[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 161 (Friday, August 20, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45552-45554]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-21657]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Notice of Final List of Child Welfare Outcomes and Measures

SUMMARY: Section 203 of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), 
signed into law in November 1997, requires that the Secretary of the 
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), in consultation with 
Governors, State legislatures, State and local public officials 
responsible for administering child welfare programs, and child welfare 
advocates, develop a set of outcome measures (including length of stay 
in foster care, number of foster care placements, and number of 
adoptions) that can be used to assess the performance of States in 
operating child protection and child welfare programs. In addition, the 
law requires that to the maximum extent possible, the outcome measures 
should be developed from data available from the Adoption and Foster 
Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). Section 203 of ASFA also 
directs the Secretary to prepare and submit to the Congress an Annual 
Report on the performance of each State on each outcome measure.
    To meet these requirements, the Children's Bureau, the Federal 
agency charged with the task of implementing ASFA, engaged in a 
consultation process with State officials, advocates and other experts 
in the field. As a result of this process, the Children's Bureau 
published a preliminary list of child welfare outcomes and measures in 
the Federal Register for public comment on February 2, 1999. Comments 
were received from 31 State child welfare agencies including the 
District of Columbia, 14 representatives of national organizations, 
nine members of a congressional coalition, one local child and family 
services agency, one tribal organization, four child welfare 
researchers, four Federal staff and one unaffiliated individual. Based 
on an analysis of the comments, numerous changes were made to the 
preliminary list of outcomes and measures.
    This notice announces the final list of child welfare outcomes and 
measures and the data elements that will be used to compute each 
State's performance on each measure. The notice also describes 
additional data about each State system's characteristics that will be 
used in the Annual Report to provide context for interpreting State 
performance on the outcome measures. Finally, the notice provides 
general information about the steps that will lead to publication of 
the first Annual Report to the Congress on the performance of each 
State on each outcome measure.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marianne Rufty, Children's Bureau, 330 
C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20447.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Nation's child welfare systems are 
designed to protect children who have suffered maltreatment, who are at 
risk for maltreatment, or who are under the care and placement 
responsibility of the State because their families are unable to care 
for them. These systems also focus on securing permanent living 
arrangements for children who are unable to return home. The Children's 
Bureau is the agency within the Federal Government that is responsible 
for assisting State child welfare systems by promoting continuous 
improvement in the delivery of child welfare services.
    The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) unequivocally established 
that our national goals for children in the child welfare system are 
safety, permanency, and well-being. To help achieve these goals, the 
ASFA requires the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), in 
consultation with States and experts in the field, to identify outcome 
measures to gauge State and national progress in reaching these goals, 
and to report on these outcomes in an annual report to the Congress.
    The Children's Bureau formed a consultation group comprised of 
representatives from State, Tribal and county child welfare agencies; 
State

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Governor's offices; State legislatures; family and juvenile courts; 
local advocacy organizations; the research community; private nonprofit 
child and family services agencies; and a public employee organization. 
Representatives of national organizations such as the American Public 
Human Services Association, the Child Welfare League of America, and 
the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges also were 
asked to participate in the consultation process.
    The Children's Bureau wishes to thank these individuals for sharing 
their time and expertise in the development of the preliminary set of 
child welfare outcomes and measures, which were published in the 
Federal Register for comment on February 2, 1999. We also would like to 
thank the many individuals who responded to that notice. Based on the 
comments received, the Children's Bureau has made a number of changes 
to the list of outcome measures, as detailed below.

What Data Sources Will Be Used To Measure State Performance

    To avoid additional reporting by the States, the first Annual 
Report to the Congress will include outcome measures that are based on 
data already available through the National Child Abuse and Neglect 
Data System (NCANDS), and the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and 
Reporting System (AFCARS). For the first Annual Report to the Congress, 
the Children's Bureau will use calendar year 1997 data for NCANDS, and 
fiscal year 1998 data for AFCARS. The specific data elements that will 
be used from these databases are listed below under each outcome 
measure. Please note that one of the consequences of focusing on 
outcomes that can be measured through AFCARS and NCANDS is that the 
outcomes to be included in the first Annual Report do not address 
child-well being measures and procedures for collecting data pertaining 
to those outcomes in the future.
    In addition to displaying data on State performance on the outcome 
measures, the Annual Report will provide additional data about each 
State and its child welfare system in order to provide context for 
interpreting performance on the outcome measures. For the most part, 
these data also will be derived from the calendar year 1997 NCANDS and 
fiscal year 1998 AFCARS databases. Some examples include: the number of 
children under age 18; the number of children found to be victims of 
child maltreatment; the number of child fatalities due to maltreatment; 
the number of children entering foster care at the beginning of the 
reporting year, the number exiting at the end of the same year and 
their median length of stay in care; the number of children waiting to 
be adopted; and the number of children adopted. It also will include 
age and race/ethnicity data for children in these categories.

Steps Leading to Publication of the Annual Report

    The Children's Bureau will mail a letter to each State Child 
Welfare Director that will transmit the State's own data pages for 
review and comment prior to their being published and submitted to the 
Congress. State agencies will have the opportunity to provide comments 
that clarify their data or identify factors that may have affected 
their performance on the outcome measures. Since States' comments will 
be included in the Annual Report to the Congress, the Children's Bureau 
will need to require that the comments be limited due to space 
restrictions. In addition, State Child Welfare Directors will be asked 
to return their comments to the children's bureau by a specified date. 
No response by the due date will indicate that the State chooses not to 
submit comments. The transmittal letter will provide detailed 
information about the procedures for reviewing and submitting comments 
on the data.

