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Home > Statistics & Research > Child Welfare Outcomes 2000 > Vermont

 

Child Welfare Outcomes 2000: Annual Report
Chapter IV - State Data

Context Data | Outcomes Data | State Comment | Federal Comment
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Vermont [ Context Data ]

A. Key Context Statistics

General Population	1998	1999	2000
Total children under 18 years	141,347	139,346	147,523
Race/ethnicity (%)1
Alaska Native/American Indian	0.2	0.2	0.4
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.0	1.0	1.0
Black	0.5	0.5	0.7
Hispanic	0.9	0.9	1.2
White	97.3	97.3	94.7
Two or more races	N/A	N/A	1.8
Other	N/A	N/A	0.2
% Child population in poverty	13.6	12.5	18.1
% Child population living in metropolitan areas	26.8	28.5	27.5

 

Child Welfare	1998	1999	2000
Child maltreatment victims	887	1,080	1,347
Children in foster care on 9/30	1,316	1,445	1,318
Children adopted	118	139	122

1) The 2000 Census of the United States includes two new race catagories: (1) Persons of two or more races and (2) Other. Back

 

B. Child Maltreatment Data (NCANDS)

	Number			Rate
Maltreatment Information Overview	1998	1999	2000	1998	1998	2000
Children subject of an investigated report alleging child maltreatment	1,973	2,453	3,609	14.0 per 1,000	17.6 per 1,000	24.5 per 1,000
Child maltreatment victims2	887	1,080	1,347	6.3 per 1,000	7.8 per 1,000	9.1 per 1,000
Child fatalities	0	4	1	0.0 per 100,000	2.9 per 100,000	0.7 per 100,000

 

Age of Child Victims (%)	1998	1999	2000
Under 1 year	3.8	4.2	5.0
1-5 years	21.6	25.1	22.4
6-10 years	34.0	31.6	29.9
11-15 years	30.7	29.0	34.7
16+ years	8.2	10.1	7.9
Unknown	1.6	0.1	-
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	887	1,080	1,347

 

Race/Ethnicity of Child Victims (%)	1998	1999	2000
Alaska Native/American Indian	-	0.1	0.2
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.0	0.6	1.4
Black	0.7	0.6	1.6
Hispanic	0.1	0.6	0.4
White	98.1	97.9	95.8
Two or more races	N/A	N/A	-
Other/Unknown	0.2	0.8	0.6
Total %3	100.1	100.6	100.0
Number	887	1,080	1,347

 

Maltreatment Type of Child Victims (%)	1998	1999	2000
Emotional abuse	1.1	0.9	0.9
Medical neglect	2.7	1.9	2.2
Neglect	36.8	43.7	38.2
Physical abuse	26.5	22.0	22.1
Sexual abuse	41.8	40.4	40.8
Other	-	-	-
Unknown	-	-	-
Total %4	108.9	108.9	104.2
Number	887	1,080	1,347

2) Children with more than one report of substantiated or indicated maltreatment may be counted more than once. Back
3) Percentages may total more than 100 percent because Hispanics may be counted both by Hispanic ethnicity and by race. Back
4) Percentages may total more than 100 percent because children could have been victims of more than one type of maltreatment. Back

C. Children in Foster Care
(AFCARS Annual Foster Care Database)

Number of Children	In Care on 10/1	Entered Care	Exited Care	In Care on 9/30	Total Served
FY1998 (10/1/97-9/30/98)	1,188	783	655	1,316	1,971
FY1999 (10/1/98-9/30/99)	1,417	750	722	1,445	2,167
FY2000 (10/1/99-9/30/00)	1,211	788	684	1,318	1,999
Median Length of Stay (Months)
FY1998 (10/1/97-9/30/98)	20.9	N/A	13.7	17.5	N/A
FY1999 (10/1/98-9/30/99)	20.5	N/A	16.0	19.9	N/A
FY2000 (10/1/99-9/30/00)	20.1	N/A	15.1	15.9	N/A

 

Age of Children in Foster Care (%)	In Care on 10/1/97	In Care on 10/1/98	In Care on 10/1/99	Entered Care During FY 1998	Entered Care During FY 1999	Entered Care During FY 2000	Exited Care During FY 1998	Exited Care During FY 1999	Exited Care During FY 2000	In Care on 9/30/98	In Care on 9/30/99	In Care on 9/30/00
Under 1 year	1.9	2.1	2.1	5.5	7.2	7.2	1.1	2.1	2.5	2.2	2.3	2.3
1-5 years	12.8	13.1	11.1	14.3	14.5	15.9	15.3	16.2	14.5	12.4	12.4	12.4
6-10 years	14.6	16.6	14.1	15.6	16.3	14.6	11.9	14.8	14.2	15.6	15.4	13.7
11-15 years	40.9	39.6	41.5	50.2	49.9	48.4	30.4	27.3	27.9	39.4	42.2	40.2
16-18 years	29.2	28.5	31.1	14.4	12.1	14.0	38.3	37.5	39.8	30.2	27.6	31.0
19+ years	0.7	0.1	0.1	-	-	-	3.1	2.1	1.2	0.2	0.1	0.3
Unknown	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.1
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	1,188	1,417	1,211	783	750	788	655	722	684	1,316	1,445	1,318

 

Race/Ethnicity of Children in Foster Care (%)5	In Care on 10/1/97	In Care on 10/1/98	In Care on 10/1/99	Entered Care During FY 1998	Entered Care During FY 1999	Entered Care During FY 2000	Exited Care During FY 1998	Exited Care During FY 1999	Exited Care During FY 2000	In Care on 9/30/98	In Care on 9/30/99	In Care on 9/30/00
Alaska Native/American Indian	0.3	0.2	0.3	-	0.1	0.3	0.2	-	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.3	0.1	0.3	0.6	0.8	0.5	1.1	0.4	0.9	0.2	0.3	0.2
Black	1.9	2.2	1.8	1.3	1.3	2.4	0.9	2.4	2.5	2.0	1.7	1.8
Hispanic	0.8	0.6	0.7	0.1	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.4	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.5
White	96.1	96.3	96.5	96.9	97.1	95.4	96.8	96.0	95.5	96.3	96.8	96.4
Two or more races	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Unknown	0.6	0.6	0.3	1.0	0.3	1.0	0.6	0.8	0.4	0.8	0.3	0.7
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	1,188	1,417	1,211	783	750	788	655	722	684	1,316	1,455	1,318

 

5) In this and subsequent race/ethnicity tables, data for two or more races may be provided for 1998 and 1999 because of States' resubmissions. However, data for 1998 and 1999 may not capture all children of two or more races and therefore may not be comparable to the 2000 data pertaining to two or more races. Back

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D. Children Waiting to Be Adopted
(AFCARS Annual Foster Care Database)⁶

 

Overview	9/30/98	9/30/99	9/30/00
Children waiting to be adopted	215	403	252
Children whose parents' rights have been terminated (TPR)	159	351	184

 

Age of Waiting Children (%)	1998	1999	2000
Under 1 year	3.3	3.7	1.6
1-5 years	27.9	28.3	22.6
6-10 years	26.0	29.3	25.8
11-15 years	33.5	32.0	37.7
16+ years	8.4	6.2	9.5
Unknown	0.9	0.5	2.8
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	215	403	252

 

Race/Ethnicity of Waiting Children (%)	1998	1999	2000
Alaska Native/American Indian	-	0.2	0.4
Asian/Pacific Islander	-	-	-
Black	1.9	2.0	1.6
Hispanic	0.9	1.2	0.8
White	96.3	95.8	96.0
Two or more races	-	-	-
Unknown	0.9	0.7	1.2
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	215	403	252

6) Waiting children are children who have a goal of adoption and/or whose parents’ rights have been terminated. Children 16 years and older with TPR, but with a goal of emancipation, have been excluded from the waiting children and TPR populations. Back

E. Children Adopted
(AFCARS Annual Foster Care Database)

 

Age of Adopted Children (%)	1998	1999	2000
Under 1 year	1.7	0.7	1.6
1-5 years	49.2	43.2	48.4
6-10 years	38.1	38.8	31.1
11-15 years	10.2	15.8	18.0
16+ years	0.8	1.4	0.8
Unknown	-	-	-
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	118	139	122

 

Race/Ethnicity of Adopted Children (%)	1998	1999	2000
Alaska Native/American Indian	-	-	-
Asian/Pacific Islander	-	-	1.6
Black	1.7	4.3	4.9
Hispanic	-	-	2.5
White	98.3	95.7	90.2
Two or more races	-	-	0.8
Unknown	-	-	-
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	118	139	122

 

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Vermont [ Outcomes Data ]

 

1. Reduce Recurrence of Child Abuse and/or Neglect
(NCANDS)

1.1 Recurrence of Maltreatment Within 6 Months (%)	1998	1999	2000
Children without a recurrence	93.9	93.4	92.1
Children with one or more recurrences	6.1	6.6	7.9
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	495	547	658

 

 

2. Reduce the Incidence of Child Abuse and/or Neglect in Foster Care
(NCANDS, AFCARS Annual Foster Care Database Jan —Sept)

2.1 Maltreatment in Foster Care (%)	1998	1999	2000
Children maltreated while in foster care	0.0	0.2	0.6
Children not maltreated while in foster care	100.0	99.8	99.4
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	1,808	1,832	1,864

 

 

3. Increase Permanency for Children in Foster Care
(AFCARS Annual Foster Care Database)

3.1 Exits from Foster Care (%)	1998	1999	2000
Adoption	14.4	17.2	14.3
Guardianship	0.8	0.8	2.3
Reunification	57.3	60.4	62.7
Other	15.3	12.3	10.5
Missing data	12.4	9.3	10.1
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	655	722	684

 

 

3.2 Exits of Disabled Children (%)	1998	1999	2000
Adoption	11.1	5.9	18.8
Guardianship	-	-	6.2
Reunification	16.7	35.3	43.8
Other	50.0	41.2	18.8
Missing data	22.2	17.6	12.5
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	18	17	16

 

3.3 Exits of Children Over Age 12 at Entry (%)	1998	1999	2000
Adoption	0.3	-	0.3
Guardianship	0.3	0.5	2.9
Reunification	61.1	67.6	68.2
Other	22.4	17.9	15.5
Missing data	15.9	14.0	13.1
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	370	364	343

 

3.4 Exits to Emancipation (%)	1998	1999	2000
Children age 12 or younger at entry	17.0	28.1	27.7
Children older than 12 at entry	83.0	71.9	72.3
Missing data	-	-	-
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	53	57	65

 

3.5 Exits by Race/Ethnicity (%)	Alaska Native/A.I.			Asian/P.I.			Black			Hispanic
	1998	1999	2000	1998	1999	2000	1998	1999	2000	1998	1999	2000
Adoption	-	-	-	28.6	-	-	16.7	23.5	11.8	-	-	75.0
Guardianship	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5.9	-	-	-
Reunification	-	-	-	71.4	100.0	83.3	50.0	70.6	58.8	100.0	66.7	-
Other	-	-	-	-	-	16.7	33.3	5.9	5.9	-	33.3	-
Missing data	100.0	-	100.0	-	-	-	-	-	17.6	-	-	25.0
Total %	100.0	-	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	1	-	1	7	3	6	6	17	17	3	3	4
	White			Unable to Determine			Two or More Races			Missing Data
	1998	1999	2000	1998	1999	2000	1998	1999	2000	1998	1999	2000
Adoption	14.2	17.3	13.9	25.0	-	66.7	-	-	-	-	-	-
Guardianship	0.8	0.9	2.3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Reunification	57.3	59.6	63.2	25.0	100.0	33.3	-	-	-	-	-	-
Other	15.1	12.6	10.7	50.0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Missing data	12.6	9.7	9.8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total %	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	-	-	-	-	-	-
Number	634	693	653	4	6	3	-	-	-	-	-	-

 

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4. Reduce Time to Reunification Without Increasing Re-entry
(AFCARS Annual Foster Care Database)

4.1 Time to Reunification (%)	1998	1999	2000
Less than 12 mos.	70.4	64.9	66.2
At least 12 mos., but less than 24 mos.	13.1	16.7	18.2
At least 24 mos., but less than 36 mos.	8.3	7.3	6.3
At least 36 mos., but less than 48 mos.	4.3	5.0	2.6
48 or more mos.	4.0	6.0	6.3
Missing data	-	-	0.5
Total (%)	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	375	436	429

 

 

4.2 Children Who Entered Foster Care (%)	1998	1999	2000
Children entering care for the first time	77.1	82.9	73.7
Children re-entering care within 12 mos. of a prior episode	11.7	8.0	14.0
Children re-entering care more than 12 mos. after a prior episode	6.3	9.1	7.7
Missing data	4.9	-	4.6
Total (%)	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	783	750	788

 

 

5. Reduce Time in Foster Care to Adoption
(AFCARS Annual Foster Care Database)

5.1 Time to Adoption (%)	1998	1999	2000
Less than 12 mos.	-	4.8	2.0
At least 12 mos., but less than 24 mos.	13.8	17.7	16.3
At least 24 mos., but less than 36 mos.	24.5	30.6	32.7
At least 36 mos., but less than 48 mos.	31.9	16.1	27.6
48 or more mos.	29.8	30.6	21.4
Missing data	-	-	-
Total (%)	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	94	124	98

 

 

