This guide is designed to support administrative leaders in states and other jurisdictions in using data to assess and identify ways to improve their service array.

Learn about the range of practices comprising the continuum of youth engagement to youth empowerment.

Learn the definition and find information about normalcy and the reasonable and prudent parent standard in the PL 113-183.

Frankie is 14 years old and lives with his sister, brothers, and moms. He and his sister were adopted when they were 2 years old and 4 years old, respectively. He loves spending time with his aunts, uncles, and cousins and loves being part of a big family.

Explore the supportive relationship between a youth and her attorney.

Reveals how advocating for youth makes a difference in system change and in the advocates’ own lives. The Director of Policy and Advocacy at NMCAN and a youth advocate talk about their shared experience in testifying as expert witnesses for state legislative committees and how it created a strong bond between them.

Explore how data reported in AFCARS about youth who run away from state custody can be used to inform interventions.

Explore additional resources for engaging individuals with lived experience as advisors for groups, committees, boards, and more.

Explore strategies to engage individuals with lived experience as advisors for groups, committees, boards, and more. 

Explore additional resources to learn how to accurately and safely collecting data on LGBTQIA2S+ youth and young adults.

Learn strategies for accurately and safely collecting data on LGBTQIA2S+ youth and young adults.

Explore opportunities and lessons learned from the implementation of Division X of the Supporting Foster Youth and Families Through the Pandemic Act, P.L. 116–260.

Explore how child welfare professionals and organizations can build capacity for implementing the reasonable and prudent parent standard (RPPS) for children and youth in foster care. 

Learn about the practice and systemic changes Hawaii, Indiana, and Westchester County, NY, made in partnership with their youth and young adult partners.

Consider whose perspectives are represented on your team.