Announcements

Erratum: Placement Stability -- Entry Cohort   -- (06/01/2026)

Secure Website

Correction to the classification of Temporary Shelter Care Facility

As of June 1, 2026, for the Placement Stability—Entry Cohort report, we corrected the classification of the placement type Temporary Shelter Care Facility (PLC_FCLC = 7027) from 'Other' to 'Shelter.' As a result, for the state as a whole and for counties that use this placement facility type, there was a shift from the 'Other' to the 'Shelter' category when compared to previously posted distributions.
Please note that this applies only to the secure site version of the Placement Stability—Entry Cohort report. The public version of this report does not provide a placement-type distribution. In addition, the Federal Measure CFSR4-P5 Placement Stability report was not affected by this change.

New in Q4 2025  -- (04/01/2026)

Public and Secure Website

Population and Rates Updates

Secure Website

Dynamic Placement Location Report

  • This new secure-site Placement Location report answers, “For the selected supervising county, in which counties are children and youth placed?” providing detail beyond what is offered by the Placement Location variable in the In Care/Point-in-Time Count reports.
  • The report provides the same data as the county rows in the static Out-of-County Placements report grids, but with greater detail and flexibility. The Single County Detail View allows users to select a column variable to stratify the report (e.g., by age, sex at birth, race/ethnicity, placement type, etc.) and apply filters to examine placement location by county for selected subgroups.
  • The addition of this report does not change the Placement Location variable in the In Care/Point-in-Time reports; it provides a more detailed interface using the same underlying dataset.

Modification to 4B(1) Least Restrictive First Placement and 4B(2) Least Restrictive Predominant Placement

  • In support of greater visibility of placements for Native American children, Assembly Bill 562, and a forthcoming All County Letter to support counties in complying with this legislation, the CCWIP team is modifying the display of the First Placement Type variable for Measure 4B(1) Least Restrictive First Placement and the Predominant Placement Type variable for Measure 4B(2) Least Restrictive Predominant Placement. These measures will be modified so that children in Tribally Approved Homes (PLC_FCLC = 7208) are counted in a new row, "Tribally Approved Home," instead of in the row titled "Other."

CWS Outcomes Workbooks: 'Desired Direction' Indicator Added to Charts

  • Charts in the CWS Outcomes workbooks now display the desired direction in the legend. This approach retains directional information when you export or clip only the chart.

New in Q3 2025  -- (12/19/2025)

Public and Secure Website

  • The Child Population annual counts have been updated to incorporate the California Department of Finance (DOF) 2020–2070 Population Projections, released on September 30, 2025. These population data are also used in the Rates, Disparity, and Poverty Population reports.

New in Q2 2025  -- (10/01/2025)

Public and Secure Website

Secure Website

  • New County Memorization Feature: With the Q2 25 Extract, the secure website, by default, will retain your county or county group selection across reports for Single County Detail View and Single County Over Time. For example, if you select Fresno County in the Single County Detail View for Measure 4-P3: Permanency in 12 Months for Children in Foster Care 24 Months or More, and then navigate to Case Openings, the Fresno County selection will be retained. The 'Update County Selection' dialog box will allow you to change this setting using a 'Remember County Selection' toggle at the top. If you turn off the feature, your county selection will not be retained, and new views and reports will default to data for the entire State of California. County memorization is effective for each session; however, your selection is not retained from one session to the next (i.e., you will need to reset your county selection the next time you log in to the secure site).

New in Q1 2025  -- (07/01/2025)