6. Increase Placement Stability
(AFCARS Annual Foster Care Database)

6.1 Number of Placements by Time in Care (%)	Year	Children With 2 or Fewer Placements	Children With 3 or More Placements	Missing Data	Total %	Number
Less than 12 mos.	1998 1999 2000	68.5 70.0 89.1	31.5 30.0 10.9	- - -	100.0 100.0 100.0	829 839 853
At least 12 mos., but <24 mos.	1998 1999 2000	31.8 35.8 80.6	68.2 64.2 19.4	- - -	100.0 100.0 100.0	371 433 402
At least 24 mos., but <36 mos.	1998 1999 2000	25.8 30.3 77.8	74.2 69.7 22.2	- - -	100.0 100.0 100.0	275 297 261
At least 36 mos., but <48 mos.	1998 1999 2000	20.7 27.5 78.3	79.3 72.5 21.7	- - -	100.0 100.0 100.0	184 211 161
48 or more mos.	1998 1999 2000	15.2 13.6 66.9	84.8 86.4 33.1	- - -	100.0 100.0 100.0	309 383 320
Missing data	1998 1999 2000	100.0 100.0 100.0	- - -	- - -	100.0 100.0 100.0	3 4 2

 

 

7. Reduce Placements of Young Children in Group Homes or Institutions
(AFCARS Annual Foster Care Database)

7.1 Most Recent Placement Settings of Children Who Entered Care During the Fiscal Year and Were Age 12 or Younger at the Time of This Placement (%)	1998	1999	2000
Group homes	5.6	9.2	4.0
Institutions	1.5	1.7	0.9
Other settings	92.9	89.1	95.2
Missing data	-	-	-
Total (%)	100.0	100.0	100.0
Number	340	359	352

 

Vermont [ State Comment ]

Don Mandelkorn, Division Director
Social Services Division
Vermont Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services
802-241-2126

The Vermont Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services provides child protective, child welfare and juvenile justice services through a single, integrated system of care. Social workers in twelve district offices, primarily with mixed caseloads, serve families and children in custody for abuse/neglect, behavioral issues, and juvenile delinquency. Over two-thirds of children served in out-of-home care are at least twelve years of age. All of these children are included in the state's AFCARS population. This reality has a significant impact on our data with regard to the following:

• Re-entry within twelve months of discharge - Children can and do exit as abuse/neglected children and re-enter due to behavioral or juvenile justice issues. In other states, these children would enter another system, and therefore not "re-enter" the chi1d welfare system.

• Placement stability - We face particular challenges in promoting placement stability for children who experience many behavioral challenges. Vermont does not rely on locked care for juvenile justice clients. Our sole locked facility has 30 beds.

• Time to reunification - The families of children who enter out-of-home care in Vermont have often had many family services targeted at preventing placement. Children who do enter care, especially at older ages, often need placement and treatment of significant duration.

It is important to note the department investigates all sexual abuse of minors, not just by caretakers. Because of this, about 40% of substantiated child abuse in Vermont is sexual abuse. The number of substantiated victims has been rising over the last few years, following a policy change that created a greater role for the department in protecting children whose parents are abusing substances and children who are otherwise at risk of harm due to parental incapacity or failure to provide age-appropriate supervision. This is included in the neglect category.

Our data also indicate that there are about 200 or so fewer children in custody on 10/1/99 than on 9/30/99. This has occurred in many states, and is an artifact of how AFCARS data was submitted. For this reason, it seems inadvisable for the Children's Bureau to include these data, which look wrong on their face. Why not just show the number of children in care on 10/1 of each year? (We have since corrected this problem for current submissions, but not yet resubmitted corrected files for those time periods.)

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Vermont [ Federal Comment ]

The following discussion focuses on Vermont?s performance with regard to each of the outcomes assessed in the Child Welfare Outcomes Annual Reports to Congress. Information from the State?s Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) Final Report is used to provide a context for interpreting the State?s performance. In using CFSR information to interpret the data, it is important to note that the Vermont CFSR was conducted in 2001 and the national data used for the review to assess performance regarding national standards was from 1999. However, the discussion on State performance relevant to the national standards in the Federal Comment section focuses on data from 2000, as provided in the State Data Pages. In addition, because data reported in the State Data Pages do not address child well-being issues, the last section of this discussion provides information from the CFSR Final Report relevant to the State?s performance in meeting children?s educational and physical and mental health needs.

Outcome 1. Reduce recurrence of child abuse and/or neglect
In calendar year (CY) 2000, the rate of maltreatment recurrence in less than 6 months was 7.9 percent, which does not meet the national standard of 6.1 percent but equals the national median. According to information in the CFSR Final Report, the State believes that the rate of maltreatment recurrence may be attributed to the fact that the State “substantiates” reports based on “risk of harm” and does not require evidence of actual maltreatment for substantiation. However, information from the Final Report also notes that there is a lack of ongoing assessment and monitoring of services to children and families in cases in which children remain in their homes, which may result in maltreatment recurrence.

