Measuring What Matters: Outcomes, Accountability, and the Future of Permanency

Part 3 of a Thought Leadership Series on Permanency, Matching, and Outcomes in Foster Care

What Are We Actually Measuring – and Why Does It Matter?

If you ask most child welfare systems how they are performing, the answers tend to come in the form of activity. We measure how many families were recruited, how many children were placed, how many cases were opened and closed within a given period of time. These metrics are not without value as they tell us something about effort, capacity, and movement within the system. But they do not tell us what matters most.

They do not tell us whether permanency lasted. They give us a good indication, but they are not proof. 

Across the United States, approximately 328,000 children remain in foster care at any given time, and each year tens of thousands exit without achieving a permanent family [1]. Among those who do exit, the majority reunify with family, while smaller percentages achieve permanency through adoption or guardianship [2]. These are the numbers we report publicly, and they are important. But they are incomplete, because they capture the moment of exit … not the durability of the outcome. And the goal, of course, is the strong durability of the outcome. 

The more meaningful question, and the one we ask too infrequently, is this:

What happens to children after we stop measuring them? 

The Illinois Context: A Strong System with an Incomplete Loop

Illinois has long been recognized as a national leader in child welfare data and outcome monitoring. Through the work of the Children and Family Research Center, the state helped establish a framework for tracking safety, permanency, and wellbeing in a way that moved beyond simple case counts and toward meaningful indicators of performance [4]. This work has shaped how states across the country think about accountability.

And yet, even with this strong foundation, there remains a gap between what we measure and what we ensure.

In 2024, Illinois reported that 5,374 children achieved permanency, with 9.9% through adoption and 3.4% through guardianship [3]. These numbers represent real progress for thousands of children. At the same time, thousands more remain in care, and many will wait years for a permanent family. The data tells us how many children exit, but it does not always tell us whether those exits translate into long-term stability.

This is where the system begins to show its limits. Measurement exists. Reporting exists. But consistent, real-time accountability – ensuring that strategies are implemented as designed and outcomes are sustained over time – is less visible.

The Gap Between Planning and Oversight

This gap becomes especially clear when viewed from within the system itself.

In my role as a member of the Statewide Foster Care Advisory Council in Illinois, where I have served for over seven years, one of our responsibilities is to review and score Child Welfare Implementation Plans. These plans are detailed, thoughtful, and data-informed. They function much like business plans, outlining strategies, priorities, and intended outcomes for improving the child welfare system.

But there is a critical distinction between reviewing a plan and ensuring its execution.

While the Council evaluates these plans, we do not provide direct oversight to ensure that the strategies are implemented with fidelity. We do not consistently track whether the intended outcomes are achieved, nor do we systematically intervene when they are not. The plans themselves are strong. The intentions are clear. But the feedback loop between planning, implementation, and outcome is not always closed.

This is not a failure of individuals. It is a structural reality within this system and within many systems.

And it presents a significant opportunity for oversight. 

What Practice Reveals: Insights from the Emergency Placement Referral Program

If you want to understand where systems succeed – and where they fall short – you have to look closely at the point of practice.

Within the Let It Be Us Emergency Placement Referral Program, our staff work daily with caseworkers, investigators, and families navigating some of the most urgent placement needs in Illinois. These are not theoretical situations. These are late-night calls, last-minute removals, complex cases involving siblings, adolescents, and children with significant medical or emotional needs.

Through interviews and ongoing conversations with our team, a consistent theme emerges: the system often prioritizes speed over fit, particularly in emergency situations. Caseworkers are under immense pressure to find a placement quickly. Availability becomes the primary driver. Matching, in its deeper sense, becomes secondary.

One solution here is the Let It Be Us comprehensive database of hundreds of Illinois licensed homes. The rich data we are afforded allows us to make stronger placements, rather than simply the next placement. 

But what we also see – clearly and repeatedly – is that when matching is more intentional, even in urgent situations, outcomes improve. When caseworkers, investigators and families are engaged in real conversation, when expectations are aligned, when support is clearly defined, placements are more likely to offer stability. And when placements have stability, permanency becomes possible.

This is not theoretical. It is observed, case by case, in real time.

Reframing Accountability: From Reporting to Responsibility

If we take both research and practice seriously, then accountability must evolve.

Accountability cannot be limited to reporting outcomes after they occur. It must include responsibility for how those outcomes are produced.

This means asking more sophisticated questions:

• Not simply whether a child exited to permanency, but whether that permanency held over time
• Not simply how many placements were made, but how many remained stable
• Not simply how quickly a child was placed, but whether the placement was aligned and sustainable

Illinois already tracks important indicators such as re-entry into care, which provides insight into whether permanency outcomes endure [4]. But these metrics are often retrospective. They tell us what happened, not always what to do differently moving forward.

