Measure retention carefully

About this recommendation

The percentage of families that your system retains as resource parents can be a misleading number if not tracked carefully. There are plenty of good, or at least neutral, reasons for a family closing its beds, such as adopting their current placement, moving out of state, or perhaps reaching a certain age. There are also some families for whom fostering is just not a good fit, and it's best for them and for children in care that they part ways with your agency. Retention goals should focus on families willing and able to meet the needs of children in care, but who drop out due to frustration or burnout—and this starts by being able to measure and differentiate how you're performing with those families.

How to do this

• Formally capture when a family stops serving as a resource family. This might be when their license expires, when they submit a letter of termination, or when a kinship placement ends. If you do not have such clear milestones, come up with one, such as "has not taken a placement in over 12 months."
• Capture the reason when caregivers close their license in your IT system. While all their answers won't necessarily be honest (it's hard to capture "they quit because they hated their worker" in a note), it's a start.
• Differentiate between reasons that could have been avoided with agency action, and those that could not. Focus your efforts only on the former.

Anticipated costs and benefits

Who's doing this

2 of 54 states and territories have implemented this recommendation.

• Chapin Hall provides a list of retention reasons in its report The Dynamics of Foster Home Recruitment and Retention. These reasons are:
  • Closed because of abuse/neglect
  • Agency decision related to concerns about foster parent’s performance
  • Family request (related to change in circumstances, personal or family issues)
  • Family request (related to concerns about DCS/provider agency)
  • Family adopted and is selecting out of foster care
  • Family serving as kinship only and kinship case has ended
  • Other reason
• Washington measures termination reason on its form 10-017. The reasons it includes are:
  • Adoption completed
  • Adoption disruption
  • Adoption Home Study not approved
  • Cannot comply with requirements
  • Changed agency
  • Child Placing Agency request
  • Criminal History
  • Denied
  • Did not receive placements
  • Dissatisfied with DCFS
  • Dissatisfied with Child Placing Agency
  • License expired
  • Family did not respond to renewal
  • Family goals/personal issues
  • Family’s response to child’s allegation
  • Foster child aged out of care
  • Foster child’s behavior too challenging
  • Moved and did not reapply
  • Moved and relicensed at new address
  • Moved new home does not meet licensing requirements
  • Provider deceased
  • Response to investigation
  • Revoked
  • Specific child placement no longer needed