A University-Military Partnership to Establish a Quality Assurance and Training System to Sustain the FAIR System for Determining Incidents of Family Maltreatment in the US Army

Congress mandates that each military service maintain a central registry to monitor the frequency of maltreatment incidents by service and installation across time. For over two decades, the Family Translational Research Group (FTRG; Co-directors: Amy Slep and Richard Heyman) at New York University has partnered with military Family Advocacy Programs (FAPs) to ensure that partner and child maltreatment determinations are fair and consistent. This collaboration resulted in the Field-Tested Assessment, Intervention-Planning, and Response (FAIR) system—an evidence-based practice mandated across all services for determining whether alleged incidents of partner and child abuse or neglect meet criteria as maltreatment. The US Army was the first service to require annual quality assurance (QA) to support FAIR sustainment. This paper will describe (a) FAIR and the evidence supporting its use, (b) the university-military partnership that supported FAIR dissemination in the US Army, and (c) the university-military partnership that established a QA and training system for FAIR sustainment in the US Army. In addition, the manuscript will provide empirical evidence demonstrating that FAIR implementation fidelity and the accuracy of determinations have improved across the first 2 years of QA. Challenges have included perceptions from local committees that FAIR QA is university-driven rather than FAP-owned, maintaining consistent standards, and adapting to policy changes. Collaborative decision-making, a focus on impact, and decades of immersion in military culture have supported this long-term university-government partnership.