True accountability would require using these data points proactively – identifying patterns, adjusting strategies, and holding systems responsible not just for activity, but for results.

Internal Data and the Power of Alignment

At Let It Be Us, our internal data reinforces what both research and practice suggest: alignment drives outcomes.

Through the Adoption Listing Service of Illinois, the adoption program managed by Let It Be Us, we track the full pathway from referral to permanency. We examine how many children are referred, how many families are engaged, how many matches are made, and how those matches progress over time.

For children in our adoption program – those with the goal of adoption or substitute care pending termination of parental rights – 54% are matched with a permanent family.

This outcome is not simply a function of volume. It is the result of intentional alignment between children and families. It reflects a system that prioritizes matching as a central strategy, rather than treating it as a secondary step.

It also reflects accountability – not in the abstract, but in practice. Each case is tracked. Each outcome is examined. Each disruption (and there are disruptions) is considered not as an isolated event, but as information about how the system can improve.

Oversight as a Lever for Change

If matching is the lever for permanency, then oversight is the mechanism that ensures the lever is used effectively.

Oversight does not mean adding unnecessary bureaucracy. It means creating clarity about expectations, consistency in implementation, and transparency in outcomes. It means ensuring that what is written in a plan is actually carried out in practice, and that when it is not, there is a process for adjustment and improvement.

Effective oversight would include:

• Monitoring placement stability as a core performance metric
• Evaluating whether matching practices align with evidence and best practice
• Tracking outcomes over time, not just at the point of exit
• Creating feedback loops between frontline staff and system leadership

Most importantly, it would create a culture in which outcomes are not simply reported—they are owned.

A National Opportunity to Realign the System

The United States does not lack data in child welfare. What it lacks, at times, is alignment between data, practice, and accountability.

We measure activity, but we do not always connect it to outcomes.
We develop plans, but we do not always ensure execution.
We track exits, but we do not always follow what happens next.

This creates a system that is active, but not always effective.

The opportunity ahead is to realign these elements – to ensure that recruitment leads to matching, that matching leads to permanency, and that permanency leads to sustained outcomes. This requires both structural change and cultural shift. It requires seeing children not as cases to be processed, but as individuals whose lives are shaped by every decision we make.

A Final Reflection: What We Choose to Measure Shapes What We Achieve

A child exits foster care. The case is closed. The system records a success.

But the real story unfolds afterward.

Does the child remain in that home?
Do they call someone when something goes wrong?
Do they experience belonging – not just placement?

These are the outcomes that matter.

And they are the outcomes we must learn to measure, support, and sustain.

Because in the end, permanency is not an event.

It is a relationship that either holds – or does not.

References

1. AFCARS / national foster care data (2024–2025): ~328,000 children in care nationally
2. National foster care exits: 45% reunification, 27% adoption, 11% guardianship
3. Illinois CASA (2025): permanency outcomes (5,374 children; 9.9% adoption; 3.4% guardianship)
4. Children and Family Research Center (Illinois): outcome monitoring and system performance

About Let It Be Us:
Let It Be Us is a nonprofit organization dedicated to recruitment, matching and placement within foster care and adoption across the State of Illinois. Through innovative programming and strategic partnerships, Let It Be Us aims to improve outcomes for children in the child welfare system. Learn more at www.letitbeus.org.

Dr. Susan A. McConnell, DSW, MBA

Dr. Susan A. McConnell is the Founder and Executive Director of Let It Be Us, an Illinois licensed child welfare agency with the mission of providing collaborative, innovative solutions of effective recruitment and placement within Illinois foster care and adoption. Susan has an MBA from DePaul University and a Doctorate Degree in Social Work from the University of Southern California, where her work focused on permanency within child welfare.  She is the Chair of the Permanency Committee of the Illinois Statewide Foster Care Advisory Council, appointed by the Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in 2017. She is also an adoptive parent with over 30 years of open adoption experience. She can be reached at susanmcconnell@letitbeus.org.

Let It Be Us is an Illinois 501(c)3 and licensed child welfare agency. The mission of Let It Be Us is to provide collaborative, innovative solutions of effective recruitment and placement within Illinois foster care and adoption. The Let It Be Us platform manages the Adoption Listing Service of Illinois and the Heart Gallery of Illinois, engines of success for Illinois foster care adoptions. The Let It Be Us vision is for all children in the Illinois child welfare system to achieve educational equity, employment equity, and overall well being through the incorporation of Let It Be Us Programming into statewide advancements in foster care and adoption recruitment and placement. For more information about Let It Be Us, visit www.letitbeus.org.