Home > Child Welfare Monitoring > Results of the 2001 and 2002 Child and Family Services Reviews > General Findings From the Federal Child and Family Services Review > Introduction

General Findings From the Federal Child and Family Services Review

Introduction

The Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) is a results-oriented, comprehensive monitoring review system designed to assist States in improving outcomes for children and families who come into contact with the nation’s public child welfare systems. It was developed and implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services (the Department) in response to the mandate of the Social Security Amendments of 1994 to promulgate regulations for reviews of States’ child and family services.

The CFSR process incorporates three key phases. In the first phase, each State engages in a comprehensive self-assessment of its child welfare system (including an assessment of State data provided by Federal data systems) and submits the findings (in a Statewide Assessment Report) to the Department for review. In the second phase, the Department conducts an extensive onsite assessment of each State involving three sites within the State as well as the State child welfare agency. This assessment incorporates reviews of child welfare foster care and in-home services cases and interviews or focus groups with parents, children (when appropriate), foster and adoptive parents, private service providers, child welfare agency caseworkers and supervisors, State and local child welfare agency administrators, and a range of other stakeholders at local and State levels. In the third phase, the State develops a program improvement plan (PIP) to address areas identified as needing improvement as a result of the State’s self-assessment and of the findings of the onsite review. The Department provides extensive technical assistance in developing and implementing each State’s PIP and monitors progress on an ongoing basis over the 2-year PIP implementation period.

As of April 2004, every State in the nation (including Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia) had participated in the first two phases of the CFSR. The States included in each year’s CFSR are presented in the table below. Currently, all States are actively engaged in the third phase—i.e., developing and/or implementing a PIP to enhance outcomes pertaining to children’s safety, permanency, and well-being. As of July 2004, the Department had approved 37 PIPs and States were in various stages of developing PIPs, with many nearing completion. Three States completed the 2-year PIP implementation process. Because the CFSR process is designed to promote continuous quality improvement, when PIP implementation is completed, the CFSR assessment phases begin anew.

States Participating in Child and Family Service Reviews in Fiscal Years 2001-2004

FY 2001 (N = 17)	FY 2002 (N = 15)	FY 2003 (N = 13)	FY 2004 (N = 7)
Arizona	Alabama	Hawaii	Maryland
Arkansas	Alaska	Iowa	Mississippi
Delaware	California	Idaho	Missouri
District of Columbia	Colorado	Illinois	Nevada
Florida	Connecticut	Kentucky	New Jersey
Georgia	Michigan	Louisiana	Rhode Island
Indiana	Montana	Maine	Washington
Kansas	Nebraska	New Hampshire	blank cell
Massachusetts	Ohio	Puerto Rico	blank cell
Minnesota	Oklahoma	South Carolina	blank cell
New Mexico	Pennsylvania	Utah	blank cell
New York	Tennessee	Virginia	blank cell
North Carolina	Texas	Wisconsin	blank cell
North Dakota	West Virginia	blank cell	blank cell
Oregon	Wyoming	blank cell	blank cell
South Dakota	blank cell	blank cell	blank cell
Vermont	blank cell	blank cell	blank cell

The Department analyzes information from the first two phases of the CFSR process to determine whether a State is in substantial conformity with seven outcomes and seven systemic factors. Substantial conformity means that the State has met Federal criteria established for an outcome or systemic factor. The seven outcomes assessed in the CFSR pertain to children’s safety, permanency, and well-being and incorporate 23 indicators or "items." The seven outcomes are the following:

• Safety Outcome 1 – Children are first and foremost protected from abuse and neglect
• Safety Outcome 2 – Children are safely maintained in their homes when possible
• Permanency Outcome 1 – Children have permanency and stability in their living situations
• Permanency Outcome 2 – The continuity of family relationships and connections is preserved
• Well Being Outcome 1 – Families have enhanced capacity to provide for children’s needs
• Well Being Outcome 2 – Children receive services to meet their educational needs
• Well Being Outcome 3 – Children receive services to meet their physical and mental health needs

The systemic factors assessed through the CFSR address aspects of State child welfare agency operations that are relevant to achieving the desired outcomes for children and families. The systemic factors pertain to the following: (1) the Statewide information system; (2) the case review system; (3) training for child welfare staff, foster parents, and adoptive parents; (4) the quality assurance system; (5) the service array; (6) the responsiveness of the agency to the community; and (7) the licensing, recruitment, and retention of foster and adoptive parents.

This report presents key findings of the analyses of State performance on the seven outcomes and systemic factors. The primary purposes of the report are (1) to provide a national picture of child welfare performance with respect to achieving the outcomes assessed through the CFSR; and (2) to enhance an understanding of the practices and procedures that are related to achieving these outcomes.

Analyses were conducted at both the State and case levels. The State-level analyses examine performance on the various outcomes and indicators across States and as a function of characteristics of a State’s case sample. The State-level analyses also provide information regarding State performance on the systemic factors and variations in case ratings as a function of performance on systemic factors. The case-level analyses provide a description of the children in the CFSR cases and examine relationships between demographic characteristics and outcome achievement. The case-level analyses also examine factors associated with strengths or areas needing improvement with respect to achieving desired outcomes.

For some of the analyses, information relevant to States reviewed during the first year of the CFSR implementation (FY 2001) is excluded because it is not comparable to information from States reviewed in subsequent years (FY 2002-2004). This is due to several changes made to the CFSR review process based on lessons learned during the first implementation year. A key difference is that beginning with the FY 2002 reviews, a centralized data base was developed for entering case review and stakeholder interview information. In addition, the case review and stakeholder interview instruments were revised to permit collection of specific types of information. Consequently, there is much information about cases in the FY 2002 through FY 2004 States that is not available on the cases reviewed in the FY 2001 States. Throughout the report, the exclusion of information from FY 2001 States in an analysis is noted where relevant, and differences in findings that may be attributed to changes in the CFSR process are identified.

Return to Table of Contents