However, exactly what well-being is, how it is to be measured, and what the responsibilities of the child welfare system are with regard to well-being remain the subjects of some dispute. A number of issues increase the complexity of well-being as a measurable outcome. For one, children enter out-of-home care with an existing state of well-being, often one that has been adversely affected by their experiences. The child welfare system is not responsible for children’s exposure to disadvantaged economic and social conditions, violence, abuse, or neglect before the children come to the attention of the system. However, the child welfare system may be accountable for ensuring that the needs of children as they enter the system are recognized and addressed.
 
Even this seemingly simpler mandate, however, involves issues of measurement and standards. For example, to what standards of well-being should agencies and the courts be held accountable while working toward reunification or an alternative permanency plan? What are the agencies’ obligations when the goal of family permanence cannot be achieved? Do child welfare systems retain some level of obligation to former wards? Should foster children be given special assistance and scholarships for which children moved into permanent living arrangements are ineligible? The need to assure the well-being of children in out-of-home care provokes questions that are not easily answerable. Nevertheless, while many areas of uncertainty remain, agreement about the need to advocate for and act on behalf of the well-being of each child while he or she remains under state custody demands attention (Rolock & Testa, 2006).

Well-Being Projects:
The Illinois Child Well-Being Study
Researchers at the Center began work on the first of three rounds of the Illinois Child Well-Being (IL-CWB) study in 2001. Round 1 covered various measures of child mental health, physical health, educational performance, placement stability, and permanence (N=450). Round 2 data (N=655) were collected in 2003 and featured interviews with caregivers, caseworkers, and children modeled after standardized instruments used in the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). Round 3 data (N=458) were collected in 2005 and replicated instrumentation in Round 2. Round 2 and 3 of the IL-CWB study mirror NSCAW's ability to examine domains of child well-being from a variety reporting sources. This replication also affords the opportunity to examine the well-being of Illinois foster wards with their national peers.         

Each year, as part of the Conditions of Children in or at Risk of Foster Care in Illinois [available in Publications & Reports], a chapter on child well-being is included that addresses a range of physical, developmental, educational, and child welfare system related constructs. The Center plans to merge the data from all three rounds to create a multi-year, statewide bank of information on the well-being of children in substitute care. This data bank will be used to serve various information needs of DCFS and the broader child welfare community.

Secondary Data Analysis Grant - NSCAW

The CFRC is currently engaged in two funded projects involving the NSCAW.  The first is a chapter entry into a book commissioned by the Children’s Bureau through RTI to present NSCAW analyses.   This chapter is co-authored by Mark Testa, Christina Bruhn, and Jesse Helton and addresses the comparative safety, stability and continuity of the child-caring arrangements of children within the broader theoretical framework of social capital.  Dr. Testa serves as a section editor.  The second is a grant evaluating individual, familial, and community level factors related to secondary maltreatment of children subject to an initial child protection investigation.