The number of children and youth in foster care nationally rose for the fifth consecutive year, to 443,000, in federal fiscal year (FY) 2017. While still below the high of 567,000 in FY 1999, the FY 2017 number is a 1.5 percent increase from FY 2016 and a 12 percent increase from FY 2012, when the number of children and youth in care began rising after more than 10 years of decline. At the state level, Child Trends’ analysis of the newly released Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS) data shows that most states (39) experienced an increase from FY 2016 in the rate of children and young people in foster care. These rates range from a low of 2.5 per 1,000 children in Virginia to a high of 17.8 per 1,000 in West Virginia.
While opioid use is one of the most obvious factors affecting the foster care system in recent years, there are many other influences on rates of entry and the post-entry experiences of children and families. A new monthly blog series from Child Trends that focuses on children and youth in foster care will look more closely at AFCARS data to explore why children and youth are entering care at the state level, and which children and youth are entering the foster care system. The series will also examine how 2020 changes to the AFCARS data collection requirements can help address some of the limitations of the current AFCARS.
To read more of Sarah Catherine Williams and Kristin Sepulveda's article, please click here.
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