Striped tiles have small numbers (fewer than 30 children, or fewer than 10 events for rate indicators) and should be read with caution.
County ranking
| Rank | County | Region | Denominator | Observed | Difference from state | Five-year trend | Note |
|---|
Children entering and exiting foster care
Count of children by federal fiscal year
Exits by reason
Count of children exiting foster care by discharge reason
Entry cohorts: permanency within 12 months of entry
Children entering care each year, split by whether they discharged to permanency within 12 months
Children in foster care on the last day of the year
Point-in-time count on September 30
Permanency in 12 months by age at entry
Percent discharged to permanency within 12 months
Permanency in 12 months by race and ethnicity
Percent discharged to permanency within 12 months
Permanency in 12 months by sex
Percent discharged to permanency within 12 months
Placement moves by age at entry
Moves per 1,000 days in care
Entries by age at entry
Count of children entering care
Entries by race and ethnicity
Count of children entering care
What this dashboard shows
This dashboard tracks the seven statewide data indicators that the federal Children's Bureau uses in Round 4 of the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR). It shows five federal fiscal years for a fictional state with 30 counties. The indicator names, definitions, desired directions, and national performance values are the real federal ones. Every state and county value is fictional sample data created for this portfolio piece.
Indicator definitions and national performance
| Indicator | Definition | Better when | National performance |
|---|
Source for definitions and national performance: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau, CFSR Technical Bulletin #13A (Amended), June 8, 2022. The same national performance values appear in the Children's Bureau CFSR Round 4 Statewide Data Indicators Workbook (March 2026). Definitions are summarized; the bulletin lists the full exclusions for each indicator.
How to read the comparisons
- The Children's Bureau compares a state with the nation using risk-standardized performance (RSP), which adjusts for some factors a state has little control over, such as children's ages. A state is better or worse than national performance only when the whole 95% interval around its RSP sits on one side of the national value. If the interval overlaps the national value, the state is statistically no different.
- The federal workbook advises against comparing a state's observed performance with national performance, so this dashboard compares observed values only over time and across counties within the state. The statewide RSP values and intervals shown here are fictional, like the rest of the state data.
- County values are observed performance. Counties with fewer than 30 children in the denominator (or fewer than 10 events for the two rate indicators) are flagged because a handful of cases can move the value a great deal.
- Each value is labeled by the federal fiscal year of its 12-month reporting period. Several indicators follow children for 12 months after the period, so the federal data profiles use indicator-specific periods. This sample simplifies that to one label per year.
Data files
The same tables that feed this dashboard are provided as CSV files and as one Excel workbook, with county codes stored as text. A rebuild guide lists every calculated field needed to recreate the dashboard in Tableau.