Methodology
CFSR4: Permanency Performance Area 1
Permanency in 12 months for children entering foster care

Notes on Source Data

IMPORTANT NOTE: The following methodology may include references to report features not available on the public site version. On the public site, masking is performed to protect the privacy of individuals served by CDSS and comply with CDSS data de-identification guidelines. Values of 1 to 10 and calculations based on values of 1 to 10 are masked ('M' or '*'). In stratified views of the data, additional values (the lowest available) are masked to prevent calculation of values 1 to 10.

Federal/CWS Outcomes Measure: Of all children who enter foster care in a 12-month period, what percent discharged to permanency within 12 months of entering foster care?

Denominator: The denominator is the number of children who enter foster care in a 12-month period. Children who are in foster care for less than 8 days are excluded. Children who enter foster care at age 18 or more are excluded. For children with multiple episodes during the same 12-month period, this measure only evaluates the first episode within the period.

Numerator: The numerator is the number of children in the denominator who discharged to permanency within 12 months of entering foster care, but before their 18^th birthday. For this measure, permanency includes exit status of ‘reunified’, ‘adopted’ or ‘guardianship’. Children with a current placement of ‘trial home visit’ are included in the count of children reunified if that visit lasted at least 30 days, its start date fell within 11 months of the latest removal date, and it was the final placement before the child was discharged from foster care to reunification. For details, please see Exit Status.

Performance: Performance for this measure is the numerator divided by the denominator, expressed as a percentage.

These rates may differ slightly from federal numbers reported by the Children's Bureau because the federal AFCARS data file excludes those children who exit to permanency early in the 6-month AFCARS reporting period and then reenter later within the same reporting period. Therefore, the Federal permanency rates will be slightly lower than the rates displayed here.

National Performance: The National Performance for this measure is ≥ 35.2%. For details, please see CFSR Technical Bulletin 13 (PDF).

Extension of Federal Measure: In the drill-down reports for this measure, the entry cohort may be restricted to children entering foster care for the first time ever (‘first entry’) or to ‘other entry’. Days in care selections are also available: in addition to the default of 8 days or more, users may select children in care 7 days or less, or include children regardless of the number of days in care (i.e., ‘All’). Each of the three types of permanency--reunification, adoption, and guardianship--is reported separately and information is provided on other exit status categories--‘aged out/emancipated’, ‘other’, and ‘still in care’.

• County is assigned based on the first county with an open case during the placement episode. However, if the child was only in referral status or was in referral status for more than six months during the placement episode, the first responsible county is defined as the first county responsible for the referral.
• Agency Type is assigned based on the responsible agency at the placement episode start date during the specified time period.
• Age is assigned based on how old a child is at the placement episode start date during the specified time period.
• In the 'Exit Status at Most Recent Available Follow Up Period' analysis, rows and columns with no data are not displayed in report output. Please note that this may result in an unusual table structure for queries involving small counties or other small frequency counts.
• The Trial Home Visit adjustment is applied consistent with the federal methodology for 4-P1. For children whose trial home visits ended in permanency (usually reunification) more than 30 days after the beginning of the trial home visit, the Trial Home Visit Adjustment calculates the date of discharge to permanency as 30 days after the beginning of the trial home visit, thus shortening the time in care. Note that this adjustment is applied to 4-P1, but not to the other Federal measures.

Cells containing a period (".") represent a value of zero. In cells representing quotients, a period may also indicate the indeterminate form 0/0.

Stratification and Filters: This measure may be run with filters to restrict the data to various subgroups of other variables (e.g., Black subgroup of the Ethnicity variable, <1 year old subgroup of the Age variable, etc.). Please see the links below for details:

Agency Type

Age Group

Ethnic Group

Sex at Birth

Placement Type

Caregiver Relationship

Exit Status

ICWA Status

Tribal Membership Status