Safety Permanency Well-Being: Child Welfare Outcomes 2003 Annual Report

摘要

Child Welfare Outcomes 2003: Annual Report to Congress (Report to Congress) is the sixth in a series of annual reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the Department). The reports are developed in accordance with section 479A of the Social Security Act (as amended by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997) and provide information pertaining to State performance on the following national child welfare outcomes: Reduce recurrence of child abuse and/or neglect; Reduce the incidence of child abuse and/or neglect in foster care; Increase permanency for children in foster care; Reduce time in foster care to reunification without increasing re-entry; Reduce time in foster care to adoption; Increase placement stability; 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. The purpose of the Report to Congress is to provide information that may lead to improved outcomes for children and families served by the Nation's child welfare system by informing Congress, the States, and the public about State performance on key child welfare outcomes and change in performance over time. To this end, the Report to Congress presents data for each State regarding the following: (1) 12 measures developed to assess the national outcomes listed above, and (2) contextual factors regarding the number and characteristics of children who are the subject of substantiated child abuse or neglect reports and of children in the State's foster care system. The report also presents key findings across States on the relationship between contextual factors and State performance on the outcome measures. Data pertaining to the measures and the contextual factors come from the Federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS).