Steve Tran and Tamara Fuller

This research brief highlights the findings from the most recent CDRT annual report on child deaths that occurred in Illinois in 2019. The brief presents summary information about child deaths in Illinois by age, race, and by the category and manner of death, as well as examples of CDRT recommendations to prevent child deaths.

Steve Tran and Tamara Fuller

This research brief uses data from the annual CDRT reports to examine trends in child deaths between 2010 and 2019. The brief describes trends in total child deaths by child age, manner and category of death, as well as programs and initiatives in the state to prevent and reduce child deaths.

Steve Tran and Bernadette Emery

Many of the reviews conducted by the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs) involve unsafe sleep, and for the past several years they have has sought to bring increased attention to infant deaths due to unsafe sleep. The Illinois Child Death Review conducted a detailed examination of these deaths by child race/ethnicity, gender, age, sleeping position, and the locations and environments of the deaths. This brief highlights the findings of these analyses.

Steve Tran and Bernadette Emery

Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths were the 3rd leading cause of death of children in Illinois in 2018, and many of the deaths reviewed by the CDRTs were sleep related. The CDRT Executive Council and CDRTs therefore requested additional information on these deaths in the 2018 Child Death Review Teams annual report. This brief highlights findings from the special chapter on Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths During Sleep from the 2018 annual report.

Tamara Fuller and Steve Tran

This research brief, the third in a series that highlights the important work of the CDRTs in Illinois, uses data from the annual CDRT reports to examine trends in child deaths over the past decade. The brief describes trends in total child deaths and trends in the number of deaths by child age, manner of death, and category and death.

Steve Tran and Tamara Fuller

This research brief, the second in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs) in Illinois, highlights the findings from the most recent CDRT annual report on child deaths that occurred in Illinois in 2018. The brief presents summary information about child deaths in Illinois by age, race, and by the manner and category of death, as well as examples of CDRT recommendations to prevent child deaths.

Tamara Fuller and Steve Tran

This research brief, the first in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs), provides an introduction and overview of the CDRT process in Illinois. The brief discusses the circumstances in which the CDRTs will review a child’s death, the review process, and the impact of child death reviews.

Tamara Fuller, Satomi Wakita, Martin Nieto, and Laura Lee

The FY2020 CERAP evaluation uses the most recently available administrative data to re-examine the predictive validity of the CERAP by analyzing the relationship between CERAP completion at the conclusion of the investigation and a future criterion measure of child safety (i.e., short-term maltreatment recurrence). The analyses examined the relationship between indicated investigations that did and did not have a safety assessment at the conclusion of the investigation and the rates of maltreatment recurrence within 30, 60, and 90 days of the investigation close date for each fiscal year between 2014 and 2019. The results are inconsistent across the years and therefore difficult to interpret.

Children and Family Research Center

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is responsible for assuring the safety, family permanence, and well-being of the children who have been investigated for abuse or neglect or who have been removed from their homes and placed into substitute care. For over two decades, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual monitoring report that tracks the performance of the Illinois child welfare system on over 40 measures of child safety, family continuity, placement stability, permanence, as well as new indicators involving racial disproportionality. The full report, which is available on the CFRC website, examines each measure over the past seven years and provides detailed tables and figures that examine differences among child age and racial groups. This brief highlights five noteworthy findings from the most recent report, which tracks performance through FY2019.

Children and Family Research Center

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is responsible for assuring the safety, family permanency, and well-being of the children who have been investigated for abuse or neglect or who have been removed from their homes and placed into substitute care. For over two decades, the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) has produced an annual monitoring report that tracks the performance of the Illinois child welfare system on over 40 different measures of safety, placement restrictiveness, placement stability, and timely, stable, and permanent family relationships. The full report, which is available on the CFRC website, examines each measure over the past seven years and provides detailed tables and figures that examine differences among child age and racial groups. This brief highlights five noteworthy findings from the most recent report, which tracks performance through June 2018.

Tamara L. Fuller, Satomi Wakita, Yu-Ling Chiu, Martin Nieto, and Laura Lee

CERAP procedures specify when a safety assessment is supposed to be completed during investigations, prevention services cases, intact family service cases, and placement cases. Recent CERAP evaluations have focused on caseworker completion at each of the milestones for intact family cases, with the exception of milestone three, which specifies that the a safety assessment should be completed “whenever evidence or circumstances suggest that a child’s safety may be in jeopardy.” The FY2019 CERAP evaluation focused on CERAP safety assessments that were completed for this milestone three among intact family cases that were opened during 2014-2018. The main findings revealed that between 8-10% of the intact family cases opened each year had a CERAP completed for this milestone (MS3). When a MS3 CERAP was completed, about 36% did not have any safety threats identified, about 40-45% had one safety threat identified, and 16-17% had two safety threats identified. Additional analyses are included in the report.

