The Center forms innovative partnerships with other states and universities, public and private agencies, and community and national child welfare organizations to identify research needs, expand research capacity relevant to child welfare policy and practice, encourage creative thinking regarding the evolving challenges to child welfare systems and to promote the formulation of innovative, evidence-based solutions for difficult child welfare issues. 

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U of I) and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) share an impressive history of partnering together since 1996 to improve policy analysis and management in child welfare.

Illinois is the site of one of the more remarkable turnarounds in the history of public child welfare. The reforms initiated in Illinois between 1995 and 1997 resulted in its foster care caseload declining from a peak of 52,000 to less than 20,000 as of March of 2003. Median length of stay dropped from 45 months to under 26 months. In July 2000, the number of children in state-assisted adoption and guardianship homes surpassed for the first time the number of children in foster care.

The Center continues to support decision-making at various organizational levels within DCFS by monitoring child welfare outcomes, promoting best-practice knowledge development, producing evidence-based research reviews, and assisting with the implementation and evaluation of federal waivers.

Evaluation of and Technical Assistance for the National Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services Grant for the Expansion of Performance Based Contracting to Residential and ILO/TLP Services
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is the recipient of a three year grant administered by the National Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services (QIC PCW) housed at the University of Kentucky. Illinois has led the nation in the implementation of performance-based contracting and quality assurance (PBC/QA) initiatives for foster care case management. This initiative extends PBC/QA to residential, independent living and transitional living programs (ILO/TLP) currently serving approximately 2,500 children and youth in the child welfare system, many of whom have increasingly severe and complex service needs. Very little research exists nationally on the use of performance based contracting in the outsourcing of child welfare services. Critical components of this initiative include documenting the efforts of the State of Illinois in implementing this initiative, rigorously researching the questions posed by the National QIC PCW and of relevance to the State, disseminating findings to the field to foster continuous quality improvement.

Judge Kathleen A. Kearney, while an employee of the Child Welfare Institute, served as the principle investigator for the first year of this grant. She wrote the grant proposal; documented the entire process used to develop the performance measures; surveyed private provider executives and DCFS leadership on collaboration; wrote and submitted all required federal reports; attended all federal meetings related to the project; developed and submitted the Illinois project and evaluation plans; wrote and submitted an article describing the Illinois project to a peer-reviewed social work journal; and provided technical assistance to the Project Steering Committee and Child Welfare Advisory Committee (CWAC) subcommittees and workgroups assigned to this project. 

As of October 1, 2007 Judge Kearney joined the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) as a Visiting Clinical Professor where she will ensure the continuity of services to DCFS for this important national project during the upcoming crucial implementation year.

Fostering Court Improvement - In 2006, The Pew Charitable Trusts, in collaboration with the State Justice Institute and Barton Foundation provided support for a new initiative, Fostering Court Improvement. Fostering Court Improvement (FCI) combines child welfare data expertise developed at Emory University and the CFRC at the U of I to convert the existing semiannual Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) data submissions into a longitudinal picture of the system that is statistically sound and infinitely useful. The initiative is housed at Emory University. Center director Mark Testa, also Principal Investigator of Fostering Results, the Honorable Nancy Salyers of Fostering Results, and Andy Barclay of the Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic at Emory University School of Law lead the project. Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee, and Nebraska are currently part of the project. Click here for more detail on the FCI project.
The FCI web site is located at http://www.FosteringCourtImprovement.org.

Fostering Results - In June 2003, The Pew Charitable Trusts initiated support for the Children and Family Research Center, through a grant to the University of Illinois Foundation, to launch a public education and outreach campaign called Fostering Results. The campaign worked at the national level and in selected states to highlight the need to address the federal financing mechanisms that favor foster care over other services and options for children and families and to improve court oversight of child welfare cases. The grant was part of a multi-year, three part policy initiative by The Pew Charitable Trusts designed to help move children in foster care more quickly and appropriately to safe, permanent families and prevent the unnecessary placement of children in foster care. Click here for additional information about this initiative. Fostering Results engaged key constituencies, including influential national and local leaders, judges, child welfare directors and caseworkers, and advocates for youth and foster, birth and adoptive families, using media, reports and meetings to call attention to the financing and court issues at the heart of the foster care system recommendations crafted by the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care. The Trusts and Fostering Results along with numerous states and national partners helped spearhead the campaign's activities.

Post-Permanency Data Analysis - In collaboration with DCFS, Children's Home + Aid, and Family Focus the Center is evaluating the receipt and availability of post-permanency service with a focus on youth between the ages of 13 & 16. The partners are working together to market available services that target youth after they exit foster care through adoption or subsidized guardianship. For a more detailed description of the project click here.

Waiver Evaluations - CFRC is working with Tennessee and Wisconsin to evaluate their subsidized guardianship demonstrations as well as with Illinois on its Subsidized Guardianship Enhanced Waiver Demonstration. Click here for more detailed information regarding these projects.

Illinois Child Welfare Journal - The Department funds a journal focusing on child welfare developments in Illinois. Entitled Illinois Child Welfare, this journal highlights noteworthy research and service initiatives that benefit the children served by Illinois child welfare professionals. The journal is under the editorial direction of a faculty member of the Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work. The Center administers the sub-contract for this effort, and the Center’s Director is a member of the Editorial Board.

Race Matters Consortium - The first organized effort of the Consortium occurred in January of 2001 when the Center, in conjunction with Westat, hosted an initial forum of 25 experts in the field of child welfare research to collectively examine this complex topic by bringing together existing knowledge in the field and identifying important research questions for future investigation. Concurrently, Casey Family Programs was examining the issue as well and joined the Center in support of expanding the national discussion. In March 2002, the Center, Casey Family Programs and Westat convened a second forum of fifty-six child welfare experts representing research, policy, administration, practice and advocacy interests to discuss the experiences of individuals of different races and ethnicities exposed to the child welfare system. The administrative home of the Consortium is now located at Westat.