Children and families of color are disproportionately represented in child welfare systems across the United States. In order to develop strategies to address the systemic factors that lead to these inequities, child welfare administrators and policymakers need data that are disaggregated by race and examine key decision-points within the child welfare services continuum. The Children and Family Research Center began analyzing and reporting on racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system in 2017 as part of our annual B.H. Consent Decree monitoring report. Each year, the CFRC produces a report that examines racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system at six critical decision points, including: 1) screened-in maltreatment reports/investigations, 2) protective custodies, 3) indicated maltreatment reports, 4) child welfare case openings (intact family services), 5) substitute care entries, and 6) timely exits from substitute care. The results are presented for the entire state as well as by region.
In FY2023, the CFRC is expanding its work on racial disproportionality in child welfare by producing a new annual report that examines the impact of race on additional indicators including investigations and indicated investigations by maltreatment allegation, involvement in investigation safety plans, substitute care placement types, length of time spent in substitute care, and exits to legally permanent families through reunifications, adoptions, and guardianships. This annual report will be presented to the Illinois General Assembly and the Department of Children and Family Services as mandated by HB2914. The CFRC is also engaging in research that seeks to better understand the root causes of racial disproportionality in different areas of the child welfare system and conducts program evaluations that test the effectiveness of new programs and interventions to reduce disproportionality.
CFRC Director Tamara Fuller was appointed by Governor J.B. Pritzker to sit on the Advisory Commission on Reducing the Disproportionate Representation of African-American Children in Foster Care. This advisory commission was established by Public Act 102-0470 and serves as a coordinating and advocating body that acts on behalf of the interests of African-American children who are at risk of placement within the state's child welfare system. The advisory commission advises the governor and the General Assembly and works directly with state agencies to identify those causes and factors that contribute to the overrepresentation of African-American children in foster care and develop effective strategies, policies, services and programs aimed to advance more equitable outcomes for African-American children and their families involved with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Exploring the Role of Guardianship in Effective and Equitable Permanency: Report on the Professional Interview StudyPDF
Ted Cross, Cady Landa, Heather Fox, Robin LaSota, Magdelene Thebaud, Diamond Hines, Tachauna Parsons, EunJee Song, Sharva Hampton-Campbell, Soonhyung Kwon, and Mary Jane Steiner
When children are removed from their home because of maltreatment, the goal of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is to return them to a loving, safe, stable, and permanent home as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the most recent statistics show that 47.3% of children and youth who entered substitute care from DCFS in 2018 were not placed in a permanent home within three years, and the permanency rate is worse for Black children. This is one of a series of reports from a research program exploring subsidized guardianship, one rarely used but promising permanency option that might help both increase permanency rates and reduce racial disparity. In subsidized guardianship, a family member such as a grandmother or aunt typically becomes the child’s permanent caregiver, but the child’s birthparents retain many of their parental rights. This report presents results from interviews with 40 Illinois professionals doing permanency work, including caseworkers, casework supervisors, DCFS attorneys, guardians ad litem, and judges. The interviews examine professionals’ experience with and opinions about subsidized guardianship and adoption, its chief alternative. The interviews also explore professionals’ perceptions regarding the role of race in permanency work. This research was supported by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, through its Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program; and by funding by DCFS to the Translational Research Team of the Office of Research and Child Well-Being.
Ted Cross, Cady Landa, Heather L. Fox, Robin LaSota, Magdelene Thebaud, Diamond Hines, Tachauna Parsons, EunJee Song, Sharva Hampton-Campbell, Soonhyung Kwon, and Mary Jane Steiner
When children are removed from their home because of maltreatment, the goal of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is to return them to a loving, safe, stable, and permanent home as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the most recent statistics show that 47.3% of children and youth who entered substitute care from DCFS in 2018 were not placed in a permanent home within three years, and the permanency rate is worse for Black children. This brief reports on research on subsidized guardianship, one rarely used but promising permanency option that might help both increase permanency rates and reduce racial disparity. In subsidized guardianship, a family member such as a grandmother or aunt typically becomes the child’s permanent caregiver, but the child’s birthparents retain many of their parental rights. This research was supported by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, through its Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program; and by funding by DCFS to the Translational Research Team of the Office of Research and Child Well-Being. A poster and Powerpoint presentation resulting from this research are also available on this website.
Racial Disproportionality in the Illinois Child Welfare System: FY2022 Report in Response to HB2914PDF
Tamara Fuller, Satomi Wakita, Kyle Adams, Martin Nieto, Stacey Shipe, Shufen Wang, and Yu-Ling Chiu
HB2914 requires the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to submit an annual report regarding racial disproportionality for children involved in the Illinois child welfare system. The report, which is due on December 31 of each year, must examine the following indicators: children and families involved in a safety plan, protective custodies, investigations and indicated investigations of each type of abuse and neglect, court filings for each allegation type, substitute care entries, placement settings, lengths of stay in foster care, and permanency outcomes. This first report includes data on racial disproportionalities in the Illinois child welfare system during FY2022 (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022).
Findings from the FY2022 Report on Racial Disproportionality in the Illinois Child Welfare SystemPDF
Tamara Fuller, Cady Landa, Satomi Wakita, and Kyle Adams III
Serious concerns about the over-representation of Black children in the Illinois child welfare system have led to urgent calls to action to address the issue. In order to develop effective interventions, reliable and ongoing data about racial disproportionality are needed that provide administrators and policymakers with information about which segments of the system are most critically impacted. As part of our ongoing work of monitoring the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Families Services under the B.H. Consent Decree, the Children and Family Research Center produces an annual report that measures racial disproportionality over time at both the regional and state level. This brief highlights key findings from the FY2022 report related to the disproportionality among Black children in the Illinois child welfare system and suggests some areas where additional study and intervention are needed.
Conditions of Children in or at Risk of Foster Care in Illinois: FY2022 Monitoring Report of the B.H. Consent DecreePDF
Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Kyle Adams, Yu-Ling Chiu, Cady Landa, Steve Tran, Satomi Wakita, and Shufen Wang
Since its inception in 1996, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual report that monitors the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being. The FY2022 monitoring report uses child welfare administrative data through December 31, 2021 to describe the conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Following an introductory chapter, the results are presented in four chapters that examine critical child welfare outcomes, including child safety, continuity and stability in care, legal permanence, and racial disproportionality.
Tamara Fuller, Cady Landa, Satomi Wakita, and Kyle Adams
Child welfare systems across the nation share the concern that children from some racial and ethnic groups may be disproportionately represented in the child welfare system compared to their representation in the general population. This report examines racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system at six critical decision points during 2015–2021, including: 1) screened-in maltreatment reports/investigations, 2) protective custodies, 3) indicated maltreatment reports, 4) child welfare case openings (intact family services), 5) substitute care entries, and 6) timely exits from substitute care. The results are presented for the entire state as well as by region.
Understanding Racial Disproportionality in Finding Permanent Homes for African-American Children in Out-of-Home Care: A Study of Subsidized GuardianshipPDF
Ted Cross, Cady Landa, Heather Fox, Robin LaSota, Magdelene Thebaud, Diamond Hines, Tachauna Parsons, Eunjee (Isu) Song, Sharva Hampton-Campbell, Soonhyung Kwon, and Mary Jane Steiner
When children are removed from their home because of maltreatment, the goal of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is to return them to a loving, safe, stable, and permanent home as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the most recent statistics show that 47.3% of children and youth who entered substitute care from DCFS in 2018 were not placed in a permanent home within three years, and the permanency rate is worse for Black children. This symposium presentation reports on research on subsidized guardianship, one rarely used but promising permanency option that might help both increase permanency rates and reduce racial disparity. In subsidized guardianship, a family member such as a grandmother or aunt typically becomes the child’s permanent caregiver, but the child’s birthparents retain many of their parental rights. This research was supported by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, through its Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program. A companion poster about the study is also available on this website.