Public and Secure Website

  • We added the Placement Location (In/Out of county) enhancement to the In Care/Point-in-Time report.
    • Public Site: New Dimension that stratifies Placement Location by Adjacent County, Non-adjacent County, Out of State, Runaway, Missing, and Total.
      • Use it as a row or column in a California crosstab table or chart (California Detail View), or review trends over time (Single County Over Time)
      • Public In Care/Point-in-Time
    • Secure Site: New Dimension/Filter
      • Use it as a row or column in a crosstab table or chart (Single County Detail View), review trends over time (Single County Over Time), look at a point-in-time summary for California and all counties (All County Summary View), or apply it as a filter to other tables.
      • Secure In Care/Point-in-Time
    • Note: There are slight discrepancies between the number of children reported as 'Other State', 'Other County', and 'Missing' in the Out-of-County Placements Report and the In Care—Point in Time Count Report, with 'Placement Location' selected as a dimension. We are working to eliminate these discrepancies.
  • We included an Earliest Display Year option to the over-time views of Measure 4-S2: Recurrence of Maltreatment on both the secure and public sites this quarter.
  • The Child Population annual counts for the years 2020-2024 have been updated with the latest California Department of Finance (DOF) Report P-3: Population Projections by Race/Ethnicity, Detailed Age, and Gender, 2020-2070 - April 2025. These population data are also used in the Rates and Disparity reports.

Public Website

Secure Website

  • We added an ‘Interval’ option to the charts on the CWS Outcomes workbooks. These charts allow you to examine year-over-year values as before (‘Default’) or select ‘All Interval’ to view 3-month increments, that is, more detail over a shorter overall span. This option does not apply to the ‘Rates’ worksheet, since rates are presented as calendar years only.

Erratum: Los Angeles County Measure 4-S1  -- (05/28/2025)

From March 25, 2025, when we published reports based on the Q4 24 extract, until May 28, 2025, incorrect values were posted for the Los Angeles County denominators and rates for measure 4-S1: Maltreatment in Foster Care (most recent time period only: January-December 2024). As a result, the reported rates of maltreatment in care for that time period were inflated. Incorrect values were also posted in the county CWS Outcomes workbooks, the LA Regional workbook, and on the Safety Dashboard. The corrected values, representing better performance than originally indicated for the time period, are now available on the public and secure websites. Corrected workbooks have also been posted. Our apologies for any inconvenience or confusion caused by this error.
Please see:

New in Q4 2024  -- (04/01/2025)

Public and Secure Website

Errata

  • Re: Secure site measure 4E: ICWA Placement Preferences—ICWA Eligible and American Indian Ethnicity.
    From approximately 5:00 pm on March 25, when we went live with the Q4 24 extract, until approximately 5:30 pm on March 27, inflated values were posted for Los Angeles County when the All Counties Summary View, AB636 (Child Welfare) view, or the AB636 (Probation) view were used. Our apologies for any inconvenience or confusion. Corrected values have been available since March 27.
    Please see 4E: ICWA Placement Preferences (secure).

New in Q3 2024  -- (01/01/2025)

Secure Website

  • Major update to the secure site: We are pleased to announce we have updated our secure site to a new version (previewed last quarter). Secure Site 2 uses an expanded version of the public site interface with access to the data, report options, and filters that were available through the old secure site.

    Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) credentials are required to access the secure site. If you need to register for or reset your credentials, please visit the CWDS sign up page (external site).

    We encourage you to explore the new secure site. Please do not hesitate to contact us at cssr-webmaster@berkeley.edu with any questions, suggestions, or corrections.

  • CWS Outcomes workbooks

    We added a ‘desired direction’ indicator to the charts.

Public and Secure Website

  • We now use updated DOF Population Projections (2020-2070) for the Population and Rates reports.

Public Website

  • The Transition-Age Youth Research & Evaluation Hub (TAY-Hub) TAY Annual Earnings by Age report now presents inflation-adjusted earnings displayed in 2023 dollars.

New in Q2 2024  -- (10/01/2024)

Secure Website

  • Major update to the secure site: We have published our secure site as usual (Secure Site 1.0). We are very pleased to announce we have also made available, in parallel, a new version of the secure site (Secure Site 2.0 Beta version), with major improvements over Secure Site 1.0. Secure Site 2.0 uses an expanded version of the public site interface with access to the data, report options, and filters currently available on Secure Site 1.0.

    Secure 1.0 remains at our main secure site address for Quarter 2, 2024. To access the new site, please use this link to Secure Site 2.0 or, from the CCWIP home page, use the ‘More’ dropdown menu at top right and select ‘Secure 2.0 Beta.’ Within a session, the first time you move from Secure Site 1.0 to Secure Site 2.0, or vice versa, you will need to re-enter your Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) credentials.

    With next quarter’s Quarter 3, 2024 refresh (on or before January 1, 2025), we will retire Secure Site 1.0.

