Methodology
Reentry Following Permanency (Exit Cohort)

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.

NOTE: As of the Quarter 4, 2021 extract, to match the methodology for Child and Family Services Reviews, Round 4 (CFSR4), Permanency Measure 4 (4-P4), children and youth exiting to guardianship were added to the denominator. Prior to Q4 21, this report used the methodology of CFSR2 C1.4 Reentry following reunification (exit cohort), which was limited to children and youth exiting to reunification.

This measure computes the percentage of children reentering foster care within 12 months of a reunification or guardianship (permanency) discharge. The denominator is the total number of children who exited foster care to permanency in a 12-month period. The Trial Home Visit adjustment, applied to 3-P1, is not applied, consistent with the federal definition of this measure. The numerator is the count of these children who then reentered care within 365 days of the discharge date.

Users may view reentries to foster care within 24 months of the permanency discharge date for those time periods where the data exist (24 full months beyond the 12 month time period shown). In contrast to Round 3, the Round 4 Reentry measure does not exclude children in care whose foster care episode(s) lasted less than 8 days. The default settings reflect this change, however, the report also allows you to stratify by time in care (7 days or less, 8 days or more).

Discharge to permanency is defined as a discharge to parents, primary caretaker(s), or guardianship and includes the following CWS/CMS subcategories:

Reunified with Parent/Guardian (Court) [5439]
Reunified with Parent/Guardian (Non-Court) [5440]
Child Released Home [5513]
Guardianship [5434, 5516]

If a child is discharged to permanency more than once during the specified year, the first discharge to permanency is considered.

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

Agency Type is indicates the responsible agency at permanency (reentry can be to any agency). This measure may also be run with filters in place to restrict the data to various subgroups of other variables (e.g., Black subgroup of the Ethnicity variable, <1 old subgroup of the Age variable, etc.). Please see the links below for details:

Caregiver Relationship

Permanency Type

MethodologyReentry Following Permanency (Exit Cohort)

Methodology
Reentry Following Permanency (Exit Cohort)