Understanding Racial Disproportionality in Finding Permanent Homes for African-American Children in Out-of-Home Care: A Study of Subsidized GuardianshipPDF
Ted Cross, Cady Landa, Heather Fox, Robin LaSota, Magdelene Thebaud, Diamond Hines, Tachauna Parsons, Eunjee (Isu) Song, Sharva Hampton-Campbell, Soonhyung Kwon, and Mary Jane Steiner
When children are removed from their home because of maltreatment, the goal of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is to return them to a loving, safe, stable, and permanent home as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the most recent statistics show that 47.3% of children and youth who entered substitute care from DCFS in 2018 were not placed in a permanent home within three years, and the permanency rate is worse for Black children. This symposium presentation reports on research on subsidized guardianship, one rarely used but promising permanency option that might help both increase permanency rates and reduce racial disparity. In subsidized guardianship, a family member such as a grandmother or aunt typically becomes the child’s permanent caregiver, but the child’s birthparents retain many of their parental rights. This research was supported by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, through its Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program. A companion oral presentation about the study is also available on this website.
Tamara Fuller
CFRC Director Tamara Fuller presented highlights from the FY2022 Racial Disproportionality in the Illinois Child Welfare System Report to the Advisory Commission on Reducing the Disproportionate Representation of African-American Children in Foster Care. Four key findings include: 1) Black children are over represented at every decision point in the Illinois child welfare system when compared to their representation in the Illinois child population; 2) There are large regional differences in the degree to which Black children are over represented in the Illinois child welfare system; 3) Most, but not all, of the over representation of Black children in the Illinois child welfare system is introduced at the hotline, and 4) The amount of over representation of Black children in child welfare has been decreasing over the past few years at some decision points.
Tamara Fuller, Cady Landa, Satomi Wakita, and Kyle Adams
Child welfare systems across the nation share the concern that children from some racial and ethnic groups may be disproportionately represented in the child welfare system compared to their representation in the general population. This report examines racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system at five critical decision points during 2014–2020, including: 1) screened-in maltreatment reports/investigations, 2) protective custodies, 3) indicated maltreatment reports, 4) child welfare case openings (intact family services), 5) substitute care entries, and 6) timely exits from substitute care. The results are presented for the entire state as well as by region.
Conditions of Children in or at Risk of Foster Care in Illinois: FY2021 Monitoring Report of the B.H. Consent DecreePDF
Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Kyle Adams, Yu-Ling Chiu, Theodore Cross, Cady Landa, Laura Lee, Steve Tran, Satomi Wakita, and Shufen Wang
Since its inception in 1996, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual report that monitors the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being. The FY2021 monitoring report uses child welfare administrative data through December 31, 2020 to describe the conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Following an introductory chapter, the results are presented in five chapters that examine critical child welfare outcomes, including child safety, continuity and stability in care, legal permanence, racial disproportionality, and child well-being.
Tamara Fuller, Michael Braun, Satomi Wakita, and Kyle Adams
Child welfare systems across the nation share the concern that children from some racial minority groups may be disproportionately represented in the child welfare system compared to their representation in the general population. One of the goals in the Department’s Child Welfare Transformation Strategic Plan is to track racial equity at critical decision points to help inform planning and decision-making. This report provides information relevant to that goal by examining racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system at five critical decision points (see Figure 1) during 2013–2019, including: 1) investigated/screened-in maltreatment reports, 2) protective custodies, 3) indicated maltreatment reports, 4) post-investigation service provision, including substitute care and intact family services, and 5) timely exits from substitute care.
Children and Family Research Center
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is responsible for assuring the safety, family permanence, and well-being of the children who have been investigated for abuse or neglect or who have been removed from their homes and placed into substitute care. For over two decades, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual monitoring report that tracks the performance of the Illinois child welfare system on over 40 measures of child safety, family continuity, placement stability, permanence, as well as new indicators involving racial disproportionality. The full report, which is available on the CFRC website, examines each measure over the past seven years and provides detailed tables and figures that examine differences among child age and racial groups. This brief highlights five noteworthy findings from the most recent report, which tracks performance through FY2019.