Outcome 2. Reduce incidence of maltreatment in foster care
In CY 2000, the incidence of maltreatment in foster care was 0.6 percent, which is higher than the national standard of 0.57 percent and the national median of 0.45 percent. Information from the CFSR Final Report suggests that performance on this measure may be attributed in part to a lack of adequate monitoring of foster parent?s compliance with pre-service training requirements.

Outcome 3. Increase permanency for children in foster care
In fiscal year (FY) 2000, 79.3 percent of children exiting foster care were discharged to permanent homes (which is lower than the national median of 84.7 percent), 71.4 percent of children exiting foster care who were older than age 12 at the time of entry into foster care were discharged to permanent homes (which is less than the national median of 72.6 percent), and 27.7 percent of children exiting foster care through emancipation were age 12 or younger at the time of entry (which is higher than the national median of 24.2 percent). (Only 16 of the 684 children who exited foster care in FY 2000 were reported to have a diagnosed disability.) Although these data suggest that the State is not consistently effective in establishing permanency for children, the data must be interpreted with caution because “reason for discharge” information was not provided to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System for 10.1 percent of the children exiting foster care. However, information from the CFSR Final Report suggests that a key barrier to achieving permanency may be the practice of establishing long-term foster care as a permanency goal without a thorough exploration of the alternatives of adoption or guardianship.

Outcome 4. Reduce time to reunification without increasing re-entry
In FY 2000, the percentage of reported reunifications occurring within 12 months of children?s entry into foster care was 66.2, which is lower than both the national standard of 76.2 percent and the national median of 68.0 percent. Information from the CFSR Final Report identifies the following as potential barriers to achieving reunifications in a timely manner: (1) a lack of ongoing assessment of service participation or of the efficacy of services being provided to parents to reduce risk factors, and (2) insufficient contact between caseworkers and parents to monitor progress.

Also in FY 2000, the percentage of children re-entering foster care within 12 months of discharge from a prior foster care episode was 14.0, which is higher than the national standard of 8.6 percent and the national median of 10.3 percent. However, in FY 1999, the percentage of children re-entering foster care within 12 months of discharge from a prior episode was 8.0 percent, which met the national standard. The reason for the increase in foster care re-entries from FY 1999 to FY 2000 is not clear. However, according to information from the CFSR Final Report, the State believes that a large percentage of re-entries into foster care are children who entered care through the Juvenile Services System and not the child protection system.

Outcome 5. Reduce time in foster care to adoption
In FY 2000, the percentage of all finalized adoptions occurring within 24 months of the child?s entry into foster care was 18.3, which is lower than the national standard of 32.0 percent and the national median of 19.7 percent. Information from the CFSR Final Report identifies the following as potential barriers to achieving adoptions in a timely manner: (1) extensive court delays (from 6 to 12 months) in scheduling termination of parental rights (TPR) hearings after the agency has filed the petition, (2) the absence of a Statewide comprehensive recruitment strategy for adoptive families, (3) a reluctance on the part of agency caseworkers to use cross-jurisdictional placement resources, and (4) a lack of adoption planning and recruitment for older children. Information from the CFSR Final Report also notes, however, that the State has recently assigned additional staff to the adoption program area and encouraged foster parents to adopt their foster children.

Outcome 6. Increase placement stability
In FY 2000, the percentage of children who experience no more than 2 placements during their first 12 months in foster care was 89.1, which is higher than the national standard of 86.7 percent and the national median of 84.3 percent. However, the State?s performance on this measure in FY 1999 (70.0 percent) did not meet the national standard and therefore the issue of placement stability was identified as an area needing improvement for the State during the CFSR conducted in 2001. The reason for the improvement in placement stability from FY 1999 to FY 2000 is not clear, although information from the CFSR Final Report notes that the agency is highly supportive of foster care providers in their efforts to parent children with behavioral and emotional problems.

Outcome 7. Reduce placements of young children in group homes and institutions
In FY 2000, the percentage of children age 12 or younger placed in a group home or institution was 4.9, which is lower than the national median of 9.0. A potential reason for the State?s high level of performance on this measure is the infrequent use of shelter care for young children.

Child well-being outcomes
With respect to child well-being, information from the CFSR Final Report indicates that the State is generally effective in meeting children?s educational and physical health needs. However, the State is less consistently effective in meeting children?s mental health needs. Information from the Final Report notes that the key barrier to meeting children?s mental health needs is the lack of sufficient high quality mental health services throughout the State, particularly for children with severe and chronic mental health issues.

 

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