Report Description
This report provides detail on welfare and/or probation supervised child welfare case closures for a specified year. The number of distinct children with case closures and distinct case closures per year as well as the reason for case closure (e.g. Family Stabilized, Adoption) are provided.
Refresh Schedule
This report is refreshed quarterly. For information on publication schedules, please refer to Source Data below.
Time Periods
This report uses rolling year time periods. Available Intervals: Jan-Dec, Apr-Mar, Jul-Jun, & Oct-Sep. The option to display All intervals is also offered. The earliest available time period for this report is Jan 1, 1998 – Dec 31, 1998. The end date of the most recent time period corresponds with the most recent quarterly extract. For Over Time Views you have the option to select the earliest year displayed, which controls the display for tables and graphs.
Report Data
This report uses the Case Files. For information on these files, please refer to Source Data below.
Notes on Source Data
Refresh Schedule:
| Extract name | Data cutoff | Website refreshed by |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter 1 | April 1 | July 1 |
| Quarter 2 | July 1 | October 1 |
| Quarter 3 | October 1 | January 1 (following year) |
| Quarter 4 | January 1 | April 1 |
For example, the CWS/CMS 2025 Quarter 3 Extract (Q3 25) reported on events up to the data cutoff of October 1, 2025. Reports based on the Q3 25 extract were available on the website by January 1, 2025.
For reporting purposes, we use the CWS/CMS extracts to construct three primary longitudinal analysis files types (allegation, foster care, and case) which track children’s histories in the Child Welfare System. In addition to specifying supervising county and capturing child-level demographics, these files include additional information:
Allegation File
– This file includes one row for each allegation for each child, including allegation type, reporter type, responses such as investigation, as well as allegation disposition (e.g., substantiated, inconclusive, and unfounded).
Foster Care Files
– These files include one row for each placement home for each child, including dates of entries and exits to foster care, placement type, and length of stay.
Case Files
– The primary file includes one row for each case service component for each child. Secondary files serve to locate cases within caseloads, offices, and counties. The files include information about children’s case services, including case openings and closings, and service components.
Population Data Files
– Includes California Department of Finance (DOF) annual child population counts and Poverty Population Estimates derived from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).
Quarterly Wage File
– Quarterly Wage data from 1993 forward for all children age 16 and older with a record of an out-of-home foster care placement in the Child Welfare Services / Case Management System (CWS/CMS) since January 1, 1998.
Postsecondary Enrollment Data
– Postsecondary Enrollment data for children age 16 and older with a record of an out-of-home foster care placement in the Child Welfare Services / Case Management System (CWS/CMS).
Important Note
Data are unduplicated separately for the state and for each county. As a result, the sum of counties may exceed the statewide total.
Methods
The Case Service Components in effect when the case was closed are reported as follows:
- Permanent Placement [1695]
- Family Reunification [1694]
- Family Maintenance [1693]
- No Placement
- Post-Placement
- Post-Placement FM [1693]
- Emergency Response [1692]
- Supportive Transition [6540]
Family Maintenance case services provided after Family Reunification and/or Permanent Placement case services provided during the same case opening are classed as Post-Placement FM case services. Otherwise Family Maintenance case services are classed as No Placement FM services.
If more than one Service Component is assigned when the case is closed, the last Service Component initiated is reported.
This analysis does not include cases with an Intervention Reason Type of “Incoming ICPC Request” because the sending state retains responsibility for the case.
Probation data are not available for years prior to 2012 because CWS/CMS Case functionality was not available to Probation in all counties before 2012.
Notes
A selection of “Children with Closures” for the “Case Count” variable will produce frequency counts of distinct (unduplicated) Children with Closures. With this option, data are unduplicated separately for the state and for each county. As a result, the sum of counties may exceed the statewide total. In addition, a selection of two or more grouped counties may produce a slight overcount: children exiting more than one county during the year are counted for each county they exit. An individual selection (California or any individual county) produces a true unduplicated count. If “All Closures” is selected, reported frequencies will be at the closure level (i.e., multiple case closings for the same child during a specified time period will be counted).
Age is calculated at the date the case closed.