Conditions of Children in or at Risk of Foster Care in Illinois: FY2020 Monitoring Report of the B.H. Consent DecreePDF
Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Kyle A. Adams III, Michael Braun, Yu-Ling Chiu, Laura Lee, Steve Tran, Satomi Wakita, Shufen Wang
Since its inception in 1996, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual report that monitors the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being. The FY2020 monitoring report uses child welfare administrative data through December 31, 2019 to describe the conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Following an introductory chapter, the results are presented in four chapters that examine critical child welfare outcomes, including child safety, continuity and stability in care, legal permanence, and racial disproportionality.
Conditions of Children in or at Risk of Foster Care in Illinois: FY2019 Monitoring Report of the B.H. Consent DecreePDF
Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Shufen Wang, Kyle A. Adams III, Satomi Wakita, Steve Tran, Yu-Ling Chiu, Michael Braun, Theodore P. Cross, Laura Lee, Aaron Burnett, Heidi Meyer
Since its inception in 1996, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual report that monitors the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being. The FY2019 monitoring report uses child welfare administrative data through December 31, 2018 to describe the conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Following an introductory chapter, the results are presented in five chapters that examine critical child welfare outcomes, including child safety, continuity and stability in care, legal permanence, racial disproportionality, and child well-being.
CFRC
Child welfare systems across the nation share the concern that children from some racial minority groups may be disproportionately represented in the child welfare system compared to their representation in the general population. One of the goals in the Department’s Child Welfare Transformation Strategic Plan is to track racial equity at critical decision points to help inform planning and decision making. With special concerns about children age 0 to 5, the Children and Family Research Center per a request from Illinois DCFS prepared this report by examining racial disproportionality specifically for this population in the Illinois child welfare system at critical decision points during 2012-2018.
Tamara Fuller, Yu-Ling Chiu, Michael Braun, Martin Nieto, and Kyle Adams
Child welfare systems across the nation share the concern that children from some racial minority groups may be disproportionately represented in the child welfare system compared to their representation in the general population.One of the goals in the Department’s Child Welfare Transformation Strategic Plan is to track racial equity and disparity at critical decision points to help inform planning and decision making.This report provides information relevant to that goal by examining racial disproportionality and disparity in the Illinois child welfare system at five critical decision points over the past seven years.
Conditions of Children in or at Risk of Foster Care in Illinois: 2016 Monitoring Report of the B.H. Consent DecreePDF
Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Satomi Wakita, Shufen Wang, Kyle Adams, Saijun Zhang, Yu-Ling Chiu, and Michael Braun
This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, and permanence. In addition, this year's report adds a fourth chapter that examines racial disproportionality and disparity in the Illinois child welfare system.
Michael T. Braun and Yu-Ling Chiu
Disproportionality in the child welfare system refers to the over- or underrepresentation of a group involved with the system compared to that group’s representation in a base population (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2016). This research brief defines racial disproportionality in the child welfare system, including how it is measured and how disproportionality rates should be interpreted. It is the first brief in a series exploring disproportionality in the child welfare system.
Michael T. Braun and Yu-Ling Chiu
Disproportionality in the child welfare system refers to the over- or underrepresentation of a group (usually a racial/ethnic group) compared to that group’s representation in a base population. This research brief explores rates of racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system. It is the second brief in a series exploring disproportionality.
Nancy Rolock
This report examines the disproportionate representation in the child welfare system in Illinois for children of different races/ethnicities. Disproportionality is examined by region within the state - Cook County, Northern, Central and Southern regions. An innovative method for examining racial over/under representation - a weighted risk ratio - is used to look at child welfare outcomes at several points: indication of investigated cases, placement with kin, stability in foster care, and exits to permanence.
Nancy Rolock
Presented at the 11th National Child Welfare Data and Technology Conference, July 22, 2008. This presentation examines the over-representation of African-American children in the Illinois child welfare system at three key points: removal from the home and placement into foster care, placement with kin, and exits to permanent homes through reunification, adoption, or guardianship.
