Placement Stability
Definition: Of all children who entered substitute care during the fiscal year, the rate of placement moves per 1,000 days of care.
Denominator: Among the children who entered substitute care during the year,
the total number of days they were in substitute care at the end of the fiscal year.
Numerator: The number of placement moves during the fiscal year. (The initial removal from the home is not counted as a placement move.)
Adjustments: The result is multiplied by 1,000 to produce larger numbers that are easier to understand.
Exclusions
- Children who enter care and stay 7 days or fewer are excluded.
- For youth who enter at age 17 and turn 18 during the period, any time in substitute care beyond the 18th birthday or placement changes after that date are excluded.
- Deceased children are excluded.
- Children who ran away, including Runaway, Abducted, and Whereabouts Unknown are excluded
- If the placement type was respite care (defined as a placement of less than 30 days where the child returns to the same placement), it was not counted as a placement move.
A Note on Totals
The per-year totals for this measure ("ALL CHILDREN") reflect the total numbers of children with valid values for the breakdown being viewed. Since counts may be culled from records missing geographic, demographic or placement type information, totals between breakdowns may not be identical. For example, adding counts for all age groups for a given year may not produce the same result as adding races, since there may be missing races and/or ages in the population.
A Note on Race
If the value of the primary race is Native American/Alaska Native, Asian, or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islanders, it was coded as "Other." If the value of primary race was "could not be verified," "unknown," "declined to identify," or missing (null), it was treated as missing and excluded when indicators are reported by race/ethnicity.
The data used to compute this measure come from two Illinois DCFS data systems: the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) and the Child and Youth Centered Information System (CYCIS). Both the SACWIS data and the CYCIS data were extracted on December 31, 2024. They were calculated based on the state fiscal year, which spans the 12-month period from July 1 to June 30.