 |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|
||||
| ACF Home | Services | Working with ACF | Policy/Planning | About ACF | ACF News | HHS Home | |||||
Questions?
|
Privacy
|
Site Index
|
Contact Us
|
Download Reader™
|
Print
|
|---|
Introduction
Child Welfare Outcomes 2002: Annual Report to Congress (Report to Congress) is the fifth in a series of annual reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the Department).1 The Report to Congress is prepared in accordance with section 479A of the Social Security Act (as amended by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997). The specifications of section 479A are presented in Appendix A.
The Report to Congress provides information pertaining to the performance of States on the following seven national child welfare outcomes:2- Outcome 1—Reduce recurrence of child abuse and/or neglect.
- Outcome 2—Reduce the incidence of child abuse and/or neglect in foster care.
- Outcome 3—Increase permanency for children in foster care.
- Outcome 4—Reduce time in foster care to reunification without increasing re-entry.
- Outcome 5—Reduce time in foster care to adoption.
- Outcome 6—Increase placement stability.
- Outcome 7—Reduce placements of young children in group homes or institutions.
The Department established these national outcomes in consultation with State and local child welfare agency administrators, child advocacy organizations, child welfare researchers, and other experts in the child welfare field. The outcomes reflect widely accepted performance objectives for child welfare practice and adherence to a set of guiding principles (presented in Appendix B). The measures developed to assess attainment of each outcome are provided in Appendix C.
To enhance interpretation of State performance on the seven outcomes, the Report to Congress provides information on select context variables relevant to each State’s child welfare system. These context variables are the following:
- A State’s child population statistics with regard to the number and race/ethnicity of children.
- The number and characteristics (age, race/ethnicity, and type of maltreatment) of child maltreatment victims (defined as children who are the subject of a substantiated or indicated maltreatment allegation).3
- The number and characteristics (age and race/ethnicity) of children in foster care at the start and end of the fiscal year and of children who entered and exited foster care during the fiscal year.
- The median length of stay of children in foster care.
- The number and characteristics of children “waiting for adoption” (defined as children who are legally free for adoption and/or for whom a goal of adoption was established but an adoption was not finalized by the end of the fiscal year). Children 16 years of age and older who have a goal of emancipation and whose parents have had their parental rights terminated are excluded.
- The number and characteristics (age and race/ethnicity) of children for whom an adoption was finalized during the fiscal year.
With the exception of the child population statistics, which are obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, the data presented in the Report to Congress come from two Federal national reporting systems—the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). Through NCANDS, the Department collects and analyzes data pertaining to children who come into contact with public child protective services as alleged victims of child abuse or neglect. The highlights of findings from the most recent Department report based on NCANDS data—Child Maltreatment 2002—are presented in Appendix D . Through AFCARS, the Department collects and analyzes data and generates reports on children who are served by State and local foster care systems.4 The annual AFCARS report for fiscal year 2002 is presented in Appendix E. The specific NCANDS and AFCARS data element used to calculate each outcome measure are provided in Appendix F . Data for NCANDS are reported for a calendar year while AFCARS data are reported for a fiscal year (FY). Fiscal year data are specifically identified as FY.
Child Welfare Outcomes 2002: Annual Report to Congress is organized as follows:
- Chapter I. Achieving Positive Outcomes for Children and Families. This chapter describes the outcomes and measures that the Department has developed to assess State performance with regard to achieving positive outcomes for children and families.
- Chapter II. Achieving Safety-Related Outcomes. This chapter presents the findings pertaining to (1) State performance on the Report to Congress safety outcomes, and (2) the relationships between child welfare agency context variables and State performance on safety outcomes.
- Chapter III. Achieving Permanency-Related Outcomes for Children in Foster Care. This chapter provides key findings regarding (1) State performance on the Report to Congress permanency outcomes, and (2) the relationships between context variables and State performance on permanency outcomes.
- Chapter IV. Achieving Outcomes Related to Placement Stability and Age-Appropriate Placements for Children in Foster Care. This chapter reports the findings pertaining to (1) State performance in achieving placement stability and age-appropriate placements for children in foster care, and (2) the relationships between child welfare agency context variables and State performance on these outcomes.
- Chapter V. Summary: State Performance on the Seven National Child Welfare Outcomes. This chapter provides an overall discussion of the key findings of the cross-State analyses and the implication of the findings for understanding State performance. The discussion incorporates relevant information from the findings of the Department’s Child and Family Services Review.
- Chapter VI. State Data Pages. This chapter presents the data pages for each State and includes the State's comments on the data (if provided), as well as a Federal Comment section providing an analysis of each State's performance.5
1 Throughout this report, references will be made to the Department (meaning the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). The unit of the Department that produces this report, and that has primary responsibility for the report and all of the work described here, is the Children's Bureau with the Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Back
2 In the Outcomes Reports, the designation of "State" includes the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Therefore, up to 52 "States" may be noted as having reported data for individual outcome measures. Back
3 The FY 2000 and FY 2001 data are used for CFSR's occurring in FY 2002 and FY 2003, respectively. There is a time lag between the data provided in the State data pages and the CFSR. For example, the data presented in this Outcomes Report pertain to the years 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. However, the CFSR final reports cover reviews completed in either FY 2001, 2002, or 2003. This time lag is the result of the time required for State data submission/resubmission's and Federal analyses. Back
4 With each new Outcomes Report, CFSR Final Report information will be incorporated into the Federal Comment page for States that participate in a CFSR during the year that the Outcomes Report is prepared. For States that did not participate in a review during that year, the Federal Comment page will focus primarily on changes in performance on the national outcomes over time. Back
5 Prior to publication of the Report to Congress, the Department disseminates each State’s data pages to the State child welfare agency director and
data managers for their review and comment. If the State agency director or data manager believes that the data presented reflect reporting errors rather than actual performance, the State may resubmit data. A State also may provide a formal commentary to clarify various aspects of its data. If a State child welfare agency director chooses to comment on the State's data, these comments are included with that State's data pages. Back
