Outcome 4: Low Re-entry into Foster Care from Reunification or Adoption
Context of Measure
The central tenets of ACS's Permanency Principles state that all children deserve safe, nurturing permanent families who can provide an unconditional, lasting commitment to them, and that children and families deserve services that meet their needs. The goal of permanency now infuses all service interventions that make up the New York City child welfare system.
A child's return, or re-entry, to foster care suggests that the original effort at permanency was not successful. Consequently, the incidence of children re-entering foster care is an important barometer for evaluating the system's success at achieving its most important outcome - permanency. This report focuses on the best measure for re-entry analysis: the rate at which children discharged to reunification return to care within one year.
Furthermore, the Federal Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) provides additional impetus to ACS's permanency efforts. ASFA was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by the President in 1997 to reflect a growing concern that there are too many foster children who linger in care. The law requires agencies to act much more quickly to make sure that children either return to their parents or relatives or are adopted. Pursuant to ASFA the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now evaluates the states on certain key permanency-related outcomes. ACS's Outcome 4 measure corresponds with ASFA's re-entry outcome.
All files are in PDF format
Quickview
User Guide
Citywide Report
Summary Reports by Borough and Community District:
Comparative Reports by Community District:
Back to Top 12 main page
