The Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) is a functional assessment used in approximately 27 states to evaluate youth service outcomes. The CANS purports to measure both the youth's risk and protective factors, but its validity is largely un-researched. This study compares ratings of 304 delinquent youth on the CANS and ratings on a functional assessment whose validity is well established: The Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS). Participants were selected from an Illinois juvenile justice program and had a mean age of 14 years, 7 months (SD = 1.30 years). Females constituted 33.3% of the sample and males 67.7%. It was hypothesized that correlations obtained between CANS items and CAFAS subscales purporting to measure the same general aspect of functioning would be positive, statistically significant, and of moderate to high magnitude. Results suggest the CANS is a valid measure of outcomes within this population. The implications of these results are discussed and recommendations for future research are made. (Contains 2 tables.) [This paper was presented as a poster at the American Psychological Association 2003 Convention in Toronto, Ontario.]