Children's Mental Health and Well-Being Work-group Final Report, December 15, 2015

The children's mental health and well-being work group was formed in response to legislative direction to facilitate a study and make recommendations regarding children's mental health and the systems that assist children and families in Iowa.

Statewide Assessment Instrument, June 15, 2010

The Iowa Department of Human Services (IDHS) has responsibility for Iowa’s child welfare system. Iowa’s child welfare system focuses on children that have been or are at risk of being abused or neglected, as well as children that are determined by the Juvenile Court to be a child in need of assistance (CINA). The child welfare system is focused on three major results that are safety, permanency, and child and family well-being.

Iowa’s Blueprint for Forever Families, 2011

Each year approximately thirty to forty thousand children and youth come to the attention of Iowa’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems and, of those, four to five thousand enter foster care to address child safety or public safety. For most, foster care is a short-term placement designed to allow time to address the reason for removal and to receive the support and services necessary for children to return to their family and community. Unfortunately, too many children and youth remain in foster care too long. Too many youth exit care through emancipation rather than to a permanent family and enduring relationship. Too many young people never realize the security of connections to adults who will be there for a lifetime. When our system fails to find forever families for youth in foster care, long-term outcomes are bleak. A young person’s permanency status is inextricably intertwined with their overall well being.