    We encourage you to explore the new secure site. Please do not hesitate to contact us at cssr-webmaster@berkeley.edu with any questions, suggestions, or corrections.

  • Out-of-County Placements (Placement Grids)

    This quarter, we produced the Out-of-County Placements (Placement Grids) report based on the UCB_PIT (Point-in-Time) file, which continues to exclude Non-Dependent Legal Guardians, but matches other point-in-time reports.

Public Website

  • We added a new Transition-Age Youth Research & Evaluation Hub (TAY-Hub) report, TAY Annual Earnings by Age, which uses Employment Development Department (EDD) earnings data (Q4 23 extract). The report displays average and median annual earnings for TAY at earnings ages 18 through 22 years and provides a variety of stratification options.

New in Q1 2024  -- (07/01/2024)

Non-Dependent Legal Guardians (NDLG) exclusion

The Entries, Exits, and Out-of-County Placements have been updated this quarter to exclude certain Non-Dependent Legal Guardians (NDLG), consistent with the changes to other reports in recent quarters.

Placement Type modification

Placement Type modification–we used the Caregiver Relationship (CWS/CMS variable SCP_RLTC) variable to recode some placement types, previously classified as Court Specified Home, into Relative/NREFM, decreasing the count of children and youth in the Court Specified Home category and increasing the count in Relative/NREFM. Specifically, Court Specified Home (1419) where SCP_RLTC = 1638 (Relative Guardian), 1639 (Relative Nonguardian), 6990 (NREFM Guardian), or 6991 (NREFM Nonguardian) is classed as Relative/NREFM. Therefore, the Court Specified category now consists of Court Specified (1419) where SCP_RLTC = 1636 (Nonrelative Guardian), 1637 (Nonrelative Nonguardian), 6715 (Self), or Missing.

Transition-Age Youth (TAY) / Employment Development Department (EDD) reports refreshed

We refreshed the Transition-Age Youth (TAY) reports that use Employment Development Department (EDD) data using the Q4 23 extracts for both the CWS/CMS and EDD data. We added the calendar year 2022 time period to the reports. Note: The TAY Enrollment Status by Age report, which uses National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data, will be refreshed, but later than the other TAY reports. We aim to have it refreshed and the new time period added by the end of July.

CFSR Data - Secure Website -

As of Quarter 1, 2024, CFSR Round 3 data workbooks are no longer available, however, counties will continue to have access to Measure 3-P4: CFSR Round 3 Re-entry to foster care. CFSR Round 4 data workbooks are available for download from the CWS Outcomes System Summary Files page.

New in Q4 2023  -- (04/01/2024)

Secure Website: CWS Outcomes Workbooks

Public and Secure Websites

Please note --  -- (01/19/2024)
Public and Secure Websites
  • The Point-in-Time/In Care Report has been updated to exclude children and youth in Non Dependent Legal Guardianship (NDLG) Placements, defined as being in a Guardian type home (PLC_HM_T.PLC_FCLC=5411) with a Guardian Non-Relative (1404) or Probate NRLG (6539) Legal Authority for Placement (LG_AUTHT.PLC_ATHC). The purpose of this update is to align the Point-in-Time/In Care Report with children and youth who are in foster care. This update will be applied to other reports in the coming quarters.
    Public Point-in-Time/In Care Report
    Secure Point-in-Time/In Care Report – login required
New in Q3 2023  -- (01/03/2024)
Public Websites
  • We refreshed the Regional Outcomes Data Books with data from the Quarter 3, 2023 extract. The Regional Data Books were introduced with the Quarter 2, 2023 extract to support CFSR4 CQI efforts. They contain the data that are included in the California Child Welfare Outcomes and Accountability System quarterly reports, summarized for the State of California as a whole and at a regional level.
New in Q2 2023  -- (10/01/2023)
Public Websites
  • A new Transition-Age Youth (TAY) report,TAY Cumulative Postsecondary Enrollment Status by Age, has been added to the TAY-Hub. TAY Cumulative Postsecondary Enrollment Status by Age links CWS/CMS and National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data to answer the question: Among Transition-Age Youth who were in out-of-home care (at some point Age 16-17) and turned 18 during a 12-month period, what was the highest institutional level of postsecondary enrollment, by selected follow-up ages, after they turned 18?
    The cumulative outcome ‘enrollment status’ is reported at the follow-up ages of 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23. Enrollment status reports the highest institutional level of enrollment as Never Enrolled, Enrolled 4-year Institution, or Enrolled 2-year-or-less Institution.
New in Q1 2023  -- (07/01/2023)
Public and Secure Websites
  • We reworked the supplemental Recurrence of Allegations report on the secure website and added it, as a new report, to the public site. This report presents information about recurrence for all disposition types. Note: Federal measure 4-S2 Recurrence of Allegations is a separate report, limited to substantiated allegations.

