Permanency Is Not a Policy Goal. It Is a Life Outcome.

Part 1 of a Thought Leadership Series on Permanency, Matching, and Outcomes in Foster Care

The Question Every Child Is Asking

On a Tuesday afternoon in Illinois, a teenager sits across from a prospective parent at a restaurant. He studies the menu longer than necessary. He answers questions carefully. He knows how these meetings can go.

He has learned how to present himself in a way that might make someone stay.

But what he cannot control – what no child in foster care can ever truly control – is whether this adult will be the one who does.

That question – will you stay? – is the quiet, constant question behind every case file, every placement, every conversation in child welfare.

It is also the question that defines permanency.

What Permanency Means – And What It Does Not

We often talk about permanency as a system goal as something to be achieved, tracked, and reported. But for children, permanency is not a metric. It is the difference between temporary care and lifelong belonging.

Permanency is defined as a safe, stable, and lasting family relationship [1]. It is something that only one person needs to provide, not a big family, like we often think. But that definition, while accurate, only captures part of the truth. Permanency is not just about where a child lives. It is about whether a child has someone who will show up for them, consistently, over time, without expiration.

In practice, permanency has three dimensions: a legal outcome, a stable placement, and a lasting relationship. Systems tend to measure the first. Children live the second and the third.

The Illinois Reality: Scale, Time, and Urgency (statistics)

In Illinois, there are approximately 17,500 children and youth in foster care at any given time [2]. This number has been lowered over time, as less and less children come into foster care as the system implements practices and legislation designed to strengthen families. Regardless, each one who does enter foster care is waiting. Not just for safety, but for connection.

In 2024, just over 5,300 children achieved permanency. Only 9.9% exited through adoption, and 3.4% through guardianship [2]. Thousands more remain in care, often for extended periods of time.

Research from the Children and Family Research Center shows that nearly half of children entering care in Illinois are not placed in a permanent home within three years [3].

For a child, three years is not a statistic.

It is childhood.

Three Pathways to Permanency … And What They Really Look Like

Permanency is not one outcome. It is a set of pathways, each with different implications for a child’s life.

#1 Reunification: When Families Heal

Sometimes, permanency means a child returns home. A parent completes treatment, stabilizes, and rebuilds the capacity to care for their child safely. A family is strengthened through employment. A family is strengthened through support. Often continued support. 

When reunification works, it preserves identity and connection in a way no other outcome can. But it requires sustained support. Without it, the risk of re-entry remains real.

#2 Adoption: When a Child Is Placed With a New Family 

At Let It Be Us, when a child is not able to stay home or return home, we see the moment when adoption shifts a child’s trajectory.

A child who has waited … sometimes for years … meets a family not just willing, but prepared.

Through the Adoption Listing Service of Illinois, managed by Let It Be Us, we focus on precision-based, relational matching. Not just finding afamily, but the right one.

For children and teens 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.

That number represents something far more than performance.

It represents belonging.

Learn more about this work:
https://letitbeus.org

#3 Guardianship or Adoption With Family: When Family Steps Forward

In other cases, permanency comes through kinship. A grandmother, an aunt, a trusted adult steps forward and creates stability without severing family ties.

Guardianship often moves more quickly than adoption and preserves continuity. When supported well, it can be both permanent and deeply relational. Guardianship has become an integral option in permanency. 

What Happens When Permanency Does Not Happen

The absence of permanency is not neutral. It shapes outcomes in predictable and concerning ways. Young people who leave foster care without a permanent family face significantly higher risks of homelessness, unemployment, lower educational attainment, and involvement with the justice system [4].

These outcomes are not accidental. They are the result of disconnection. They are, in all reality, assured. 

Adoption and Outcomes: What the Research Tells Us

Education: Stability Makes Learning Possible

When a child achieves permanency through adoption, as compared to growing up within foster care, something fundamental begins to shift – not just in where they live, but in how they learn, think, and see their future. Research consistently shows that those children who exit foster care to adoption are more likely to graduate high school, pursue postsecondary education, and demonstrate stronger cognitive and academic outcomes compared to those who remain in long-term foster care [2][4]. But these outcomes are not simply the result of a legal change. They are the result of stability.

Learning requires more than intelligence or opportunity … it requires consistency. It requires a child to wake up in the same home, attend the same school, and trust that the adults around them will remain. For children in foster care, frequent placement changes often mean disrupted schooling, gaps in instruction, and the emotional toll of starting over again and again. Over time, this instability compounds, making it harder for a child to focus, engage, and succeed academically.

Adoption interrupts that cycle. It creates the conditions for continuity – of school, of expectations, of support. A child who is no longer wondering where they will live next month can begin to think about next year. A child who feels secure in their home can take risks, and develop relationships in the classroom. They can invest in relationships with teachers, participate in activities, and begin to imagine themselves as a student with a future.

