Point in time counts of children in out-of-home care last day of each state fiscal year.

These data are related to DCYF’s Office of Innovation, Alignment, and Accountability (OIAA) prevention dashboards, published to support the agency’s efforts to prevent child maltreatment. Those dashboards can be found here: https://www.dcyf.wa.gov/practice/oiaa/reports/prevention-dashboard

Much of the data requested by the Strengthen Families Locally communities to inform their planning, and thus contained in these initial dashboards and datasets, are what we know about children entering out-of-home care (OOH care) – age distribution, counts, rates, trends over time, and race/ethnicity. In 2022, about 3,370 children entered out of home care statewide, a record low for Washington State.

The prevention dashboards and datasets also include descriptive data on children in Child Protection Services (CPS) intakes – rates of intakes “screened-in” for a CPS response, as well as the types of referents referring to CPS. In 2022, DCYF received CPS intakes involving over 89,000 children statewide, and 46,000 total children in intakes screened in for a CPS response.

Some of the data focus on children aged 0 to 1 (or birth to just under 2 years old). This group of children enter out-of-home care at a high rate, and the Strengthen Families Locally communities have identified that early intervention with this group of children and their families can be especially impactful.

OIAA expects to update these dashboards and datasets annually. In addition, we will be working to develop additional dashboards to support other related DCYF prevention efforts.