States report information from two reporting populations: (1) The Served Population which is information on all youth receiving at least one independent living services paid or provided by the Chafee Program agency, and (2) Youth completing the NYTD Survey. States survey youth regarding six outcomes: financial self-sufficiency, experience with homelessness, educational attainment, positive connections with adults, high-risk behaviors, and access to health insurance. States collect outcomes information by conducting a survey of youth in foster care on or around their 17th birthday, also referred to as the baseline population. States will track these youth as they age and conduct a new outcome survey on or around the youth's 19th birthday; and again on or around the youth's 21st birthday, also referred to as the follow-up population. States will collect outcomes information on these older youth at ages 19 or 21 regardless of their foster care status or whether they are still receiving independent living services from the State. Depending on the size of the State's foster care youth population, some States may conduct a random sample of the baseline population of the 17-year-olds that participate in the outcomes survey so that they can follow a smaller group of youth as they age. All States will collect and report outcome information on a new baseline population cohort every three years.

Units of Response: Current and former youth in foster care

Type of Data: Administrative

Tribal Data: No

Periodicity: Annual

Demographic Indicators: Ethnicity;Race;Sex

SORN: Not Applicable

Data Use Agreement: https://www.ndacan.acf.hhs.gov/datasets/request-dataset.cfm

Data Use Agreement Location: https://www.ndacan.acf.hhs.gov/datasets/order_forms/termsofuseagreement.pdf

Granularity: Individual

Spatial: United States

Geocoding: FIPS Code

The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) is a federally mandated data collection system intended to provide case specific information on all children covered by the protections of Title IV-B/E of the Social Security Act (Section 427). Under the Final 1993 AFCARS’ rule, states are required to collect and submit data on all children who are under the responsiblity of the title IV-B/IV-E agency for placement, care, or supervision. Units of Response: Children in Foster Care Type of Data: Administrative Tribal Data: Unavailable Periodicity: Semiannual Demographic Indicators: Disability;Geographic Areas;Sex SORN: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/12/14/2016-29366/adoption-and-foster-care-analysis-and-reporting-system Data Use Agreement: https://www.ndacan.acf.hhs.gov/datasets/order_forms/termsofuseagreement.pdf Data Use Agreement Location: https://www.ndacan.acf.hhs.gov/datasets/order_forms/termsofuseagreement.pdf Granularity: Individual Spatial: United States Geocoding: FIPS Code

Reduce the foster care entry rate from 6.3 per 1,000 in 2013 to 4.9 per 1,000 by 2019 by increasing the number of children who remain safely in their own homes.

This survey provides nationally representative estimates on the characteristics, living arrangements, and service accessibility of noninstitutionalized children who were living apart from their parents (in foster care, grandparent care or other nonparental care) and who were aged 0 to 16 years in 2011-2012. Data on the well-being of the children and of their caregivers are also available. The children’s nonparental care status was identified in a previous SLAITS survey, the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children’s Health.

Units of Response: Caregiver

Type of Data: Survey

Tribal Data: No

Periodicity: One-time

Demographic Indicators: Disability;Ethnicity;Household Income;Household Size;Housing Status;Race;Sex

SORN: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/09/19/2022-20139/privacy-act-of-1974-system-of-records

Data Use Agreement: No

Data Use Agreement Location: Unavailable

Granularity: Household

Spatial: United States

Geocoding: Unavailable

The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (the Chafee program) provides funding to support youth/ young adults in or formerly in foster care in their transition to adulthood. The program is funded through formula grants awarded to child welfare agencies in States (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and participating Tribes. The program is funded at $143 million a year.

Chafee funds are used to assist youth/ young adults in a wide variety of areas designed to support a successful transition to adulthood. Activities and programs include, but are not limited to, help with education, employment, financial management, housing, emotional support and assured connections to caring adults. Specific services and supports are determined by the child welfare agency, vary by State, locality and agency, and are often based on the individual needs of the young person. Many State or local agencies contract with private organizations to deliver services to young people.