County is assigned in this analysis using the county specific code from the case table, which is the most recent county to which the case was assigned.
Cells containing a period (“.”) represent a value of zero. In cells representing quotients, a period may also indicate the indeterminate form 0/0.
The following methodology may include references to report features not available on the public site version. On the public site, masking is performed to protect the privacy of individuals served by CDSS and comply with CDSS data de-identification guidelines. Values of 1 to 10 and calculations based on values of 1 to 10 are masked (‘M’ or ‘*’). In stratified views of the data, additional values (the lowest available) are masked to prevent calculation of values 1 to 10.
Secure Site Features
The report may also be run with filters in place to restrict the data to various subgroups of other variables (e.g., Black subgroup of the Ethnicity variable, < 1 year old subgroup of the Age variable, etc.). Please see Report Dimensions and Filters for details.
Report Dimensions and Filters
Reports can be stratified based on the supervising agency. For cases under the supervision of Child Welfare, children are assigned to the county in which there is an open case or referral. Probation and Other agency supervised cases are assigned to the county in which there is an open case, referral, or state id county code. The CWS/CMS codes for each agency are drawn from the variable placement_episode.agency_responsible_type (plc_epst.agy_rspc) and listed below:
- Child Welfare
- County Welfare Department (34)
- Probation
- County Probation Department (33, 5603)
- Other
- State Adoptions District Office (37, 5606)
- Indian Child Welfare (5602)
Agency types of Out of State Agency (35, 5604), Private Adoption Agency (36, 5605), Mental Health (6133), KinGAP (6134), and Missing are excluded from all analyses.
Please note that the federal outcome measures for the second round of the Child and Family Services Review that include foster care data are based on Child Welfare, Probation and Other data. California CWS Outcomes System measures are based on Child Welfare data ONLY.
Child age is organized by the following intervals and derived from a child’s date of birth as captured in the CWS/CMS variable birth_dt:
- < 1 yr*
- 1-2 yrs
- 3-5 yrs
- 6-10 yrs
- 11-15 yrs
- 16-17 yrs
- 18-20 yrs OR 18-21 yrs**
The calculation of age is based on a date appropriate for the particular report. For example, the ‘Entries to Foster Care’ report calculates the age of children and youth on the day they enter foster care. ‘Exits from Foster Care’, on the other hand, calculates age at exit.
When Age Group is not selected as a row or column dimension, users may filter reports to include children of specific ages (e.g., only 3 year olds) or to create a different age category than those shown above (e.g., a group of 2-6 year olds). This is done by checking those age boxes for which report data are to be included.
* In some reports, this category is separated into infants with ages of less than one month (‘<1 mo’) and others less than one year old (i.e., ‘1-11 mo’).
** The available age range varies by report.
- The Child and Family Services Review, round 3 (CFSR3) reports, for example, are restricted to children and youth less than 18 years old. The age groupings and available age filters reflect these ranges.
- In some reports, ‘18-21 yrs’ is separated into ‘18 + 60 days’, ‘18 + > 60 days’, and ‘19-21 yrs’:
- 18 + 60 days: Youth who are in the first 60 days of their 18th year
- 18 + > 60 days: Other 18-year-old youth (i.e., older than 18 plus 60 days)
- 19 to 21 year olds.
These categories are intended to support analysis of the effects of the implementation of Assembly Bill 12 (AB12). AB12 allows youth to voluntarily remain in or reenter foster care. Youth exiting as part of the ‘18 + 60 days’ group are more likely to have experienced a conventional exit; those in the ‘18 + > 60 days’ and ‘19-21 yrs’ group are more likely to have made use of the AB12 changes.
- In Transition-Age Youth Research & Evaluation Hub (TAY-Hub) reports, the age range is limited to youth in care age 18-20 or 18-21 years. In these cases, rather than presenting grouped ages, the ages 18, 19, 20, and 21 (if applicable), are presented as separate rows or columns. This approach is intended to allow a focus on older youth and to provide a detailed stratification by age.
