The Center's Foster Care Utilization Review Program (FCURP) works in close partnership with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS) Division of Quality Assurance (DQA) to prepare for, conduct, and respond to the Federal Child and Family Services Review (CFSR). Using a continuous quality improvement structure, FCURP has played a vital role in building and maintaining a viable public-private framework for supporting ongoing efforts to enhance child welfare outcomes in Illinois at the state and local levels.
FCURP primarily supports IDCFS and its private sector partners by:
1. Helping monitor and report the completion of action steps and the achievement of benchmarks outlined in the Illinois CFSR Program Improvement Plan (PIP).
2. Facilitating the Outcome Enhancement Review (OER) process -- the primary measurement method for providing qualitative data to evaluate and monitor the state's ongoing performance on federal outcomes; it was designed to be similar to the CFSR process. FCURP has helped establish the OER process as the only ongoing comprehensive statewide public-private continuous quality improvement activity in Illinois.
3. Facilitating the IDCFS/Private Agency Regional PIP Workgroup Process. Since 2004, FCURP has helped facilitate and support these workgroups by using data to help the groups plan, implement and monitor PIP strategies that will strengthen child welfare practice at the local level and enhance outcomes performance for the state as a whole.
4. Fostering and supporting collaboration and partnerships between key child welfare stakeholders invested in improving child welfare practice. FCURP responds to requests for assistance with policy analysis and field perspective on the practice implications of new initiatives and service models.
5. Providing training and education to help child welfare practitioners translate federal regulations and state policies into quality practice and movement toward positive outcomes.
6. Conducting independent comprehensive reviews and evaluative studies as requested.
You can contact FCURP by emailing Program Director Geraldine Rodriguez at
grodrigz@illinois.edu or
geraldine.rodriguez@illinois.gov,
or by calling