Public Website
  • We implemented a new framework on the Public site. The website’s general appearance and organization are largely unchanged. There are improvements to page navigation, chart labels and features, and accessibility.
New in Q4 2022  -- (04/01/2023)
Public and Secure Websites
  • A second Transition Age Youth (TAY) employment report, TAY Quarters Employed by Age, was added to the TAY-Hub. The purpose of this report is to identify older youth served by the system in the two years before legal adulthood and examine their subsequent employment outcomes. Specifically, for Transition Age Youth (TAY) who turned 18 during the selected calendar year and were in out-of-home care at some point Age 16-17, this measure examines the number of quarters employed for selected ages.
New in Q3 2022  -- (01/01/2023)
Public and Secure Websites
Transition to Child and Family Services Review, Round 4 (CFSR4) Secure Websites
  • Two full sets of CWS Outcomes workbooks are available: one set includes the new CFSR4 versions of measures and standards; the other set represents the CFSR3 versions, available for your reference. There are two separate download options on the CWS Outcomes download page.
New in Q2 2022  -- (10/01/2022)
Public and Secure Websites
New in Q1 2022  -- (07/01/2022)
Public and Secure Websites Public Website
New in Q4 2021  -- (04/01/2021)
New in Q3 2021  -- (12/23/2021)
  • We added California Detail Views (crosstab counts) to the Allegations, Entries, and In Care reports. Click on the 'California Detail View' to generate statewide crosstab output, and 'Report Options' button to specify time period, row and column dimensions for cross tabulations of statewide data.
    The crosstab output is available in an interactive chart and as a data table. Crosstabs are available directly via the following links:
    Allegations Detail View
    Entries Detail View
    In Care Detail View
  • Following the addition of runaway status to CWS/CMS, we modified our foster care placement data to more accurately identify runaway status. Across reports, this has caused shifts versus earlier extracts in placement type distributions, particularly reductions in Group Care and increases in the Runaway and Other categories. Changes are most notable in earlier time periods, in probation-supervised care, and when predominant placement type is selected. The predominant placement type data may be of interest to the field. We will continue to investigate and note these trends in the coming quarters.
    Please see the Foster Care Files section, for information regarding the construction of the UCB_FC and UCB_FC_AFCARS datasets, at:
    Notes on the Source Data
    For details regarding the determination of placement type, please see: Placement Type Methodology (Opens in new window)
  • The public CWS Outcomes reports are now available via links to the applicable measures.
    A specialized index allows access to the publicly available reports, for both child-welfare-supervised and probation-supervised care.
    Public CWS Outcomes Index
  • Secure Site: Measure 8B: Youth Parents in Foster Care
    We removed masking and added percentage views.
    Visit Measure 8B (secure site - login required)
  • We added a methodology specific to Measures 4B(1) and 4B(2).
    View Methodology 4B(1) or View Methodology 4B(2)
  • We restored the Median Length of Stay Report (First Entries) to the website after coding updates.
    Visit Median Length of Stay (public site)
    Visit Median Length of Stay (secure site - login required)
New in Q2 2021  -- (10/01/2021)
  • 2010-2021 Child Population Data updated with California Department of Finance P-3: Population Projections by Race/Ethnicity, Detailed Age, and Gender, 2010-2060, July release.
  • Investigation Rates added to Outcomes Workbooks
  • Multi county views
    have been added to the federal permanency measures 3-S1, S-S2, 3-P4, and 3-P5. The new views present performance over time for California and all California counties. Click the 'Multi County View' button at the left of any of these pages:
    Visit 3-S1 (public site)
    Visit 3-S2 (public site)
    Visit 3-P4 (public site)
    Visit 3-P5 (public site)
  • We revised CCWIP’s Foster Care Data File (UCB_FC)
    to include additional data, remove outdated variables, and simplify future modifications. For details, please see the ‘Notes on Source Data’ and ‘Foster Care Files’ pages.
New in Q1 2021  -- (07/01/2021)
New in Q4 2020  -- (04/01/2021)
Please note  -- (03/12/2021)
  • Between 12/23/2020 and 03/12/2021 the posted 3-S1 denominators for Los Angeles County for the October 2019-September 2020 time period were incorrect. We apologize for the error. With the corrected denominators, the county rates per 100,000 days improved from the previously posted values.
New in Q3 2020  -- (12/23/2020)
  • Child Maltreatment Allegations/Child Count
    Multi-County View added - provides counts over time for California and individual counties.
    Visit Allegations
  • Poverty Disparity Indices by Ethnicity
    These reports examine the degree to which groups of children have contact with the child welfare system at higher or lower rates than their presence in the poverty population.
    Visit Poverty Disparity Indices
  • Child Maltreatment Allegations/Child Count
    Investigation dimension and filter added.
    Visit Allegations
New in Q2 2020  -- (9/30/2020)
  • Disparity Indices by Ethnicity
    A new analysis! These reports examine the degree to which groups of children have contact with the child welfare system at higher or lower rates than their presence in the general population.
    Visit Disparity Indices
New in Q1 2020  -- (6/30/2020)
  • Please note: Since its February 2020 launch (Q3 2019 extract) percentage calculations on the public site have included the category Missing, if present. Previously Missing was excluded from percentage calculations. This change supports adherence to data de-identification guidelines and allows users to identify trends in missing data. With the Q1 2020 extract, this approach was implemented on the secure site.
  • Recent changes to CWS/CMS have allowed for better coding of a child or youth’s sexual orientation gender identity and expression (SOGIE). In order to bring existing reports in line with these changes, we have updated Gender breakouts to reflect Sex at Birth, and added Intersex as an option. Categories now include Male, Female, Intersex, and Missing. For more information please consult: CDSS ALL COUNTY LETTER (ACL) NO. 19-20 https://www.cdss.ca.gov/Portals/9/ACL/2019/19-20.pdf?ver=2019-04-03-081756-557
Please note  -- (5/5/2020)
  • For reports with row dimensions available to select, the category “missing” (when available) is included in percent calculations.
New public-facing website  -- (3/1/2020)

