The Center for State Foster Care and Adoption Data, a partnership of the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, was established to bring member child welfare agencies cutting-edge information technology for performance measurement. Developed at Chapin Hall, one of the country's leading centers for research on child welfare, the Center's pioneering information management tools provide agencies with an evidence base to assess their program initiatives and monitor the impact of innovation.

The Center's unique database gives state administrators a powerful new capacity to:

• Analyze key child welfare outcomes: time to reunification, time to adoption, placement stability, and re-entry to care
• Compare outcomes for different administrative offices within their state or with other states
• Trace outcomes from the aggregate to the individual child level
• Project future service patterns based on historical trends
• Test the impact of service and policy innovations
• Set performance goals and monitor progress
• Link financial decision-making to outcome measures
• Tell their story to the media and make their case to legislators

Core funding for the Center comes from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Center's database supports the outcome measurement required for states participating in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Family to Family Initiative.