Eligibility for the program, as outlined in federal law, includes:

States and Tribes may have additional requirements for eligibility. State and Tribal agencies may elect to serve young adults up to age 23 only if the agencies also offers foster care to young people up to age 21. The following states have opted to provide Chafee services to young people up to age 23: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The Chafee program has an additional appropriation of approximately $43 million annually for the Educational and Training Vouchers (ETV) Program. The ETV program provides financial resources to meet the post-secondary education and training needs of young adults who have experienced foster care after age 14. The program provides formula grants to States and participating Tribes to help young people pay for post-secondary educational and training. Under federal program requirements, agencies may award a voucher of up to $5,000 per year per young person to cover the unmet needs of the student’s cost of attendance at a post-secondary institution. The program can provide assistance to young people up to age 26, but an individual may receive a voucher for no more than a total of 5 years.

States receiving Chafee funding are required to submit data to the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD). NYTD data are used to learn more about services provided to and outcomes experienced by youth transitioning out of foster care. For more information on NYTD, visit the Children's Bureau NYTD webpage.

If you or someone you know may be eligible for Chafee services and/or the ETV program, please contact your local child welfare agency or state program manager.

Metadata-only record linking to the original dataset. Open original dataset below.

Content

The purpose of this data set is to provide information on the total number of admissions, discharges, and children in foster care, the type of care, and total Child Protective Services (CPS) reports indicated during period.

Context

This is a dataset hosted by the State of New York. The state has an open data platform found here and they update their information according the amount of data that is brought in. Explore New York State using Kaggle and all of the data sources available through the State of New York organization page!

• Update Frequency: This dataset is updated annually.

Acknowledgements

This dataset is maintained using Socrata's API and Kaggle's API. Socrata has assisted countless organizations with hosting their open data and has been an integral part of the process of bringing more data to the public.

Cover photo by Aaron Huber on Unsplash
Unsplash Images are distributed under a unique Unsplash License.

Users can view maps and tables related to child welfare policies in the United States. Background The State Child Welfare Policy Database contains a variety of information related to child welfare policies in each state. Data topics are grouped under three categories: child welfare financing; kinship care policies; older youth in foster care. Child welfare financing provides data on topics such as total expenditures, TANF, Title IV, and medicaid. Kinship care policies includes information on locating kin, guardianship policies, foster care and private kin arrangement s. Older youth in foster care includes information on foster care age limits, placements for older youth, and state-funded independent living transition services. User FunctionalityUsers can search by topic or by state. Data is presented in either a table (for state specific information) or by map (for data topic information). Data is available on a state level. Data tables are available for download in Excel format. Data Notes The data source is clearly labeled, and a link to the data source or to the state's welfare website is provided.

The purpose of the National Survey of Current and Former Foster Parents was to collect and analyze data from a nationally representative sample of current and former foster parents that would provide direction for future policy development. This study used a multistage stratified design where probability sampling was employed at each stage of the design. A mail/telephone survey was conducted of current and former foster parents in 16 counties in nine states. Based on lists provided by the counties, 1,572 current foster parents and 362 former foster parents received a questionnaire in the mail. Follow up post cards and telephone calls were made. The survey was designed to identify foster parent characteristics, the types of children for whom they provided care, the types of children they would be willing to care for in the future, and their interactions with the child welfare system. An overall response rate of 71% was achieved.

Investigators: Cook, Ronna

Child Welfare Policies and Demographic Characteristics: A Compilation of State-Level Data is a suite of datasets gathered from various sources. All datasets in this suite contain information about states. It is intended to be a resource for researchers doing policy studies in the areas of foster care, adoption, and child abuse, and is intended as a supplement to the AFCARS and NCANDS datasets. It consists of five studies, their data, and final reports (if any).The common thread linking this suite of datasets is that the level of analysis is always states. This information can be used to group or classify states in some domain, coupled with using the AFCARS or NCANDS data to explore how states or groups of states compare. The intention is that this process will increase the value of AFCARS and NCANDS for analyzing the effects of policy differences across states. Most of the data were gleaned from reports published by academic or public interest organizations, such as The Urban Institute, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, or the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Each of these reports is available at the organization's web site, and is included in the files that accompany this User Guide in PDF format. The value of this compilation is in providing the data in a form that is readily readable by statistical programs such as SAS, SPSS, and Stata, and in compiling in one place the descriptions of the variables and values contained in the reports. Other data in this suite were collected from the United States Bureau of the Census and Wikipedia, a web-based encyclopedia. Investigators: Hansen, Mary & Dineen, Michael

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Children’s Bureau (CB) is responsible for the implementation and management of the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). State and Tribal title IV-E agencies are required to report AFCARS case-level information on all children in foster care and children who have been adopted with title IV-E agency involvement (per §479 of the Social Security Act). The regulations

were updated via the final rule published in May 2020.

AFCARS was established to provide data that would assist in policy development and program management. Data can be used by policymakers at the federal, Tribal, and state levels to assess how many children are in foster care, reasons why they enter, how they exit, and to develop strategies to prevent their unnecessary placement into foster care. Specifically, the data include information about children who enter foster care, their entries and exits, placement details, and foster/adoptive parent information, which makes it possible to identify trends.

The data enables the Children’s Bureau to administer the federal title IV-E foster care and adoption assistance programs more effectively. The Children’s Bureau and ACF use these data for several purposes, including:

Additionally, the AFCARS data are used specifically in the:

The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) collects case-level information on all children in foster care and those who have been adopted with title IV-E agency involvement.

Metadata-only record linking to the original dataset. Open original dataset below.

ACF Children Bureau resource

Metadata-only record linking to the original dataset. Open original dataset below.

The 1994 Amendments to the Social Security Act (the Act) authorize the Children's Bureau to review state child and family services programs to ensure compliance with the requirements in titles IV-B and IV-E of the Act. This includes systematic monitoring of the Title IV-E Foster Care Program, which provides funds to title IV-E agencies (states and Tribes) to assist with the costs of foster care maintenance for eligible children; administrative expenses to manage the program; and training for staff, foster parents, and certain private agency staff. Title IV-E foster care funds are awarded to the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and federally-recognized Indian Tribes, Indian Tribal organizations and Tribal consortia with approved title IV-E plans, and are available as open-ended entitlement grants through single-year appropriations. The program’s focus, which is articulated in statute, is children eligible under the pre-welfare reform Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and removed from their homes due to maltreatment, lack of care, lack of supervision, or other problems attributed to a relative caregiver. Specifically, the program permits title IV-E agencies to claim reimbursement for a portion of foster care expenditures for children who are removed from home and placed in foster care, and who are eligible based on the former AFDC program (in effect July 16, 1996). In 2000, HHS published a final rule in the Federal Register to establish a new approach to monitoring state title IV-E agencies. The Children’s Bureau conducts title IV-E foster care eligibility reviews (IV-E reviews) in accordance with 45 CFR §1356.71 to monitor the title IV-E agency’s substantial compliance with certain requirements of title IV-E at §472(a) of the Act and implementing federal regulations at 45 CFR Parts 1355 and 1356 pertaining to: The IV-E reviews are conducted by a team of federal and title IV-E agency representatives. The review team examines a random sample of foster care cases, provider files and payment documentation on children for whom the title IV-E agency claims reimbursement of title IV-E foster care maintenance payments. The IV-E reviews periodically monitor the title IV-E agency’s compliance in meeting title IV-E eligibility requirements; validate the accuracy of the agency’s claims for reimbursement of title IV-E payments made on behalf of children in foster care, and identify and recover improper payments. The IV-E reviews, through a systematic evaluation of case record and payment documentation, provide a snapshot of decisions about the child’s foster care episode and, thus, the agency’s child welfare practice and fiscal accountability. As such, the IV-E reviews help to ensure fiscal accountability, improve child welfare practice and support the goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being. During the on-site review, the review team examines child case records, including placement and payment histories, court orders, provider licensing and safety documentation, and other relevant case materials. The review team completes a Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility On-Site Review Instrument and Instructions for each case in the review sample in which at least one IV-E foster care maintenance payment was made for a period during the 6-month period under review. The review is conducted on site during a 5-day period. Title IV-E agencies undergo a primary review and, when necessary, a secondary review. In a primary review, a sample of 80 foster care cases is examined. A finding of four or fewer error cases allows a title IV-E agency to be found in substantial compliance with the eligibility requirements. Title IV-E agencies determined in substantial compliance based on the primary review are reviewed at 3-year intervals. If five or more cases in the primary review do not meet federal requirements, the title IV-E agency is determined not in substantial compliance. Title IV-E agencies determined no