  • Dear colleagues,

    Greetings from the California Child Welfare Indicators Project (CCWIP)! We are pleased to announce that on March 1, 2020, we launched our new public-facing website: https://ccwip.berkeley.edu

    We are so excited about this platform and encourage you to visit the site, explore, and let us know what you think. You have likely heard that recent Data De-identification Guidelines (DDG) (PDF) adopted by CDSS require that any cell size less than 11 be masked in order to protect the confidentiality of individuals served by CDSS and the counties. While the new website was designed to adhere to these requirements, we have also used this opportunity to update our reporting platform with some new features. Specifically, you will notice that reports have been grouped and displayed with new organization. You may also notice that it is much easier to navigate through multiple reports since returning to the Report Index is now a possible, but not required, option to change measures. Most excitingly, you will notice that tables and graphs are much more interactive on the new website, allowing users to modify output at the same time they view and explore the data.

    Please note that while our priority for the new website is to maintain as much functionality as possible while adhering to the DDG, some features may be lost in the short-term while we determine how they can be incorporated into the site while continuing to protect confidentiality. To this end, we have focused on providing trend data over time, with as many breakouts as possible considering the DDG. Further, we will continue to post county-specific AB636 quarterly outcomes workbooks (masked versions) for Child Welfare and Probation to support county system improvement efforts. Unmasked versions of these documents will be transmitted directly to the counties from CDSS.

    We look forward to hearing your feedback on our new website, and to continuing our collective work toward child welfare system improvement!

    In partnership,
    The California Child Welfare Indicators (CCWIP) Team