Accomplishments
Adoptions
Children who leave state custody are increasingly more likely to find a permanent home. When a child cannot safely return home, adoption is the most legally permanent alternative. In FY 2016, CPS continued to take steps to decrease the length of time that children wait for adoption, increase the number of adoptions, and overcome barriers to permanency. CPS completed 5,703 adoptions in FY 2016, an increase of 0.5 percent from the previous year. Over a five year period, the annual number of children adopted from the state has increased by more than 600, or about 7 percent.
Achieving Positive Outcomes
Children in state custody often suffer from great trauma due to the abuse or neglect in their past. Because of this, they are more vulnerable and have greater needs than other children. Improving outcomes for these children can take time, but CPS has made progress. Compared to five years ago, CPS is:
- Finding permanency for more children who have been in care for an extended period of time.
- Improving child well being by reducing the number of placement disruptions.
- Connecting more children with their extended family.
Outcome |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exits to permanency for children in care 2 or more years | 28% | 31% | 32% | 33% | 34% |
| Average number of placements for children in foster care | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 3.1 |
| Children in substitute care with relatives on August 31st | 39% | 40% | 41% | 42% | 43% |
CPS identified a spike in FY 2013 and FY 2014 in the time to achieve permanency and focused efforts in FY 2015 and FY 2016 to reversing that. Permanency means leaving state care to live in a permanent home. In FY 2016, time to permanency returned to FY 2012 levels. Between December 2014 and April 2016, 65 percent of the children under the age of six who had been in care for two or more years had achieved permanency.
CPS' goal is a target of 14 months to permanency by 2020.