Child ethnicity is collapsed into six groups based on 31 codes from the CWS/CMS variables p_ethnctyc and hisp_cd. Ethnic groups and codes are listed below:
- Black
- Black (823)
- Ethiopian (826)
- White
- White (839)
- White-Armenian (840)
- White-Central American (841)
- White-European (842)
- White-Middle Eastern (843)
- White-Romanian (844)
- Latino
- Those children coded as Hispanic using the Hispanic Origin indicator (hisp_cd = ‘Y’), regardless of primary ethnicity (p_ethnctyc) selection
- Hispanic (830)
- Mexican (3164)
- South American (3165)
- Caribbean (3162)
- Central American (3163)
- Asian/PI
- Asian Indian (822)
- Cambodian (824)
- Chinese (825)
- Filipino (827)
- Guamanian (828)
- Hawaiian (829)
- Japanese (831)
- Korean (832)
- Laotian (833)
- Other Asian/Pacific Islander (834)*
- Other Asian (5922)
- Other Pacific Islander (5923)
- Hmong (835)
- Polynesian (836)
- Samoan (837)
- Vietnamese (838)
- Native American
- Alaskan Native (820)
- American Indian (821)
*Code is inactive.
Note: In late 2017, CDSS provided instruction to counties to ask clients which of the federally recognized races (those marked with an asterisk in CWS/CMS) they identify with. Once a federally recognized race is selected, a secondary “Hispanic” ethnicity can be selected in Other Ethnicity. If the client does not identify with any federally recognized race, then workers were asked to select “Declines to State” as the primary race. However, the Hispanic Origin indicator should always be marked as “Yes” for children with Latino backgrounds in order to avoid accidental categorization into Missing.
When ethnicity is not selected as a dimension on the website, the default filter includes Missing values and all ethnicities. Users can also filter *DYNAMIC* reports to include only children of specific ethnic groups (e.g., only Native American and White children) by checking those ethnicities for which report data are to be included.
Census-based Ethnicity’ option (available on some reports) labels will read ‘Hispanic’ rather than ‘Latino’ for consistency with Census Bureau usage.
Ethnic groups for population data and rates reports are based on the California Department of Finance annual population projections.
- Black
- White
- Latino
- Asian/PI
- Native American
- Multi-Race
In the rates reports and disparity indices, the denominators–child population based on California Department of Finance data–may include children/youth in the multi-race category. However, the numerators–children with allegations, children with investigations, etc., based on CWS/CMS–always have null values for multi-race, since we do not construct a multi-race category from CWS/CMS data. Conversely, ethnicity may be missing in CWS/CMS and, in those cases, rates numerators are categorized as missing. Department of Finance population data does not include a missing category and, therefore, that row is always null for the denominators of the rates reports. Given these differences between the data sources and the resulting null values, no rates are calculated for the multi-race or missing rows.
See Population methodology for important details.
Note: For Transition Age Youth (TAY) reports, the category Missing is suppressed, therefore the total for this dimension will differ from the total for other dimensions in the same report.
The Census collects and reports data on race (Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, White, and Native American) separately from data on Hispanic status. One may report as being of more than one race. A person of any race can report as being Hispanic or not. The following table compares the standard CWS/CMS (Primary Ethnicity) method of reporting race and ethnicity with the Census method of reporting race and ethnicity. For our purposes, the important differences between these two methods are:
| Primary Ethnicity Method | Census Method | |
|---|---|---|
| Data Source | Race/Ethnicity is based on the CWS/CMS primary race/ethnicity variable and the CWS/CMS Hispanic status variable. CWS/CMS Secondary Ethnicity data is not utilized. | In addition to the data used in the Primary Ethnicity Method, the Census Method uses CWS/CMS Secondary Race/Ethnicity variable. |
| Hispanic status | Hispanic is treated as a race – One can be Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, White, Hispanic, Native American. If a person’s Hispanic status variable is yes, that person is reported as Hispanic irrespective of the race/ethnicity reported in the primary race/ethnicity variable. | Hispanic status is reported separately from race. A Hispanic, or non-Hispanic person, is asked to report their race, i.e., Asian, Black, White, etc. Because most Hispanics do not report another race on CWS/CMS, the race of most Hispanics is missing. |
| Multiple Races | Only the primary race/ethnicity (adjusted for Hispanic status) is reported, so nobody is reported as being of mixed race. | Both primary and secondary races are considered. Persons reporting two or more races (e.g., Black primary race/ethnicity and White secondary race/ethnicity) are reported as being of mixed race. |
| Native Americans | Only people who report a primary race/ethnicity of Native American and who do not identify as Hispanic are reported as Native Americans. | A person is reported as Native American irrespective of Hispanic status. Native Americans of mixed race (e.g., White and Native American) are reported as being of mixed race. |
In the Census format, race is missing for most Hispanic children because their only primary or secondary race/ethnicity reported on CWS/CMS is one in the Hispanic group (i.e., Hispanic, Mexican, Central American, etc.). Because secondary race/ethnicity is considered, the count of Hispanic children is somewhat greater in the Census Method than in the Primary Ethnicity Method.
