Strengthening Children and Families Through Foster Care: For the period of time that
children are in foster care, stability, continuity, permanence and well-being are of utmost
importance. The Center monitors the Department’s outcomes in these areas through the
following measures:
Stability:
• Children remain with their family while they are served at home after a child
maltreatment finding
• Children do not move from home to home while they are in foster care
• Children do not run away while they are in foster care
Continuity:
• Children are placed in settings that are the least restrictive
• Children are placed with kin whenever possible
• Children in group homes or institutions are placed within Illinois
• Children are placed in or near their community of origin
• Children are placed with their siblings
Legal Permanence:
• Children are reunified with their parents more quickly
• Children who cannot be reunified find a permanent home in a timely fashion
• Children spend less time in foster care
Well-Being: Unlike the subject matters just listed, means for measuring the well-being of
children that come to the attention of child welfare has always been more difficult. Data on
indicators of a child’s well-being are often not readily available. In addition, there has been no
consistency in how or what is measured. Several years ago the Department funded the Center to
embark on a study of child well-being in Illinois which has since ended. However, the Center is
now involved in a project that will allow for broader understanding of well-being in Illinois and
how Illinois compares nationally in the area of child well-being. Please see the section on Child
Well-Being for additional information on the current Center projects in this area. In the
Conditions report, the well-being findings on the broad topics of mental health, physical health
and education are discussed.
Family Support Post-Custody: Illinois now has more children in state-assisted permanent homes
with adoptive parents and legal guardians than it has in foster care. Since inception of the
Conditions report, the Center has led the state, and the nation, in drawing attention to this
population of children – tracking children after they have left foster care and focusing on this
population’s needs. Through these efforts, the Center has been able to establish that this
population of children is, for the most part, a stable population. However, the sheer magnitude of
the group’s size means that even if a small percentage of families have difficulty maintaining
adoptive/guardianship homes the result may be a significant number of families in need. Having
202
