The Bureau conducts the reviews to ensure conformity with federal child welfare requirements, to determine what is actually happening to children and families in child welfare services, and to assist states in helping children and families achieve positive outcomes.
[2] In both rounds, all States were required to implement Program Improvement Plans (PIPs) as part of the review process.
The systemic factors measured by the CFSRs include the effectiveness of the State's systems for child welfare information, case review, and quality assurance; training of child welfare staff, parents, and other stakeholders; the services that support children and families; the agency's responsiveness to the community; and foster and adoptive parent licensing, recruitment, and retention.
Significant financial penalties may be assessed for failure to make the improvements needed to achieve substantial conformity.
Each state's Program Improvement Plan must include measurable goals for improvement, action steps, and an implementation timeline for addressing each outcome that did not meet the requirements for the seven federal child welfare outcomes and seven systemic factors under review in the CFSR process.