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Part II: Program Description and Performance Analysis
6.1 CHILD WELFARE (con't)>
| 6.1c. | Of the children who exit the foster care system
through reunification, maintain the percentage of children who do
this within one year of placement. Data Source: AFCARS |
|
[D] |
Reunification for this measure includes both discharges to reunification with the parent(s) or to a relative. This is the preferred discharge reason for most children in the foster care system since, whenever possible, children should be raised by their parents or a relative rather than by the state or a non-family member. This measure is based on the idea that if agencies determine that a child can return home or live with a relative, that it should occur swiftly. Specifically, it should happen within one year for over two-thirds (67 percent) of the children who exit through reunification. ACF exceeded this goal by having 68 percent of the children who exited to reunification in FY 2002 do so with one year of placement. As the accompanying graph indicates, the percentage has been increasing since FY 1998 and may now be leveling off. This may be a positive sign since research has shown that the shorter the length of stay for children, the higher the rate of re-entry. This suggests that additional substantial increases in this percentage could result in higher re-entry rates.
| FY 2004-2005 Plan | |
| 6.1d. | Decrease the percentage of children who exit
foster care through emancipation. (New) Data Source: AFCARS |
The percentage of children who exit foster care through emancipation is of grave concern. Emancipation represents the failure in the public child welfare system to find permanent homes for the children in its care. This occurs when the child reaches the age of majority by virtue of age, marriage, or judicial determination and leaves the foster care system. ACF plans to decrease the percentage of children discharged to emancipation of those exiting during the fiscal year from 6.9 percent in FY 2002 to 5 percent in FY 2005. Although an ambitious target, we believe this is possible because of our intense work with the states in the CFS reviews and technical assistance. However, one factor associated with emancipation could possibly distort findings related to this measure. We believe that many of the children emancipated in some states may be children in care because of juvenile justice reasons. In general, their experiences in care and approach to exit may differ substantially from those of other children. Unfortunately, the AFCARS cannot distinguish between those in care for primarily juvenile justice reasons from those in care for more traditional child protection reasons. If the juvenile justice population substantially increases, it is likely that the emancipation percentage will also increase.
| LONG-TERM STRATEGIC GOAL: Three hundred and twenty-seven thousand (327,000) children will be adopted with public child welfare involvement between FY 2003 and FY 2008. Rationale: A total of 268,000 children have been adopted in the five-year period of FY 1997 - FY 2002. Significant proportions of these adoptions were children who had been in the system for a long time and who represented a backlog of cases. With improved case-practice under the reforms implemented by the Adoption and Safe Families Act, large backlogs of adoption cases needing to be finalized should be eliminated. Setting a new target of 327,000 children being adopted between FY 2003 and FY 2008 would represent a substantial increase especially considering the downward trend in the number of children in foster care. Whereas the current national adoption rate for FY 2002 was 9 percent, this long-term strategic goal will require a national adoption rate of 12, a 33 percent increase. (The adoption rate is defined as the number of adoptions divided by the number of children in care on the last day of the prior fiscal year multiplied by 100 percent.). This ambitious target would result in an average annual increase of approximately 10,000 children over the previous time period. The first report on this long-term strategic goal will be provided in the FY 2004 report and will include the total of adoptions in FY 2003. Subsequent reports will include the cumulative total number of adoptions between FY 2003 to the year prior to the report year. |
|
[D] |
As mentioned above, much of the recent child welfare legislation has emphasized the permanency goal for adoption when a child cannot return home or live with a relative. As the accompanying graph indicates, the total annual number of adoptions of children with involvement of the public child welfare system has increased dramatically since FY 1995. ACF set 54,000 as an adoption target for FY 2005, a projected 11% adoption rate, compared with the 9% adoption rate for FY 2002. Because this is an ambitious target, ACF is undertaking a number if activities which should help achieve this result. First, the Administration submitted a proposal to Congress to re-authorize and revise the Adoption Incentive Program, which has passed and become law. The new requirements in place will continue to reward states for increasing their number of adoptions and will provide an additional incentive for the adoption of older children, a growing segment of the population of children waiting to be adopted. In addition, ACF’s adoptive parents' recruitment initiative AdoptUSKids and ACF’s partnership with the Ad Council in recruitment efforts should increase the pool of adoptive parent resources for waiting children.
PROGRAM GOAL - FAMILY AND CHILD WELL-BEING: Minimize the disruption to the continuity of family and other relationships.
| 6.1f. | For those children who have been
in care less than 12 months, increase the percentage who had no more
than two placement settings. Data Source: AFCARS |
|
[D] |
Children who have been maltreated, removed from their homes, and placed in the foster care system are frequently traumatized by the experience. This trauma can be aggravated further when a child is moved from placement setting to placement setting while in care. It is, therefore, in the best interest of the children’s well being while in care to keep their number of placement settings to a minimum. ACF expects that no less than 80 percent (the 2002 actual is 81 percent) of the children experience no more than two placement settings during their first year in care. The data from this measure have been revised significantly due to the extensive re-submission of data, the maturing of SACWIS systems in the states and a revision the programming for the measure. We can now clearly see that it is possible and, certainly desirable, to have four out of five children experience no more than two placement settings during this timeframe.
PROGRAM GOAL - PREPARE FOSTER CARE YOUTH FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING: Enhance the education, employment, and other skills of foster care youth to avoid dependency; and expand opportunities for youth to achieve self-sufficiency while under the auspices of the public child welfare agency.
In FY 2000, Congress passed legislation authorizing a substantial increase in funds for independent living services for foster care youth under title IV-E of the Social Security Act. These services prepare them for independent living by enhancing their education, employment, and other skills to avoid dependency and by expanding opportunities for youth to live independently while under the auspices of the public child welfare agency. This legislation requires developing and implementing outcome measures and a data collection system for this program.
In FY 2004, ACF will finalize the outcomes to be tracked, data collection strategy, and the data elements to be collected. It is expected that we will have baseline data for the specific outcomes for FY 2004 and FY 2005.
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