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Using Data to Identify – and Reduce – Barriers to Youth Permanence

Fact: Nationally, more young people are aging out of foster care each year
Fact: African-American youth are more likely to age out than their white peers

The plight of youth aging out of foster care is a top priority for the field of child welfare. Yet, despite increased attention to the issue, more young people are emancipating or running away from care each year – 31,000 in 2006 alone. Young African Americans continue to wait longer for permanent families and are more likely than whites to age out. In some communities, the same is true of Hispanic and American Indian youth.

What’s a child welfare system to do?

An increasing number of systems are using data to identify the groups of youth for whom permanence is – and is not – being achieved, and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their systems’ permanency practices.

Some states do this through benchmarking, a quality assurance process. Benchmarking means an agency sets performance goals and compares its outcomes to other leading agencies. Several approaches to benchmarking offer hope for connecting young people with family before they leave foster care.

CFSR as a Benchmark

North Dakota uses the federal Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) composite measures to set permanency benchmarks for certain subpopulations of youth. The measures:

• identify youth for whom permanence is not being achieved;
• allocate resources to address the challenges;
• identify resources that address the identified needs; and
• define outcomes based on collaboration (for instance, working with courts to speed judicial decision making).

By looking at data this way, North Dakota found that American Indian youth – who represent one-third of the state foster care population – are significantly less likely than white and multiracial children to reunite with their birth families within 12 months. Learn more> 

Iowa is using a digital dashboard to convey how well each region in the state is meeting benchmarks set by CFSR measures. The dashboard, displayed on desktop screens, offers large amounts of data in a clear and user-friendly format, usually with charts and graphs. It is interactive, so high-level data may be broken down into more specific units as dictated by the user. Iowa’s digital dashboard uses information in Iowa’s Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS), called Family and Children Services (FACS). Learn more>

Benchmarking with Performance-based Contracts

Florida has a privatized child welfare system. When the state negotiates performance-based contracts (PBCs) with private agencies, benchmarks are included. An example of one benchmark:

Case management agency will work to achieve permanency options for youth and then maintain permanence for six months.

Level 1: Youth returns to parent.

Level 2: Youth has legal guardianship/kinship care situation.

Baselines for each case management agency are established according to caseloads and expected outcomes.

Is Florida’s system effective? Outcome data from the first six months are currently being evaluated. Learn more>

Missouri’s PBCs compare case outcomes before intervention with outcomes post-intervention by region. One benchmark: 32 percent or more of children in out-of-home care must achieve permanence. In the first two years of using the approach, regions have made progress, although not all have reached the benchmark. Learn more>

Setting Benchmarks with Weighted Risk Ratios

Illinois developed a weighted risk ratio to standardize data and identify problem areas. This allows across-state comparisons. A look at permanency outcomes for African-American children, for instance, found that in all counties studied, African-American reunification rates were significantly lower than that of whites. In all but one county, African-American youth also were underrepresented significantly among those who left care to adoption and guardianship within three years.

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