Office of Innovation, Alignment, and Accountability: Report on Outcome Measures and Progress on Agency Goals
Author: Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF)
Date: 2019-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Outcome Measures,Accountability,Child Welfare,State Agencies,Performance Based Assessment,Early Childhood Education,State Programs,Progress Monitoring,Data Collection

This report is prepared in compliance with HB 1661, which requires the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF or the Department) to report to the legislature on development of and progress toward achieving outcome goals for children, youth and families. In addition, this report provides an update on other supportive foundational work for the new agency being led by the DCYF Office of Innovation, Alignment, and Accountability. This foundational work includes a baseline performance assessment, development of an integrated services approach, performance-based contracting, and planning for an integrated data warehouse to support the reporting/analytic/research infrastructure of the Department. The purpose of this work is to establish outcome goals for children, youth and families (or &quot;child outcome goals&quot;) that will guide the work of the Department, as identified in HB 1661 Section 101(2-3). The DCYF Office of Innovation, Alignment, and Accountability (OIAA) has led this work since January 2018 -- working with Department leadership and an internal workgroup comprised of leaders from the three agencies of origin, engaging multiple external stakeholder groups and partners as well as agency leaders and staff, reviewing priorities and reports from other state agencies, and examining research. The Department's child outcome goals are organized in three broad categories: education, health, and resilience. These categories derive from the vision for the new agency described in HB 1661 Sec 101.1(a) which states &quot;The vision for the department is that Washington state's children and youth grow up safe and healthy -- thriving physically, emotionally, and academically, nurtured by family and community&quot;. Agency leadership endorsed these categories, and they were validated by interaction with stakeholders and partners. Taken together, measures in these three categories capture the extent to which children, youth and families across the state are thriving. In September 2018, DCYF leadership approved a &quot;working version&quot; of nine child outcome goals in the three areas -- education, health, and resilience -- that will guide the work of the agency. They include the following: (1) Education -- measures that assess the educational proficiency, attainment and growth of children, youth and/or families; (2) Health -- measures that assess the physical, mental, emotional, behavioral and developmental health of children, youth and/or families; and (3) Resilience -- measures that assess the ability to thrive, throughout and despite adversity, at the individual, family or community level. Overarching all of these measures is the goal of eliminating disparities in each of the education, health, and resilience areas so that race, ethnicity and family income are no longer predictors of child/youth well-being. In addition, this report provides an update on other supportive foundational work for the new agency being led by the DCYF Office of Innovation, Alignment, and Accountability.