Yu-Ling Chiu and Tamara L. Fuller

The Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) is a safety assessment protocol used in child protection investigations and child welfare services in Illinois. It is designed to provide workers with a mechanism for quickly assessing the potential for moderate to severe harm to a child in the immediate or near future and for taking quick action to protect children. Workers utilize the protocol at specified time frames throughout the life of a case, from child protection investigation to substitute care exit, to help focus their decision-making to determine whether a child is safe or unsafe with their family, and if unsafe, decide what actions must be taken to assure the child’s safety. This brief provides an overview of the CERAP, including its historical background and the specific procedures required to complete the assessments.

Tamara L. Fuller, Yu-Ling Chiu, Satomi Wakita, and Martin Nieto

The Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) is a safety assessment protocol used in child protection investigations and child welfare service cases in Illinois. It is designed to provide workers with a mechanism for quickly assessing the potential for moderate to severe harm to a child in the immediate or near future and for taking quick action to protect children. Workers utilize the protocol at specified time frames, referred to as “milestones,” throughout the life of a case to help focus their decision-making to determine whether a child is safe or unsafe with their family, and if unsafe, decide what actions must be taken to assure the child’s safety. In FY2018, due to increased scrutiny of the safety of children served in intact family cases, the CFRC completed an analysis of caseworker compliance with safety assessment procedures among intact family cases. This research brief describes the major findings of the FY2018 CERAP annual evaluation.

Tamara Fuller and Steve Tran

This research brief, the third in a series that highlights the important work of the CDRTs in Illinois, uses data from the annual CDRT reports to examine trends in child deaths over the past decade. The brief describes trends in total child deaths and trends in the number of deaths by child age, manner of death, and category and death.

Steve Tran and Tamara Fuller

This research brief, the second in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs) in Illinois, highlights the findings from the most recent CDRT annual report on child deaths that occurred in Illinois in 2016, which is written by the CFRC. The brief presents summary information about child deaths in Illinois by age, manner of death, and category of death, as well as examples of CDRT recommendations to prevent child deaths.

Tamara Fuller, Satomi Wakita, Martin Nieto, and Yu-Ling Chiu

The current report examined CERAP completion by caseworkers during an intact family case between FY2014 and FY2017. Using the most stringent criteria, meaning that the caseworker not only completed a CERAP safety assessment but also checked the correct milestone, completion rates varied substantially for the different intact family case milestones: 1) between 67% and 76% of intact family cases each year had a CERAP assessment within 15 days of case opening, and the percentage has been increasing over time. 2) between 17-18% of intact family cases had a CERAP completed every 90 days during the time that the case was open. 3) between 56% and 65% of the intact family cases with an unsafe safety decision had another CERAP completed within 5 working days, and the percentage has been increasing over time. 4) between 64% and 71% of intact family cases had a CERAP completed within 30 days prior to the case close date or within 5 days after it, and the percentage has been increasing over time.

Ted Cross, Gail Tittle, and Yu-Ling Chiu

Investigating child abuse and neglect is a difficult job and investigators need all the preparation they can get. Given the demands of working with families in child protections, transferring theory to practice is particularly essential. Ideally, the initial training that new child protection workers receive should give them opportunities to practice the skills they need such as engaging families and assessment and critical thinking skills for protecting child safety. The Child Protection Training Academy at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) has collaborated with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to add an innovative experiential component to the training of new DCFS investigators. All new investigators come to Child Protection Training Academy at UIS for a week at the end of their initial training to participate in simulations of real life situations that every DCFS investigator encounters. This program evaluation is consistent with the formative state of knowledge in the field and the fact that the Child Protection Training Academy is in a comparatively early stage of development. At this early stage, the program evaluation has focused on gathering data to describe the program’s objectives, methods and training theory, and examining trainees’ and other stakeholders perception of the impact of the simulation training. The goal is to inform program development and improvement, provide evidence of the program’s immediate impact on trainees, and help prepare for more rigorous program evaluation of the CPTA’s simulation training in the future.