This Program Instruction (PI) provides information regarding Adoption Assistance Agreements entered into, on or after October 1, 1983 in which the interests of the child must be adequately protected, regardless of the State of residence of the adoptive parents at any given time.

Metadata-only record linking to the original dataset. Open original dataset below.

This reviewer brief provides instructions on how to calculate, for the purposes of the CFSR, the “15 out of the 22 most recent months” provision for determining whether to file a termination of parental rights (TPR) for children in foster care. The TPR requirement, as outlined in the Social Security Act at § 475(5)(E), requires states to make timely decisions regarding permanency for children in foster care by having states and applicable tribes file a TPR petition when a child has been in foster care for at least 15 of the most recent 22 months and an exception or a compelling reason does not apply.

Metadata-only record linking to the original dataset. Open original dataset below.

This counts placement types, not unique children in substitute care. Children will be duplicated by moving from foster care to other substitute care or by relative to non-relative placements. For example, a child who spent a portion of the year with a relative, but the rest with a non-relative would be counted twice. Children in DFPS custody are those for whom a court has appointed DFPS legal responsibility through temporary or permanent managing conservatorship or other court ordered legal basis. These children may be residing in substitute care or may be living with a parent, referred to as a return and monitor. DFPS legal responsibility terminates when a court orders DFPS custody ended or a youth turns 18, whichever comes first. Substitute care - all children who are living in a DFPS out of home placement. It does not include children in DFPS custody who are living with a parent on a return and monitor. Unless otherwise noted, it does include youth over 18 who are in extended foster care but are not in DFPS custody. Kinship care- a subset of substitute care that includes all children in DFPS custody who are living with a legal or blood relative or other individual who has a significant relationship with the child or the child's family known as "fictive kin." Foster care - a subset of substitute care that includes all children living in a placement that has been verified to provide 24-hour residential care for a child, in accordance with Chapter 42 of the Human Resources Code and related regulations. These placements include foster homes, including kinship care where the caregiver has been verified, general residential operations (GRO), emergency shelters, residential treatment centers (RTC), and juvenile facilities. Paid foster care - a subset of foster care where DFPS is making foster care payments. Visit dfps.state.tx.us for information on substitute care placements and all DFPS programs.

Healthy Families New York (HFNY), which was based on the Healthy Families America (HFA) model, was established as a strengths-based, intensive home visitation program with the explicit goals of promoting positive parenting skills and parent-child interaction; preventing child abuse and neglect; supporting optimal prenatal care, and child health and development; and improving parent's self-sufficiency.In 2000, a randomized controlled trial was initiated at three sites with the HFNY home visiting program. Families eligible for HFNY at each site were randomly assigned to either an intervention group that was offered HFNY services or to a control group that was given information on and referral to appropriate services other than home visiting. Baseline interviews were conducted with 1,173 of the eligible women (intervention, n=579; control, n=594), and follow up interviews at Years 1, 2, and 3. In addition to data gathered during the follow up interviews, information regarding study participants' involvement in reports of child maltreatment was also extracted and coded from Child Protection Services records.For the current study, mothers in both the intervention and control groups were re-interviewed at the time of the target child's seventh birthday. Interviews (Dataset 1: Mother Interview Data, n=942) included information about parenting, the child, earnings, and household composition. Interviewers also completed face-to-face assessments (Dataset 2: Target Child Interview Data) with 800 of the children who were born and reached the age of 7 at the time of interview. The target child interviews assessed children's receptive vocabulary skills, emotional health, self-regulatory abilities, and problem behaviors. The research team also extracted or obtained administrative data pertaining to Child Protective Service reports, foster care placements, federal and state supported benefits, and programs services and costs (Datasets 3-8).

