Fred Wulczyn, Principal Investigator
2009

On February 26, 2008, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families published the final rule for the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD), which will be used to track states’ independent living services provided to foster youth and to assess each state’s performance as measured by foster youth outcomes. If each state develops its own system for tracking and collecting data from young people transitioning out of foster care, the result will be 50 different systems, high development costs, and data that may not be comparable across states.

Chapin Hall, in partnership with the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), is developing a multitiered tracking and data collection system that all states can use. The project has three objectives: (1) to assist states in their efforts to comply with the NYTD requirements; (2) to work collectively with states to develop a cost-effective comprehensive tracking and data-collection system that will provide data that are comparable across states and go beyond the federal requirements; and (3) to demonstrate how states can use the resources of the Center for State Foster Care and Adoption Data in conjunction with their NYTD data to improve the outcomes of young people transitioning out of foster care. This project is funded by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative and the Eckerd Foundation.