Children and Family Research Center

The Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) produces the annual monitoring report of the B.H. Consent Decree, which tracks the performance of the Illinois child welfare system in achieving its stated goals of child safety, permanency, and well-being for children in or at risk of entering foster care. The full report, available on the CFRC website, contains information about Illinois performance on more than 40 measures over the past seven years. This brief highlights five key findings from the latest report, which tracks performance through the end of FY2016.

Michael T. Braun and Yu-Ling Chiu

Disproportionality in the child welfare system refers to the over- or underrepresentation of a group involved with the system compared to that group’s representation in a base population (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2016). This research brief defines racial disproportionality in the child welfare system, including how it is measured and how disproportionality rates should be interpreted. It is the first brief in a series exploring disproportionality in the child welfare system.

Michael T. Braun and Yu-Ling Chiu

Disproportionality in the child welfare system refers to the over- or underrepresentation of a group (usually a racial/ethnic group) compared to that group’s representation in a base population. This research brief explores rates of racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system. It is the second brief in a series exploring disproportionality.

Tamara Fuller and Yu-Ling Chiu

The results of the previous evaluations indicated that rates of CERAP completion at the two milestones immediately before and after reunification were lower than expected. The low compliance with required safety practice raised questions about how judges, attorneys, and placement workers use the information contained within the CERAP to inform their recommendations and decisions about whether to return a child home from substitute care. To gather this information, CFRC designed and administered surveys to juvenile court attorneys and child welfare placement workers; 185 placement workers and 20 attorneys completed the surveys. The results of the surveys indicate that the CERAP is rarely included in the court reports that are shared with attorneys prior to making decisions regarding returning a child home. Additionally, placement workers had mixed views regarding the usefulness of the CERAP for informing decision-making about returning a child home from substitute care: 45% felt that the CERAP was very important, 37% felt that it was somewhat important, and 18% felt that it was not at all important. Responses to the open-ended questions revealed that many placement workers felt that the information included in the CERAP was redundant with information available in other documents they completed at reunification, which may explain why the CERAP is not completed by about a third of the workers either before or after reunification.

Michael T. Braun and Yu-Ling Chiu

The Oregon Safety Model (OSM) is a safety assessment practice model that was developed and implemented by the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) in collaboration with the National Resource Center for Child Protective Services (NRCCPS) in 2007. In 2013, DHS collaborated with NRCCPS to implement an OSM “refresh” initiative aimed toward enhancing understanding and practice application of the OSM. As part of the evaluation of Oregon’s implementation of Differential Response (DR), the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC) was asked to provide an updated assessment of staff fidelity to the OSM. Fidelity assessments are designed to examine if a program or intervention is delivered or implemented as designed. CFRC relied on the procedure manual to develop the fidelity indicators used in the fidelity assessment. This OSM Fidelity Report contains thorough description of methods and results.

Yu-ling Chiu, Martin Nieto and Tamara Fuller

The Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) is a safety assessment protocol used in child protection investigations and child welfare case in Illinois. This “life-of- the case” protocol is designed to provide staff with a mechanism for quickly assessing the potential for moderate to severe harm to children in the immediate or near future and for taking quick action to protect them. Staff utilize the protocol at specified milestones throughout an investigation or child welfare case to help them determine whether a child is safe or unsafe, and if unsafe, decide what actions must be taken to assure their safety. When immediate risk to a child’s safety is identified, the protocol requires that action be taken, such as the implementation of a safety plan or protective custody.

Tamara Fuller, Michael T. Braun, and Saijun Zhang

This research brief, the first in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs), provides an introduction to child death review in Illinois. The brief discusses the circumstances in which the CDRTs will review a child’s death, the review process, and the impact of child death reviews.

Saijun Zhang, Tamara Fuller, and Michael T. Braun

This research brief, the second in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs), highlights key findings from the most recent CDRT annual report, which is written by the CFRC. It presents summary information about child deaths in Illinois examined by demographic characteristics such as age and race, as well as by manner and category of death.

Tamara Fuller, Michael T. Braun, and Saijun Zhang

This research brief, the third in a series that highlights the important work of the Illinois Child Death Review Teams (CDRTs), uses historical data to describe trends in child deaths in Illinois from 2004 to 2013. The brief describes trends in total child deaths and trends in the number of deaths by child age, race, manner of death, and category of death.

