Center for State Child Welfare Data | Continuous Quality Improvement

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Knowledge-based investments and improved outcomes for children and families

Each year, federal, state, and local child welfare agencies spend approximately $26 billion to promote the well-being of vulnerable children and their families. That’s a serious commitment. What are we achieving with those investments? And how can we direct our resources in the future to do better?

Learn more about how the Data Center can help you use knowledge to promote continuous quality improvement.

January 23, 2026

Foster home development: New federal reporting requirements and how the Data Center helps states respond

The Center for State Child Welfare Data delivers foster home reporting infrastructure states can use—quickly, reliably, and at scale. Building on decades of experience, the Center for State Child Welfare Data at Chapin Hall has engineered a data capture and reporting infrastructure for foster home capacity that enables states to come into federal compliance quickly. The results free agency leaders… Read more >

Turn Knowledge into Action

Analytic Tools

The Data Center’s suite of resources and services helps agencies integrate knowledge-driven strategic planning into their standard operating procedures.
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Continuous Quality Improvement

Read about how the Data Center is using analytic infrastructure and decision support to help child welfare agencies improve outcomes from the inside out.
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Education, Training, and Technical Assistance

Read about the Data Center’s online and in-person educational opportunities.
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Learn from The Data Center’s Research

The Project on Research Evidence Use by Child Welfare Agencies

Results of the first wave of analysis from the Project on Research Evidence Use by Child Welfare Agencies show that the more often agency staff use research evidence to learn about children in their care, the faster the agency discharges children in foster care to permanency. Read more about our initial findings, implications for staff development, and avenues for future research >

The Dynamics of Foster Home Recruitment and Retention

By Fred Wulczyn, Britany Orlebeke, Kristen Hislop, Florie Schmits, Jamie McClanahan, & Lilian Huang

In order to boldly test new foster home recruitment and retention strategies, child welfare systems need data capacity that allows them to ask and answer clearly defined questions about the structure and functioning of their current foster home system. In this report, we demonstrate the use of administrative data to generate robust evidence to maintain a stable supply of high-quality foster homes.
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Promoting Transparency

Because transparency promotes ongoing quality improvement in child welfare, we have launched an initiative encouraging Data Center members to publish a set of Data Center-generated reports that provide aggregate data on statewide trends pertaining to key permanency indicators.
Learn more about this initiative>
Access the publically available reports >