History The 1994 Amendments to the Social Security Act (SSA) authorize the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to review State child and family service programs to ensure conformance with the requirements in titles IV-B and IV-E of the SSA. Traditionally, reviews have focused primarily on assessing State agencies' compliance with procedural requirements, as evidenced by case file documentation, rather than on the results of services and States' capacity to create positive outcomes for children and families. In addition, reviews have not provided States with opportunities for making improvements before penalties have been imposed. On January 25, 2000, the DHHS published a final rule in the Federal Register to establish a new approach to monitoring State child welfare programs. Under the rule, which became effective March 25, 2000, States will be assessed for substantial conformity with certain Federal requirements for child protective, foster care, adoption, family preservation and family support, and independent living services. The Children's Bureau, part of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within DHHS, is administering the review system. The system comprises two review components: (1) child and family services reviews and (2) title IV-E foster care eligibility reviews. Purpose The child and family services reviews are an important tool that will enable the Children's Bureau to accomplish the following: (1) ensure conformity with Federal child welfare requirements; (2) determine what is actually happening to children and families as they are engaged in child welfare services; and (3) assist States to enhance their capacity to help children and families achieve positive outcomes. Ultimately, the goal of the reviews is to help States to improve child welfare services and achieve the following outcomes for families and children who receive services: Safety Permanency Family and Child Well-Being The Federal Government will conduct the reviews in partnership with State child welfare agency staff; peer consultants will supplement the Federal review team. The reviews are structured to help States identify strengths and areas for improvement within their agencies and programs. The Review Process Each child and family services review is a two-stage process that comprises a Statewide Assessment and an onsite review of child and family service outcomes and program systems. For the Statewide Assessment, the Children's Bureau prepares and transmits to the State the data profiles that contain aggregate data on the State's foster care and inhome service populations. The data profiles allow each State to compare certain safety and permanency data indicators with national standards determined by the Children's Bureau. After the Statewide Assessment, an onsite review of the State child welfare program is conducted by a joint Federal-State team. The onsite portion of the review includes the following: (1) case record reviews; (2) interviews with children and families engaged in services; and (3) interviews with community stakeholders, such as the courts and community agencies, foster families, and caseworkers and service providers. At the end of the onsite review, States determined not to have achieved substantial conformity in all the areas assessed will be required to develop and implement Program Improvement Plans addressing the areas of nonconformity. The Children's Bureau will support the States with technical assistance and monitor implementation of their plans. States that do not achieve their required improvements successfully will sustain penalties as prescribed in the Federal regulations. Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Reviews The regulatory reviews of the foster care program focus on whether a child meets title IV-E eligibility requirements for foster care maintenance payments. Just as in the child and family services reviews, the review team comprises Federal and State representa

This dataset was compiled by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) at the request of the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet. This data contains the population of youth ages 13-26 in each county, the total population of each county, and the number and rate of index crimes reported, with domestic violence offenses and rates reported separately for every year between 2006 and 2015.

For the purpose of this analysis the crime data was gathered from the Illinois State Police Annual report Crime in Illinois. This publication is produced by the Illinois State Police every year using the UCR data that is submitted to them by individual jurisdictions throughout the state. The accuracy of this data presented is dependent on the local jurisdictions reporting their index crime and domestic violence offenses to ISP, so it can be included in the annual report.

Therefore, if there is large decrease in number of index crimes reported in the dataset it is likely that one or more jurisdictions did not report data for that year to ISP. If there is a large increase from year to year within a county it is likely that a jurisdiction within the county, who previously had not reported crime data, did report crime data for that year. If there is no reported crime in a certain year that means no jurisdictions, or a small jurisdiction with no crime from that county reported data to the Illinois State Police. The annual Crime in Illinois reports can be found on the ISP website www.isp.state.il.us.