Yu-ling Chiu, Martin Nieto, Satomi Wakita, and Tamara Fuller

The Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) is a safety assessment protocol used in child protection investigations and child welfare services in Illinois. Workers utilize the protocol at specified milestones throughout the life of an investigation or child welfare case to help focus their decision-making to determine whether a child is safe or unsafe, and if unsafe, decide what actions must be taken to assure their safety. The current report examines CERAP use among placement cases in order to answer the following questions:

1. What is the compliance rate of CERAP assessment at each of the following milestones for placement cases:
• Within 5 working days after a worker receives a new or transferred case, when there are other children in the home of origin?
• Every 90 calendar days from the case opening date?
• Within 24 hours prior to return a child home?
• Within 5 working days after a child is returned home and every month thereafter until the family case is closed?
2. Do compliance rates vary by region?
3. What is the relationship between the safety decision of the CERAP completed every 90 calendar days from the case opening date and reunification date?

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, and Saijun Zhang

In December 2009, the State of Illinois was selected by the National Quality Improvement Center on Differential Response in Child Protective Services (QIC-DR) as one of three sites to implement and evaluate Differential Response (DR). This report presents the final findings of the outcome evaluation and cost analysis, which compared the newly implemented family assessment child protective services (CPS) response (known as "DR" in Illinois) to the traditional investigation response to answer three research questions: 1) How is the assessment response different from the investigation response in terms of family engagement, caseworker practice, and services provided? 2) Are children whose families receive an assessment response as safe as or safer than children whose families receive an investigation? 3) What are the cost and funding implications to the child protection agency of the implementation and maintenance of a differential response approach? The report provides an overview of the development and proliferation of Differential Response over the past two decades, summarizes previous research, and provides descriptions of both the traditional investigation response (IR) and the new differential response (DR). A description of the research design and data collection instruments is offered. Findings are presented that compare the two CPS responses (IR and DR) with regard to parent engagement and satisfaction; service provision; child safety and family well-being; and costs per-case.

Saijun Zhang, Tamara Fuller, and Martin Nieto

In child protection services, multiple maltreatment recurrences, or chronic maltreatment, has been a concern drawing increased attention because of its persistent harm to the children and the need to consider more ef- fective intervention strategies to meet its unique needs. Timing has been an important issue in understanding the pattern of chronic maltreatment. No existing research has examined the influence of the interval between previous maltreatment incidents on future recurrences. The current study uses state administrative data to conduct longitudinal analyses to examine how the interval between previous maltreatment incidents is asso- ciated with the likelihood of future maltreatment occurrence among children who encountered multiple maltreatment recurrences. The findings suggest that short intervals are associated with increased likelihood of encountering a future recurrence, while controlling various covariates. The findings suggest the possibility of including the interval between previous maltreatment incidents as an indicator for child maltreatment risk assessment, and the need for developing responsive intervention strategies to stop the trend of chronic maltreatment.

Zhang, S., Fuller, T., & Nieto, M (2013). Didn't we just see you? Time to recurrence among frequently encountered families in CPS. Children and Youth Services Review, 35, 883–889.

Saijun Zhang, Tamara Fuller

Chronic child maltreatment, which typically refers to three and more maltreatment incidents associated with a child or family, has gained increasing concerns because of its persistent harm to the children and its disproportional consumption of child welfare resources. Using data from the Illinois child welfare administrative dataset, the study analyzed 2,781 children who had at least two re-reports of child abuse and neglect during the two year observational period from July 1st 2009 to June 30th 2011. The two year period was divided into four 6-month consecutive observation sessions. Maltreatment reports were summed within each session for each child, which yielded a repeated measure of maltreatment count every 6 months. Mplus 7 was used for the Latent Growth Curve Modeling estimation. The results show a declining slope (change rate) of maltreatment counts over time, and identify a series of covariates affecting the slope. The findings have useful implication for child welfare policy and practice concerning chronic maltreatment issues.