Final List of Child Welfare Outcomes and Measures

    The following outcome measures will be used as the basis for the 
first and subsequent Annual Reports to the Congress on the performance 
of each State in meeting the goals and objectives of the child welfare 
system. The data elements that will be used to compute the measures are 
also listed. Additional outcomes and measures may be added in future 
years as reporting capacities develop. This is particularly true for 
outcomes addressing child safety and well-being.

Child Welfare Outcome 1: Reduce Recurrence of Child Abuse and/or 
Neglect

    Measure 1.1: Of all children who were victims of substantiated or 
indicated child abuse and/or neglect during the reporting period, what 
percentage had another substantiated or indicated report within a 12-
month period?

Data Elements: NCANDS, DCDC record
Element 3: Report ID
Element 4: Child ID
Element 8: Report disposition
Element 9: Report disposition date

Child Welfare Outcome 2: Reduce the Incidence of Child Abuse and/or 
Neglect in Foster Care

    Measure 2.1: Of all children who were in foster care during the 
reporting period, what percentage was the subject of substantiated or 
indicated maltreatment by a foster parent or facility staff?

Data Elements: NCANDS, DCDC record
    Element 80: Perpetrator-1 Relationship
    Element 93: Perpetrator-2 Relationship
    Element 106: Perpetrator-3 Relationship
AFCARS
    Element 21: Date of latest removal
    Element 41: Current placement setting

Child Welfare Outcome 3: Increase Permanency for Children in Foster 
Care

    Measure 3.1: For all children who exited the child welfare system, 
what percentage left either to reunification, adoption, or legal 
guardianship?
    Measure 3.2: For children who exited the system and were identified 
as having a diagnosed disability, what percentage left either to 
reunification, adoption, or legal guardianship?
    Measure 3.3: For children who exited the system and were age 12 or 
older at the time of their most recent entry into care, what percentage 
left either to reunification, adoption, or legal guardianship?
    Measure 3.4: For all children who exited the system, what 
percentage by racial/ethnic category left either to reunification, 
adoption, or legal guardianship?
    Measure 3.5: Of all children exiting the system to emancipation, 
what percentage was age 12 or younger at the time of entry into care?

Data Elements: AFCARS
Element 6: Date of birth
Element 8: Race
Element 9: Hispanic origin
Element 10: Child diagnosed with disabilities
Element 21: Date of latest removal
Element 56: Date of discharge from foster care
Element 58: Reasons for discharge

Child Welfare Outcome 4: Reduce Time in Foster Care to Reunification 
Without Increasing Re-entry

    Measure 4.1: Of all children who were reunified with their parents 
or caretakers at the time of discharge from foster care, what 
percentage was reunified in the following time periods?
    (1) Less than 12 months from the time of latest removal from home
    (2) At least 12 months, but less than 24 months

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    (3) At least 24 months, but less than 36 months
    (4) At least 36 months, but less than 48 months
    (5) 48 or more months
    Measure 4.2: Of all children who entered foster care during the 
reporting period, what percentage re-entered care within 12 months of a 
prior foster care episode?

Data Elements: AFCARS
Element 19: Total number of removals
Element 20: Date of discharge from last episode
Element 21: Date of latest removal
Element 56: Date of discharge from foster care
Element 58: Reason for discharge

Child Welfare Outcome 5: Reduce Time in Foster Care to Adoption

    Measure 5.1: Of all children who exited care to a finalized 
adoption, what percentage exited care in the following time periods?
    (1) Less than 12 months from the time of latest removal from home
    (2) At least 12 months, but less than 24 months
    (3) At least 24 months, but less than 36 months
    (4) At least 36 months, but less than 48 months
    (5) 48 or more months
    Measure 5.2: Of all children who exited care to a finalized 
adoption and who were age 3 or older at the time of entry into care, 
what percentage exited care during the following time periods?
    (1) Less than 12 months from the time of latest removal from home
    (2) At least 12 months, but less than 24 months
    (3) At least 24 months, but less than 36 months
    (4) At least 36 months, but less than 48 months
    (5) 48 or more months

Data Elements: AFCARS
Element 6: Date of birth
Element 21: Date of latest removal
Element 56: Date of discharge from foster care
Element 58: Reasons for discharge

Child Welfare Outcome 6: Increase Placement Stability

    Measure 6.1: Of all children served who had been in care for the 
time periods listed below, what percentage had no more than two 
placement settings during that time period?
    (1) Less than 12 months from the time of latest removal from home
    (2) At least 12 months, but less than 24 months
    (3) At least 24 months, but less than 36 months
    (4) At least 36 months, but less than 48 months
    (5) 48 or more months

Data Elements: AFCARS
Element 21: Date of latest removal
Element 24: Number of previous settings in episode
Element 56: Date of discharge from foster care (needed only if child 
exited during the year.)

Child Welfare Outcome 7: Reduce Placements of Young Children in Group 
Homes or Institutions

    Measure 7.1: For all children who entered care during the reporting 
period and were age 12 or younger at the time of their most recent 
placement, what percentage was placed in a group home or an 
institution?

Data Elements: AFCARS
Element 6: Date of birth
Element 21: Date of latest removal
Element 23: Placement date in current setting
Element 41: Current placement setting

    Dated: August 13, 1999.
Patricia Montoya,
Commissioner, Administration on Children, Youth and Families.
[FR Doc. 99-21657 Filed 8-19-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M