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Report

Strengthening Families Through Guardianship


Quick Summary

More than 500,000 children will close their eyes tonight as wards of the state in foster care. They are waiting for the security, stability and love of permanent families. Foster care was created as a short-term safety net for children in crisis, however, on average children will languish in care for more than two years. More than half the children leaving foster care will return home to their birth parents, and about 18 percent will leave foster care to adoptive families. For some, however, reunification with their parents or adoption is not an option.

Strengthening Families Through Guardianship
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Report Project

Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care

Report Topic

Health Topics

506,483 Foster Children in the United States

Fewer children would be in foster care if states were allowed to use child welfare funds to provide prevention services (avoiding foster care for some children) and to support post-foster care services to help others leave foster care quickly for safe, permanent families—through reunification with their parents, adoption, or legal guardianships. Savings created by the decreased need for foster care could be reinvested by States into a continuum of services to keep children safe and strengthen families.

In the United States, only 10 percent of federal dollars dedicated for child welfare can be spent flexibly to serve children and families. Approximately $709 million of a total $6.8 billion child welfare dollars are flexible.

WHO ARE THE NATION’S CHILDREN
WAITING IN THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM
506,483 children in foster care
32% of foster children are between the ages of 0 and 5
28% of foster children are between the ages of 6 and 12
40% of foster children are between the ages of 13 and 21
Average # of birthdays a child spends in foster care: 2 birthdays (29 months)
42% of children experience three or more foster care placements
18% (93,521) of children live in group care or institutional settings

WHAT ARE THE NATION’S FOSTER CHILDREN
WAITING FOR?
251,020 (50%) are waiting to be reunified with their birth families
115,893 (23%) are waiting to be adopted
Average time foster children have been waiting to be adopted: 42 months

WHERE DID THE NATION’S CHILDREN GO
AFTER LEAVING FOSTER CARE IN 2005?
286,005 children exited foster care
153,335 (54%) were returned to their parents
50,599 (23%) were adopted
43,457 (15%) left to live with relatives (some through guardianships)
24,211 (8%) “aged out” or left the system at age of 18 or older
11,425 (4%) left for other reasons (ran away, transferred, died)

Data from AFCARS (2005), ASPE Claims Reports (2006) and ACF Budget Reports (2006)

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Read Full Section: 506,483 Foster Children in the United States (PDF)

Table of Contents
 

Date added:
Apr 10, 2008
Project:
Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care
Topic:
Health Topics
References:
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References:

1 Testa, M., Bruhn, C. & Helton. J. Comparative safety, stability, and continuity of children’s placements in formal and informal substitute care. A paper presented at the NSCAW Data Users’ Workshop, January 25-26, 2007. Washington, DC;
2 Ibid.; Analysis by the University of Illinois, Children and Family Research Center at Urbana-Champagne (2007), reported in Kids Are Waiting. (2007). Time for Reform: Support Relatives in Providing Foster Care and Permanent Families for Children. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from http://kidsarewaiting.org/tools/reports/files/0004.pdf
3 Rolock, N. & Testa, M. (2006). Conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Urbana, IL, Children and Family Research Center.; Wulczyn, F. & Zimmerman, E. 2005. Sibling placements in longitudinal perspective. Children and Youth Service Review, Vol.27, pp. 741-763.
4 US Government Accountability Office. (2007). African American Children in Foster Care: Additional HHS assistance needed to help states reduce the proportion in care. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07816.pdf
5 Macomber, J.E., Geen, R. Main, R. (2003). Kinship Foster Care. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from: http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=3108936
6 Children’s Defense Fund. (2004). Financial Assistance for Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Children. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/DocServer/financialassistance0805.pdf?docID=467
7 Kids Are Waiting. (2007). Time for Reform: Support Relatives in Providing Foster Care and Permanent Families for Children. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from http://kidsarewaiting.org/tools/reports/files/0004.pdf
8 National Abandoned Infants Resource Center. (2005). Subsidized guardianship. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from http://aia.berkeley.edu/publications/fact_sheets/subsidized_guardianship_2005.php
9 The American Bar Association, Casey Family Programs, and Generations United. (2008). Subsidized Guardianship Programs. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from: www.grandfamilies.org and http://www.grandfamilies.org/index.cfm?page=aboutus; US Children’s Bureau. (May 2007). Summary of the Title IV-E Child Welfare Demonstration Waivers. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/programs_fund/cwwaiver/2007/summary_demo2007.htm
10 US Children’s Bureau. (May 2007) Summary of the Title IV-E Child Welfare Demonstration Waivers
11 The American Bar Association, Casey Family Programs, and Generations United. (2008). Subsidized Guardianship Programs. US Children’s Bureau. (May 2007) Summary of the Title IV-E Child Welfare Demonstration Waivers.; Generations United. (2005). Grandfamilies: Subsidized Guardianship Programs. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from: http://www.gu.org/documents/A0/GUGeneralFactSheetJune.pdf
12 US Children’s Bureau. (May 2007). Summary of the Title IV-E Child Welfare Demonstration Waivers.
13 US Children’s Bureau. (May 2007). Profiles of Child Welfare Demonstration Projects. Retrieved April 1, 2208 from: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/programs_fund/cwwaiver/2007/profiles_demo2007.htm

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