The consideration of reported secondary race/ethnicities in the Census method results in some children being reported as being of mixed race. As a result the count of non-Hispanic Black, White and Asian/Pacific Islander children is lower in the Census Method than in the Primary Ethnicity Method.
Because many people who identify as Native Americans also identify as Hispanic, the Census method reports more Native Americans than the Primary Ethnicity method does. However, this increase is dampened because secondary race/ethnicity is considered and children with a Primary Race of Native American often report other secondary races, e.g., White.
The Census Method first creates two ethnic groups – Hispanic and non-Hispanic. A child is identified as Hispanic if the hisp_cd on the Client table is Yes or the p_ethnctyc on the Client table or the ethnctyc on the Client_SCP_Ethnicity table is one of the following:
- Hispanic (830)
- Mexican (3164)
- South American (3165)
- Caribbean (3162)
- Central American (3163)
After Hispanic status has been determined, race is determined by collapsing the non-Hispanic race codes from the CWS/CMS variables p_ethnctyc on the Client table and ethnctyc on the Client_SCP_Ethnicity table into five race groups. Reporting of mixed race is determined as described above. Race/ethnic groups and codes are listed below:
- Black
- Black (823)
- Ethiopian (826)
- White
- White (839)
- White-Armenian (840)
- White-Central American (841)
- White-European (842)
- White-Middle Eastern (843)
- White-Romanian (844)
- Asian/PI
- Asian Indian (822)
- Cambodian (824)
- Chinese (825)
- Filipino (827)
- Guamanian (828)
- Hawaiian (829)
- Japanese (831)
- Korean (832)
- Laotian (833)
- Other Asian (5922)
- Other Pacific Islander (5923)
- Hmong (835)
- Polynesian (836)
- Samoan (837)
- Vietnamese (838)
- Native American
- Alaskan Native (820)
- American Indian (821)
- Missing
Child sex at birth is based on the CWS/CMS variable gender_cd and categorized as Female (1), Male (2) or Intersex (3).
Children for whom Sex at Birth is not coded are reported as Missing.
When Sex at Birth is not selected as a dimension, the default filter includes Missing values and Female, Male and Intersex. Users can also filter reports to include only children of a specific gender (e.g., only Male children) by checking the sex at birth for which report data are to be included.
Note: For Transition Age Youth (TAY) reports, the categories Intersex and Missing are suppressed, therefore the total for this dimension will differ from the total for other dimensions in the same report.
Reports can be run to include only cases open 7 days or less, only cases open lasting 8 days or more, or All case openings regardless of length. The length of a given episode is computed by subtracting the CWS/CMS case effective date variable (EFFECTV_DT), from the case end date variable (END_DT).
Reports can be stratified based on the service component at case closure.
Family Maintenance case services provided after Family Reunification and/or Permanent Placement case services provided during the same case opening are classed as Post-Placement FM case services. Otherwise Family Maintenance case services are classed as No Placement FM services.
- Permanent Placement [1695]
- Family Reunification [1694]
- No Placement FM [1693]
- Post-Placement FM [1693]
- Emergency Response [1692]
- Supportive Transition [6540]
Please note that children receiving No Placement Family Maintenance services may later be placed in out-of-home care–as part of the same or a subsequent case.