The National Youth in Transition Database

The National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) is a new Federal reporting system created to track the independent living services States provide to youth and to collect outcomes information from youth transitioning out of foster care that may be used to assess States' performance in operating their independent living programs.  With the first year of data collection completed, the Children’s Bureau, within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is pleased to release the NYTD brief highlighting national data from Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2011 (October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011), including:

• Information on over 98,000 youth who received independent living services paid for or provided by State agencies that administer the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP); and
• Information on baseline outcomes reported by over 17,000 youth in foster care at age 17 in six areas:
  
  • Financial self-sufficiency
  • Educational attainment
  • Connection with adults
  • Homelessness
  • High-risk behaviors
  • Access to health insurance

The NYTD brief is now available online at the Children’s Bureau website: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/.

Background
Public Law 106-169 established the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP) at section 477 of the Social Security Act, providing States with flexible funding to carry out programs that assist youth in making the transition from foster care to self-sufficiency.  The law also requires the ACF to develop a data collection system to track the independent living services States provide to youth and develop outcome measures that may be used to assess States' performance in operating their independent living programs.  The law requires ACF to impose a penalty of between one and five percent of the State's annual allotment on any State that fails to comply with the reporting requirements.

Overview
To meet the law's mandate, ACF published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on July 14, 2006 and a final rule on February 26, 2008.  The regulation establishes NYTD and requires that States engage in two data collection activities.  First, States are to collect information on each youth who receives independent living services paid for or provided by the State agency that administers the CFCIP.  Second, States are to collect demographic and outcome information on certain youth in foster care whom the State will follow over time to collect additional outcome information. This information will allow ACF to track which independent living services States provide and assess the collective outcomes of youth.

Pursuant to the regulation, States begin collecting data for NYTD on October 1, 2010 and will report data to ACF semiannually. The first submission of data to ACF will be due no later than May 15, 2011.

Please note that this brief contains aggregate national data compiled from State reports during FFY 2011.  While States have the opportunity to re-submit data files representing FFY 2011 reporting periods, this brief only uses State data reports submitted as of June 18, 2012.  This is the first in a series of data briefs from the National Youth in Transition Database.

Please contact NYTDinfo@acf.hhs.gov for questions.

Read the FindYouthInfo NYTD Collaboration Profile describing how ACF involves youth in developing and operating the National Youth in Transition Database.