Tamara Fuller and Martin Nieto

Despite their central importance in safety assessment and intervention, no research has examined the content of safety plans, or the relationship of safety plan type to investigation characteristics and investigation outcomes. The current study was conducted to answer the following questions: 1) Do safety plans include each of the elements that are required according to CERAP policy and procedures? Are some elements included more frequently than others? 2) What types of safety plans do workers develop during child protection investigations? 3) Do the safety plans developed by investigators vary by family or case characteristics? 4) Is there a relationship between the type of safety plan and child safety? The current evaluation provides an in-depth examination of safety plans written by Child Protective Services (CPS) investigators, develops a typology of the most commonly occurring safety plans, and examines the relationships between the safety plans and case characteristics as well as between safety plans and maltreatment recurrence.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, permanence, and child and family well-being. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by child gender, race, age, and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Tamara L. Fuller and Martin Nieto

This research brief summarizes the results of an evaluation of the use of a safety assessment instrument, known as the Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol or CERAP, on rates of maltreatment recurrence in Illinois. Findings indicate that although most Child Protective Services (CPS) investigators complete a safety assessment at the initiation of the investigation, less than half complete a follow-up safety assessment at the conclusion of the investigation, even if conditions in the household led the investigator to conclude that household conditions were unsafe. Additional safety assessment at the conclusion of the investigation was associated with lower recurrence rates in the 6-month period following the initial maltreatment report date.

Tamara Fuller and Martin Nieto

Findings from past evaluation have indicated that CERAP completion beyond the first investigation milestone ranges from moderate to poor. Significant changes to safety assessment practice are scheduled to occur in 2012 with the implementation of the enhanced safety model. Implementation of the new assessment practices may benefit from a better understanding of how investigators and caseworkers are currently using the CERAP safety assessment tool. The current study therefore examines trends in CERAP completion in investigation and intact family cases.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, permanence, and child and family well-being. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by child gender, race, age, and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Theodore P. Cross, Brett Drake, Tamera L. Fuller & Martin Nieto

The decision to substantiate a report of child maltreatment is one of the most important in the the child welfare field, but the latest knowledge about what underlies the decision to substantiate and how it relates to future outcomes is not widely known. This workshop--led by authors of a special section on substantiation in the journal Child Maltreatment -- provided an overview of current research on substantiation and discusses its meaning for policy. Data suggest that the substantiation decision is usually based on a combination of the harm the child is thought to have experienced and the evidence for maltreatment, although this model does not fit well in a small proportion of cases. Most worrisome are the 9% of child protective cases in which children reportedly suffered moderate to severe harm but the case was not substantiated. The workshop reviews the mixed evidence for the validity of substantiation and discusses the debate on substantiation as a gatekeeper for decision-making and a method of measuring child maltreatment. (Presented at the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) 18th Annual National Colloquium, New Orleans, LA, June 23-26, 2010)

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto

Previous evaluations of the safety assessment instrument used in Illinois, the Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP), have found a strong and consistent relationship between safety re-assessment and lower rates of maltreatment recurrence among children initially assessed as unsafe at the initial stage of the investigation. Not all investigated households require additional safety assessment, however. If a case is completed quickly -- in less than 30 days -- safety re-assessment is not required. The current report re-examines worker compliance with safety re-assessment at the conclusion of the investigation, and also explores whether the relationship between re-assessment and lower rates of maltreatment recurrence extends to investigations closed within 30 days.

John Fluke, Brett Drake, Theodore P. Cross, Tamera L. Fuller, Martin Nieto, & Barbra Fallon

The substantiation decision in child maltreatment investigations can have an important effect on service delivery, court actions, and judgments about caregivers, and underlies many statistical reports of child victimization. Only recently, however, has an empirical knowledge base on substantiation begun to be developed. This workshop summarized the latest research on substantiation to provide participants with knowledge about conceptual developments, important methodological advancements leading to new insights, and important implications for practice and policy. In addition, the workshop introduced issues that have been the subject of disagreement and sharp discussions within the research community in the field such as the validity of substantiation as a category, its value as a guide to intervention, and its role in understanding the CPS system. (Presented at the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) National Conference, Washington, DC, January 24, 2010.)

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, permanence, and child and family well-being. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by child gender, race, age, and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto

Previous evaluations of the Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) have found a consistent and significant relationship between CERAP re-assessment, particularly at the conclusion of the investigation, and lower rates of maltreatment recurrence among children initially assessed as "unsafe" at the initial stages of their investigation. Concerns were raised by DCFS about the validity of this finding because there are circumstances in which a CERAP assessment at the conclusion of the investigation is not required, even among cases found to be "unsafe" in the initial CERAP assessment. The main purpose of this FY09 CERAP evaluation is to re-examine the relationship between safety re-assessment and maltreatment recurrence using the correct population of cases that most closely resembles CERAP use in the field. By ruling out possible alternative explanations for the results, we can bolster our confidence that this relationship is valid and may have important implications for Department policy and practice.

