Methodology
Placement Stability
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.
This report examines placement stability (the number of placements) for children who entered foster care during a specified 12-month time period. For inclusion, a child must be still in foster care after specified periods of time have elapsed since entry (e.g., 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, etc.). The number of available elapsed time periods for follow-up varies according to how long ago a child entered care. Thus, children who entered in earlier cohorts (e.g., Jan - Dec 2011) can be tracked for longer periods of time than those who entered in subsequent years (e.g., Jan - Dec 2012, Jan - Dec 2013, etc.).
County is assigned in this analysis using the county specific code from the case assignment table (or, if this information is not available, using the county specific code from the referral table, or if this information is not available, using the government entity type from the state id table) active at the placement episode start date during the 6-month specified time period. Age is assigned based on how old a child is at the placement episode start date during the specified time period. First placement type refers to the facility where a child was initially placed at the placement episode start date during the specified time period. Please note that first placement types of Guardian are excluded from this analysis. As such, filter selections for first placement type of Guardian will not return data. First caregiver relationship refers to the value of the substitute care provider relationship to child variable at the time of the placement episode start date.
Cells containing a period (".") represent a value of zero. In cells representing quotients, a period may also indicate the indeterminate form 0/0.
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 year old subgroup of the Age variable, etc.). Please see the links below for details:
Agency Type
Episode Count
Age Group
Ethnic Group
Sex at Birth
First Placement Type
Removal Reason
First Caregiver Relationship