This measure represents DCFS's ability to assess and monitor safety on an ongoing basis throughout a family's involvement with the agency. This data comes from the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) Item 3b. CFSR is a federal-state collaborative effort designed to help ensure that quality services are provided to children and families through state child welfare systems. Cases are randomly pulled and then 2 trained reviewers review case files and conduct interviews with the parents, child(ren), therapists, caseworkers, and attorneys to determine the quality of DCFS and the community’s efforts to assist the family with promoting safety and receiving the services needed to remedy the concerns that brought them to the attention of DCFS.

The percentage indicates the number of cases that were found to adequately assess and monitor safety throughout the life of the case (also known as a 'strength'). Cases are scored on a pass/fail basis of either 'strength' or 'area needing improvement'. The requirements to receive a 'strength' rating are rigorous and difficult to obtain. If there is any room for improvement at all, the item as a whole is not considered a strength.

The quarterly percentages are based on a rolling 12-months of state-wide CFSR reviews. The baseline is FY 2023, which was 69.66%.

When DCFS gets called upon to assess the safety of children, the initial assessing and monitoring safety efforts tend to be robust and effective as that is the primary role of the CPS worker. The agency tends to struggle with consistently assessing safety and risk for ongoing cases (home based services and fostering services) as the ongoing caseworker’s responsibilities increase and become much more complex. If any of the following items are overlooked or not completed for some reason during the review period, it would be identified as an area needing improvement.

1. A gap or lapse in continual assessing AND monitoring safety and risk.  There are multiple situations where a gap may happen such as during the transition from a CPS worker to an ongoing worker or when a child is transitioned home to his or her parent(s).  
2. A lack of either assessing or monitoring safety and risk throughout the period under review that DCFS is involved in providing services.
3. It is expected that the worker conducts monthly private interviews with ALL children that DCFS is working with.  If it is a foster care case, that is the foster child and any children that may be still in the care of the parents that DCFS removed from.  If it is a home based case, it is having private conversation with every child in the home.  For a non-verbal child, the worker needs to assess the environment and make observations to determine the safety of the child.
4. There needs to be evidence in the case logs that these interviews include meeting with each child individually and outside the presence of the caregiver/parents and that safety was discussed with each child at least monthly.  It also needs to be determined if these private interviews are being held at a sufficient frequency and quality.

DCFS set a goal to improve scores on CFSR Item 3b over FY 2025. DCFS is seeing an overall upward trend. These trends have been analyzed and are now active tactics addressed in the 2025 RBA Plan.