AUSTIN – Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published new research, Right for Kids Ranking, which provides an annual look at how well each state performs at achieving the best results for kids who enter the foster care system.
“The Right for Kids Ranking represents a sea change in how to assess state child welfare system performance,” said Andrew C. Brown, J.D., Director of TPPF’s Center for Families and Children. “By ranking states based solely on how well they do at meeting the needs of kids in foster care and showing how they measure up against other states, it is our hope that the Right for Kids Ranking inspires states to enact transformational reforms that give every child the opportunity to flourish.”
Despite spending billions of dollars every year on child welfare, state governments routinely fail the most vulnerable children in our country.
“The average American, and even most policymakers, pay little attention to how their state’s child welfare system performs,” said Nikki Pressley, policy analyst with TPPF’s Center for Families & Children. “Failures go unnoticed for years until a tragedy, usually the death of a child, grabs the public’s attention. Even when child welfare reform becomes a priority, the conversation often focuses on operational aspects like caseloads, funding, and foster parent recruitment efforts instead of the most important priority – actual results for kids.”
The Right for Kids Ranking aims to provide a reality check on how we assess performance. Seven major outcome categories related to safety, permanency, stability, and older youth in care were identified. Within these seven categories, 22 unique performance indicators were analyzed.
To read the report in full, please visit: