The Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) help the Children's Bureau ensure that States are conforming with Federal child welfare requirements and assist States in improving their systems and outcomes for children and families. The third round of the CFSRs, which begins in fiscal year 2015, includes revisions to the process and methodology, including the items used to measure permanency. This section lists the Child Welfare Information Gateway web sections pertinent to the permanency measures in the third round of the CFSRs so that administrators can find resources to support supervisors and frontline staff in achieving and maintaining permanency.
- Permanency outcome 1: Children have permanency and stability in their living situations.
- Permanency outcome 2: The continuity of family relationships and connections is preserved for children.
For more information about the third round of the CFSRs, visit the CFSR Information Portal
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Permanency outcome 1: Children have permanency and stability in their living situations.
Item 4: Stability of Foster Care Placement: To determine whether the child in foster care is in a stable placement at the time of the onsite review and that any changes in placement that occurred during the period under review were in the best interests of the child and consistent with achieving the child's permanency goal(s).
- Out-of-home care: Placement decisions - Placement stability
- Out-of-home care: Resources for foster families
Item 5: Permanency Goal for Child: To determine whether appropriate permanency goals were established for the child in a timely manner.
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Working with children, youth, and families in permanency planning
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Reunifying families
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Permanency for specific populations
Item 6: Achieving Reunification, Guardianship, Adoption, or Other Planned Permanent Living Arrangement: To determine whether concerted efforts were made, or are being made, during the period under review to achieve reunification, guardianship, adoption, or other planned permanent living arrangement.
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Reunifying families
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Guardianship
- Preplacement adoption casework practice
- Out-of-home care: Foster care - OPPLA/APPLA
Permanency outcome 2: The continuity of family relationships and connections is preserved for children.
Item 7: Placement With Siblings: To determine whether, during the period under review, concerted efforts were made to ensure that siblings in foster care are placed together unless a separation was necessary to meet the needs of one of the siblings.
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Working with children, youth, and families in permanency planning - Considering siblings in permanency planning
- Adoption: Preplacement adoption casework practice - Working with diverse populations in adoption: Working with sibling groups
Item 8: Visiting With Parents and Siblings in Foster Care: To determine whether, during the period under review, concerted efforts were made to ensure that visitation between a child in foster care and his or her mother, father, and siblings is of sufficient frequency and quality to promote continuity in the child's relationship with these close family members.
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Reunifying families: Reunification and visits with parents who are incarcerated
- Out-of-home care: Casework practice in out-of-home care: Casework practice with birth families: Parent-child visits
Item 9: Preserving Connections: To determine whether, during the period under review, concerted efforts were made to maintain the child's connections to his or her neighborhood, community, faith, extended family, Tribe, school, and friends.
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Working with children, youth, and families in permanency planning - Creating and maintaining meaningful connections
- Out-home-care: Kinship care - Searching for relatives and kin/Family finding
Item 10: Relative Placement: To determine whether, during the period under review, concerted efforts were made to place the child with relatives when appropriate.
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Permanency With Relatives and Kin
- Out-home-care: Kinship care - Engaging and Supporting Kinship Caregivers
- Out-of-home care: Kinship care - Finding and providing support for kinship caregivers
Item 11: Relationship of Child in Care With Parents: To determine whether, during the period under review, concerted efforts were made to promote, support, and/or maintain positive relationships between the child in foster care and his or her mother and father or other primary caregiver(s) from whom the child had been removed through activities other than just arranging for visitation.
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Reunifying families
- Achieving and maintaining permanency: Working with children, youth, and families in permanency planning - Integrating foster parents in permanency planning
- Out-of-home care: Group and residential care - Supporting families with children and youth in residential care
- Supporting and preserving families: Introduction to family support and preservation