Strategic Priority Balancing Indicator

The Extended Foster Care program offers young adults leaving foster care the opportunity to voluntarily continue receiving services while transitioning to independence. The additional support provided by EFC services has been linked to improved outcomes in adulthood. Former foster youth can choose to enter or leave EFC at any time during their years of eligibility (ages 18-21). DCYF tracks both initiation of EFC and longer-term utilization of services as a balancing indicator for our support of successful youth transitions. While the number of eligible young adults has decreased over the past five years, resulting from smaller numbers of children and youth in out-of-home care more broadly, the percentage of eligible young adults who initiate and utilize EFC services has consistently increased over the same time period.

READ THE OIAA DATASHEET ON ANNUAL EXTENDED FOSTER CARE ENGAGEMENT RATES

READ THE EFC REPORT FROM THE RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES

Early Achievers is an easy-to-understand quality rating system for participating early care providers. DCYF monitors Early Achievers ratings as a balancing indicator for our priority to create a high-quality, integrated B-8 system. 

View the Early Achievers Dashboard

View the Early Start Act Supplemental Measures

Number and Percent of Early Achievers Enrolled Providers by Rating, SFY 2019-2025

 

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Number and Percent of Early Achievers Enrolled Providers by Rating, SFY 2019-2025

Source: DCYF. (December 2025) Early Achievers Dashboard appendices [2019-2025]. WACompass.
Notes: Point in time data, taken the last month of the state fiscal year. 2024 data taken from August EA Dashboard, as no dashboard was published in June.

One of DCYF’s strategic priorities is that we create successful transitions to adulthood for youth and young adults in our care. Graduation from high school is an outcome indicator for this priority. Statewide, the 2023 four year graduating cohort included 85,306 students, 84% of whom graduated on time. In most years, an additional 2-3 percent of the class have graduated by the end of their fifth year. Among that 2023 cohort, 552 youth were indicated as having been in foster care. Youth who have not been in foster care graduated at the rate of the overall class, whereas 53% of youth who had been in foster care graduated on time.

VIEW THE Washington State Education REPORT CARD Dashboard

Housing instability is a balancing indicator for our outcomes related to creating successful transitions to adulthood. Youth and young adults who exit the foster care system without being placed into a permanent family through reunification, adoption, or guardianship are often referred to as "aging out" of foster care. These youth are at higher risk of becoming homeless or unstably housed than those who have a family to support them at this critical life transition. Across the past five years, within 12 months of leaving care, 16% of former foster youth experienced an episode of housing instability or homelessness.

Analysis has also been done about the housing instability of youth and young adults (ages 12 to 25) who are released from a Juvenile Rehabilitation institution. Until 2021, the rate of homelessness for youth and young adults leaving Juvenile Rehabilitation institutions has largely mirrored those of former foster youth. In the most recent years however, new programs and resources have reduced homelessness among former foster youth, while rates of homelessness among youth and young adults leaving JR have changed very little. Across the past five years, 21% experienced an episode of housing instability or homelessness within 12 months of discharge.

VIEW THE REPORT FROM THE RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES