Q&A
Timely placement for youth in foster care and related benchmarks
1:31:08
ยท
134 sec
Council Member Stevens inquires about ACS's definition of timely placement for youth in foster care and the benchmarks used to measure success. Commissioner Dannhauser explains the agency's approach to placement and the metrics they track.
- ACS doesn't have a specific 'timely placement' number but focuses on several metrics to ensure quick and appropriate placements
- The agency tracks the percentage of youth going directly to kinship care, with a goal of 55% for the current year
- ACS monitors the length of stay at the children's center, with 60% of children staying less than seven days
- The agency works with researchers to analyze and improve the initial placement process, including support for kinship placements
Althea Stevens
1:31:08
Should hold something at the council about foster care parents.
1:31:11
I love foster care parent day.
1:31:13
How does one of ACS stated goals to ensure that timely placement for youth in foster care, how does ACS define timely, and what benchmarks are used to measure that success?
Jess Dannhauser
1:31:25
So we don't have a specific timely placement number, but we look at the number of the percentage of young people going directly to Kincare.
1:31:35
We're working with a group called Axon Research to really help us understand that initial placement.
1:31:41
So we look at metrics like when you are placed with a Kin home, how long does it take you to get to an agency that is now supporting you?
1:31:50
And what is shop protection doing in that in that interim period to provide funds and supports?
1:31:56
So that's a sort of stream of work.
1:31:58
We look at how long children stay at the children's center.
1:32:01
And so as I mentioned in my testimony, 60% are less than seven days.
1:32:07
And then we look at sort of the long stayer group and what is getting in the way for them.
1:32:12
Sometimes in the long stayer group, have not only large sibling groups, but you could have a a three year old and a 12 year old, and that 12 year old might have special needs.
1:32:22
Mhmm.
1:32:22
We do prioritize keeping them together.
1:32:24
95 of our siblings stay together.
1:32:27
We never wanna separate them if it's at all possible and we do well on that.
1:32:31
So those are some of the the metrics that we look at, on a monthly basis.
1:32:36
Every day we get an update on these metrics, but on a monthly basis we sit down with action research and we're developing plans on each of those components.
1:32:45
We recently had our CFS, our child and family specialist support child protection in a different way to move the kinship process more seamlessly.
1:32:55
Because they're doing assessments of the home.
1:32:57
They're making sure that the kinship foster parents understand the support that's available to them.
1:33:02
So it's it's a multifaceted process for this as well.
1:33:06
You know, we wanna see you know, our goal that we've set for this year is that fifty five percent of children are going directly to kin and that we're seeing closer to sixty or 65% never touch the children's center.
1:33:21
We're not there yet, but that's our goal.