is an inventory designed to assess the parenting and child rearing attitudes of adolescents and adult parent and pre-parent populations. Based on the known parenting and child rearing behaviors of abusive parents, responses to the inventory provide an index of risk for practicing behaviors known to be attributable to child abuse and neglect.