Child Welfare: State Performance on Child and Family Services Reviews Page: 2 of 66

                                
Child Welfare: State Performance on
Child and Family Services Reviews
Summary
While child welfare programs are a primary responsibility of state and local
governments, the federal government appropriates close to $7 billion annually to
support these programs (primarily for foster care and adoption assistance) and states
are required to meet certain federal policies in order to receive this funding. Child
and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) gauge state efforts and ability to achieve the
primary goals of safety and permanence for children, and well-being for children and
their families. The review is intended both to measure state compliance with federal
child welfare policy and to strengthen and improve state child welfare programs.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) conducted the initial
round of onsite reviews between March 2001 and March 2004. No state was found
to be in substantial conformity with all of the outcomes and systems assessed. Some
critics of the CFSR argue that while the outcomes reviewed are on target, the criteria
established to determine state achievement of those outcomes may give misleading
information about a state's performance.
Although much attention has focused on states' uniform inability to meet all of
the federal criteria, the reviews also showed certain relative strengths. States showed
the greatest ability to ensure that children were not exposed to child abuse and
neglect and remained safely in their homes whenever appropriate and possible, and
in preserving their family relationships and connections. They had the most difficulty
in achieving permanent and stable living arrangements for children, enhancing the
capacity of families to meet the needs of their children and in seeing that appropriate
mental and physical health services were available to children served. Information
regarding ensuring provision of educational services to children was more mixed.
In addition to reviewing outcomes, the CFSR assesses state compliance with
federal child welfare policy by examining certain federally required systems. States
were most likely to be found successful at operating a statewide information system;
maintaining foster and adoptive parent licensing, training, recruitment and retention;

and responding to community concerns. They were least likely to have a strong
service array or case review system in place. Ratings of state quality assurance and
training systems were more mixed.
To avoid immediate assessment of penalties for failure to comply with federal
policy, each state was required to develop a Program Improvement Plan (PIP). A PIP
must address each one of the outcomes or systems with which a state was found to
be out of substantial conformity and must describe the state's specific plan for
moving toward full conformity with federal policy. A few states have successfully
completed their PIPS but most are still in the process of implementing them.
The Children's Bureau has begun planning for a second round of CFSRs and
onsite reviews will likely begin in FY2006. This report will describe the origins and
design of CFSRs before turning to its primary discussion: state performance in the
initial round of CFSRs. This report will not be updated.