Martin Nieto, Tamara Fuller, Mark Testa

The 2008 Conditions of Children report raised a" warning sign" regarding the safety of children in care. In recent years, children in kinship foster care had become more likely to experience maltreatment recurrence while in care compared to those in traditional foster care, a reversal of previous trends. The Center conducted a series of analyses to examine the following questions in response to the finding: 1. Are licensed kinship foster homes safer than unlicensed kinship foster homes? How does each of these compare to licensed traditional foster homes? 2. Is the relationship between placement type (kin or non-kin), license status, and safety accounted for by differences in demographic or case characteristics such as child's age, child's race, number of other children in the home, or regional location?

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, permanence, and child and family well-being. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by child gender, race, age, and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto

Recent concerns related to Illinois' failure to meet the national standard for maltreatment recurrence in the federal Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) have prompted some to question the utility of the safety assessment protocol (the CERAP) that has been in use in Illinois since 1995. By changing the safety outcome examined in the current CERAP evaluation to match that used in the federal CFSR (i.e., 6-month maltreatment recurrence rather than the 60-day recurrence used in previous reports), we can begin to examine the relationship between CERAP use in the field, other child protective services practices, and maltreatment recurrence. The current evaluation attempted to provide useful information for the Department's efforts of reform in this area by answering the following questions: 1) Does maltreatment recurrence as defined in the CFSR vary by region in Illinois? 2) If so, can regional differences in investigation practices be identified as possible points of policy reform? And 3) Are these regional differences in practice related in a reliable way to maltreatment recurrence?

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto

This report analyzes the impact of the Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) implementation on the safety of children investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for abuse and neglect. A series of analyses were completed to examine CERAP effectiveness: 1) trend analysis of 60-day maltreatment recurrence rates from 1986-2006; 2) trend analysis of 6-month maltreatment recurrence rates from 1986-2006; 3) an examination of CERAP use by child protection investigators (CPI); 4) comparisons of recurrence rates between investigation cases categorized as "safe" and "unsafe" by child protective services (CPS) workers in the field, and 5) comparisons of recurrence rates among safe and unsafe households with and without a second CERAP assessment.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, permanence, and child and family well-being. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by child gender, race, age, and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety, family and placement stability, continuity, permanence, and child and family well-being. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by child gender, race, age, and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Tamara Fuller & Martin Nieto

This report analyzes the impact of Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) implementation on the safety of children investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for abuse and neglect. Child safety is assessed using data from DCFS' Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System (CANTS) and defined as the occurrence/nonoccurrence of an indicated allegation of maltreatment within 60 days of an initial investigation. The current analysis examined recurrence rates in investigations with safety decisions of "safe" versus "unsafe." Rates are examined separately for investigations of moderate physical abuse, severe physical abuse, and sexual abuse.

Alan Puckett

Using combined survey, administrative, and census data, this study analyzed household- and community-level variables to determine their relationships with the occurrence of child maltreatment reports among a sample of 1091 low-income households in six Illinois counties. The study sought to determine which factors were most strongly related to the occurrence of reports, and whether the likelihood of reports varied according to a family's relative "visibility" in their neighborhood.

Tamara Fuller & Martin Nieto

This report analyzes the impact of Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) implementation on the safety of children investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for abuse and neglect. Child safety is assessed using data from DCFS' Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System (CANTS) and defined as the occurrence/nonoccurrence of an indicated allegation of maltreatment within 60 days of an initial investigation. The current analysis examined recurrence rates in investigations with safety decisions of "safe" versus "unsafe."

Tamara Fuller & Martin Nieto

This report analyzes the impact of Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) implementation on the safety of children investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for abuse and neglect. Child safety is assessed using data from DCFS' Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System (CANTS) and defined as the occurrence/nonoccurrence of an indicated allegation of maltreatment within 60 days of an initial investigation. The current analysis builds upon the results of previous reports, and confirms that maltreatment recurrence rates continue their overall decline in Illinois.

Tamara Fuller, Martin Nieto, Mark Testa, Philip Garnier

This report analyzes the impact of Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) implementation on the safety of children investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for abuse and neglect. Child safety is assessed using data from DCFS' Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System (CANTS) and defined as the occurrence/nonoccurrence of an indicated allegation of maltreatment within 60 days of an initial investigation. The current analysis builds upon the results of previous reports, and confirms that maltreatment recurrence rates continue their overall decline in Illinois. Additional analyses of maltreatment recurrence rates were done for children who were physically abused, and children with multiple maltreatment reports.