A direct link to that annual reports is: http://www.isp.state.il.us/crime/ucrhome.cfm#anlrpts.

The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority did not record the data that is expressed in the dataset. ICJIA simply used the ISP reports to compile that yearly crime data into one chart that could be provided to the Illinois Governor’s Children’s Cabinet. This data set has be critically examined to be accurate according to the annual Crime in Illinois Reports. If there are issues with the data set provided please contact the Illinois State Police or the individual jurisdictions within a specific county.

**Index offenses do not include every crime event that occurs. Prior to 2014 there were 8 index crimes reported by the Illinois State Police in their annual reports, Criminal Homicide, Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Battery/Aggravated Assault, Burglary, Theft, Motor Vehicle Theft, and Arson. In 2014 there were two new offenses added to the list of index crimes these were Human Trafficking – Commercial Sex Acts and Human Trafficking – Involuntary Servitude. These are the index crimes that are recorded in the chart provided.

**“Domestic offenses are defined as offenses committed between family or household members. Family or household members include spouses; former spouses; parents; children; foster parents; foster children; legal guardians and their wards; stepchildren; other persons related by blood (aunt, uncle, cousin) or by present or previous marriage (in-laws); persons who share, or formerly shared, a common dwelling; persons who have, or allegedly have, a child in common; persons who share, or allegedly share, a blood relationship through a child; persons who have, or have had, a dating or engagement relationship; and persons with disabilities, their personal care assistants, or care givers outside the context of an employee of a public or private care facility. Every offense that occurs, when a domestic relationship exists between the victim and offender, must be reported (Illinois State Police).”

**“Offenses reported are not limited to domestic battery and violations of orders of protection; offenses most commonly associated with domestic violence (Illinois State Police).”

The crime rate was compiled using the total population, and the index crime. The Index crime whether all crime or Domestic Violence crime was divided by the total population then multiplied by 10,000, hence crime rate per 10,000.

The sources of data are the Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting Program and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The source of the description is the Illinois State Police and their Reporting guidelines and forms.

Title IV-E agencies—as of FFY 2015—are required to calculate and report annually their adoption savings, the methodology used to calculate the savings, how savings are spent, and on what services. In calculating adoption savings, title IV-E agencies must use a methodology specified by CB or may propose an alternative for approval. The methodology developed and issued by CB is referred to as “the CB Method.” This method can be applied either to a sample of cases or to the full universe of cases if the agency was able to access actual figures for needed information without conducting a special review. The statute also requires that the annual adoption savings information reported by state and tribal title IV-E agencies be posted on the CB website.

Units of Response: State, Tribe

Type of Data: Administrative

Tribal Data: Yes

COVID-19 Data: No

Periodicity: Annual

SORN: Not Applicable

Data Use Agreement: Not Applicable

Data Use Agreement Location: Not Applicable

Equity Indicators: Unavailable

Granularity: State;Tribe

Spatial: United States

Geocoding: State;Tribe

The Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program provides grants to States and Indian tribes for programs directed toward the goal of keeping families together. They include preventive intervention so that, if possible, children will not have to be removed from their homes. If this is not possible, children are placed in foster care and reunification services are available to encourage the return of children who have been removed from their families. Services are available to children and their families without regard to income. These funds are a small but integral part of State social service systems for families who need assistance in order to stay together. These funds, often combined with State and local government, as well as private funds, are directed to accomplish the following purposes: States can use a portion of their funds (no more than their 2005 expenditure level) for foster care maintenance payments, adoption assistance and day care related to employment or training for employment. States must limit expenditures for administrative costs 10 percent or less of their expenditures under this program. Each state receives a base amount of $70,000. Additional funds are distributed in proportion to the state's population of children under age 21 multiplied by the complement of the state's average per capita income. The state match requirement is 25 percent. Funding is approximately $282,000,000 for FY 2008. Metadata-only record linking to the original dataset. Open original dataset below.