Education, in this sense, is not just an outcome of permanency – it is a reflection of it. Stability does not guarantee success, but it makes success possible in ways that instability never can.

Mental Health: When the Nervous System Settles

A child who has experienced multiple placements does not simply “adjust” when they enter a permanent home. At first, they may wait. They may watch. They may test whether this home will be different from the others. But over time – when the adults remain consistent, when expectations are predictable, when care is steady … something begins to shift.

The nervous system settles.

Sleep, which may have been fragmented or restless, becomes deeper and more regular. Hypervigilance softens. A child who once scanned every room for signs of change begins, slowly, to feel safe enough to rest. Trust does not appear all at once, but it builds in moments: a caregiver showing up after a hard day, a promise kept, a reaction that is calm instead of punitive. These moments accumulate, and with them comes the possibility of emotional regulation.

For many children in foster care, behavioral challenges are not simply “behavior” – they are adaptations to instability, trauma, and loss. Frequent placement changes disrupt attachment and reinforce uncertainty, making it difficult for a child to regulate emotions, form secure relationships, or feel a sense of control. In this context, behaviors such as withdrawal, defiance, or anxiety are often expressions of a nervous system under stress.

Adoption, when it is thoughtfully matched and well supported, interrupts that pattern. It provides the consistency necessary for healing. Research shows that children who achieve permanency through adoption experience improved wellbeing, stronger attachment, and reductions in behavioral challenges over time [2]. But these improvements are not automatic. They are relational. They depend on caregivers who understand trauma, who respond with patience, and who are supported themselves.

This is why post-adoption services matter so deeply. Therapy, community, education for parents, and ongoing support systems are not optional – they are essential. When families are supported, children are more likely to experience sustained improvements in mental health, resilience, and overall wellbeing.

What we see, again and again, is this: when a child no longer has to protect themselves from constant change, they can begin to grow. When they no longer have to ask “what happens next?”, they can begin to ask “what is possible?”

And that is when healing truly begins.

Suicide Risk: The Role of Connection

Youth who have experienced foster care face significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation and attempts than their peers. This is one of the most sobering and consistent findings in the research. The reasons are complex, but they are also deeply understandable: repeated loss, disrupted attachments, instability, and the absence of a reliable, enduring adult presence. Over time, these experiences can shape how a young person sees themselves and their future. When connection is inconsistent, hope can become fragile.

Instability is not just logistical – it is emotional. Each move, each disrupted relationship, reinforces a message: nothing lasts. For some young people, that message becomes internalized. It can lead to isolation, depression, and a diminished sense of belonging. And without belonging, the risk of despair increases.

But the research also points us toward something powerful and actionable. The presence of even one consistent, committed adult relationship – someone who shows up, follows through, and remains – can significantly reduce these risks [4]. Not a program. Not a short-term intervention. A person.

This is what makes permanency so critical. A permanent relationship offers more than stability – it offers anchoring. It provides a young person with someone to call in moments of crisis, someone who knows their story, someone who holds continuity across time. It creates a sense of being seen and known, which is fundamental to mental health.

We see this in practice. A young person who once struggled alone begins to reach out. A difficult day does not escalate the same way it once did, because there is someone to turn to. The presence of a stable adult does not erase trauma, but it changes how that trauma is carried. It introduces co-regulation, guidance, and reassurance – elements that are essential for emotional safety.

Permanency, in this sense, is not simply about providing a home. It is about interrupting isolation. It is about replacing uncertainty with connection, and disconnection with belonging.

And that is why permanency is not just a child welfare goal.

It is, quite literally, a matter of survival.

The Shift We Must Make: From Placement to Relationship

For too long, systems have asked: Where can we place this child?

The more important question is: Who will show up for this child – for life?

At Let It Be Us, our work is grounded in this shift. We believe that:

• Matching is relational, not transactional
• Children are not interchangeable
• Families must be understood – not just approved

This is why we prioritize deep conversation with families. Because the right match is not found in a database alone. It is built through understanding.

A Final Reflection: The Measure That Matters

That teenager at the restaurant is now 19.

He still calls her.

Not because he has to.

Because she is his person.

That is permanency.

Not a case closed. Not a system milestone.

A relationship that holds.

What Comes Next in This Series

This is Part 1 of a three-part series on permanency.

Part 2: Why Matching Is the Most Undervalued Lever in Child Welfare
→ How precision-based, relational matching improves permanency rates and reduces disruption

Part 3: Measuring What Matters: Outcomes, Accountability, and the Future of Permanency
→ What systems should measure – and how we build a model that truly works for children

References

1. Child Welfare Information Gateway. Permanency definition and framework.
2. Illinois CASA (2025). Illinois child welfare statistics: 17,589 youth in care; permanency outcomes.
3. Children and Family Research Center (Illinois). Permanency timelines and outcomes.
4. Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) 2024–2025 data on outcomes and aging out.

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.