Martin Nieto, Philip Garnier

This report analyzes the impact of Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) implementation on the safety of children investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for abuse and neglect. For this study safety, is assessed using data from DCFS' Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System (CANTS). Safety is defined in terms of the occurrence/nonoccurrence of an indicated allegation of maltreatment within 60 days of an initial investigation. The current analysis builds upon the results of previous years' reports that found declining recurrence rates over the five years since the CERAP was first implemented.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety and permanence. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by race and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Gail Tittle, John Poertner, Philip Garnier

This study replicates a previous study, "Child Maltreatment in Foster Care: A Study of Retrospective Reporting," and attempts to identify the degree to which retrospective reports might be counted in a safety indicator of abuse and neglect of children in out of home care. The results of this and the previous study indicate that current recurrence rates significantly over estimate the amount of child abuse and neglect incidents for children in out of home care. It is hoped that this study will provide a clearer picture of the level, circumstances, and types of child maltreatment that occur within the foster care system.

Martin Nieto, Philip Garnier

This report analyzes the impact of Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP) implementation on the safety of children investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for abuse and neglect. For this study safety, is assessed using data from DCFS' Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System (CANTS). Safety is defined in terms of the occurrence/nonoccurrence of an indicated allegation of maltreatment within 60 days of an initial investigation. The current analysis builds upon the results of previous years' reports that found declining recurrence rates over the four years since the CERAP was first implemented.

Gail Tittle, John Poertner, Philip Garnier

Children who are maltreated by their birth families are often removed from these families by the state to protect them from further harm. However, while under the care of the state, some foster children receive further harm. There is anecdotal evidence that some of the maltreatment attributed to foster care may, in fact, be retrospective events that occurred before the child entered care. This study attempts to identify the degree to which retrospective reports might be counted in a safety indicator of abuse and neglect of children in foster care.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety and permanence. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by race and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Tamara Fuller, John Poertner

The fourth in a series of annual evaluations of the Illinois CERAP, this study examined caseworker compliance with CERAP safety assessment requirements at the investigation milestone (e.g., within 24 hours after the investigator first sees the alleged victim). Information regarding CERAP completion at this milestone, as well as completion of each of the four CERAP sections, was collected.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety and permanence. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by race and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Philip Garnier, Martin Nieto

This report is an update of the April 15, 1999 CERAP evaluation prepared by the American Humane Association. Data on the safety of children investigated by DCFS, as reflected in the Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System (CANTS) from December 1, 1995 through November 30, 1999, is included. The first section presents simple frequency counts, while the second presents an event-history analysis of changes in short-term maltreatment recurrence rates from the year before the first implementation of CERAP through the four years following implementation.

John Fluke, Myles Edwards, Marian Bussey

This report is the third of the annual evaluations of the Illinois Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP). Using IDCFS administrative data, the short-erm (i.e., within 60 days) maltreatment recurrence rates for children investigated by IDCFS are compared for the year immediately prior to CERAP implementation and the three years post-implementation.

Tamara Fuller, Susan Wells

This study is the second in a series of annual evaluations of the implementation of Illinois' Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP). Caseworker compliance with CERAP safety assessment requirements was examined for three milestones in the life of a case: 1) within 24 hours after the investigator first sees the alleged victim, 2) within 5 working days after case opening, and 3) immediately prior to closing a service case.

CFRC

This annual report provides information on the performance of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services with regard to the outcomes for children who are in or at risk of substitute care. This monitoring report, required as part of the B.H. Consent Decree, examines measures of child safety and permanence. Detailed break-downs of each indicator by race and geographic region are provided in the appendix.

Tamara Fuller, Susan Wells

This report summarizes ongoing research regarding implementation and validation of the CERAP and focuses on 1) review of case records for intact and substitute care cases, with analysis of CERAP use by follow-up caseworkers; 2) examination of reduction in recurrences of abuse and neglect for children already reported; and 3) comparison of cases where abuse or neglect recurred with those where there were no subsequent indicated reports.

John Fluke, Myles Edwards, Will Johnson

This is the first of the annual evaluation of the Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP), a safety assessment protocol implemented by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in 1996. This evaluation compares the rate of short-term maltreatment recurrence during the year prior to CERAP implementation with the rate in the year following implementation. Alternative explanations for the results are ruled out through additional analyses.