Outcome data is the way we track how we are making a real impact in the lives of the kids and families we serve. Currently this section includes information about finalized adoptions and children who still need forever families, the number of kids in kinship legal guardianship arrangements, and data focused on the experience of children when they are placed out of their homes.
Finalized Adoptions
Legally Free Children Awaiting Adoption
Permanency for Kids: Subsidized Adoption Placements and Kinship Legal Guardianship
Outcome and Chapin Hall data
Since early 2006, DCF has been aggressive in creating a strong adoption program to secure every child a permanent and safe family structure. DCF implemented a new adoption model in 2006 by establishing specialized adoption practice units in all Child Protection and Permanency, CP&P (formerly the Division of Youth and Family Services, DYFS) offices, to ensure timely and appropriate permanency results.
DCF also invested in additional resources to achieve adoption targets, such as deploying additional staff as adoption workers to create and achieve caseload standards of 15-18 children per worker and creating specialized teams of adoption experts to reduce the significant backlog.
At the beginning of 2006, the number of finalized adoptions had fallen more than 14 percent from 2004 to 2005, and a record backlog of 2,300 children were legally free and waiting to be adopted. Since that time, DCF has achieved significant progress with 8,001 former foster children adopted.
DCF has achieved significant progress with record numbers of adoptions, over 8,000 children in foster care were adopted between 2006-2011. DCF finalized almost 1,100 adoptions by the end of 2011.
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Reunification between a child and his/her parents is the primary goal for every child in protective care under DCF's Child Protection and Permanency. DCF provides services such as reunification counseling, addiction treatment, and flex funds (monies for utilities, rent, medical co-pays, etc) to help promote reunification. If reunification is not possible, the parental rights will be terminated by the courts, and the child then becomes legally free for adoption.
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About Subsidized Adoption:
The New Jersey Subsidized Adoption Program offers financial assistance to prospective adoptive parents who adopt certain children. About 98% of children adopted through Child Protection and Permanency receive adoption subsidy. These children are older, have disabilities or are of an ethnic group for which adoptive homes are not readily available.
About Kinship Legal Guardianship (KLG):
KLG is New Jersey's newest permanency option. It allows for children to be placed permanently with their extended family without the need for termination of parental rights (TPR) or adoption. This guardian "…has the same rights, responsibilities and authority relating to a child as a birth parent, with the exception of consenting to the adoption of the child or a name change for the child, while the birth parent retains the obligation to pay child support and the right to court-approved visitation or parenting time with the child." For more details regarding KLG, please go to www.judiciary.state.nj.us/legis/2005c95.pdf.
For the first time in New Jersey there is a consistently larger investment in permanency for children than in temporary placement.
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Click on the chart for larger, printable version (pdf).
Click on the chart for larger, printable version (pdf).
Click on the chart for larger, printable version (pdf).
(Data analysis noted below was completed by the Chapin Hall Center for Children: www.chapinhall.org)
Percent of Children with Substantiated Abuse/Neglect After Previous Report was Unfounded/Unsubstantiated
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Percent of Children with Substantiated Abuse/Neglect After Previous Substantiated Report
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Percent of Children with Substantiated Abuse/Neglect Report within 12 Months of Reunification
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Children Abused and/or Neglected in Out of Home Care
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Rate of Children Initially Placed into CP&P Out-of-Home Care
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Comparison of Children Entering and Exiting Out-of-Home Placement
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Median Length of Stay in CP&P Placement, By Age
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Children Placed with Relatives v. Non-Relatives - 1st Time Placements
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Percentage of Sibling Groups Placed Together, By Group Size
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Children Exiting and Re-Entering CP&P Care in 12 months
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