Foster care statistics
Foster Care is a huge issue in this country and will continue to be a problem if we are unaware of the issues. It's amazing to see how many kids are involved and keep in the foster care system. Although the stats are unfortunate, reading them will give everyone a better understanding of what each child goes through and endures through foster care. This will make people aware of the issue and concerned enough to fix the problem in the foster care system.
Did you know?
- More than 250,000 children go into the foster care system every year in the United States (Meet the Children) According to this statistic, every four years, one million kids will have gone through foster care systems in the United states.
- There are currently 500,000 children in the foster care system in the United States (Foster Care).
- In foster care systems in the United States, 2/3 of children are African-American (Foster Care).
- Unfortunately, more than 20,000 children "age out" of the foster care system without being adopted (Meet the Children). Depending on the state, children must leave the foster care system either age 18 or 21. This leaves many fostered kids left on their own and homeless.
- Tests have shown that around 30% of children in foster care systems have emotional, behavioral, and developmental problems (Foster Care).
Statistics in california (Foster Care and Adoption)
- There are currently around 56,138 children in foster care in California.
- Of those children, there are around 13,394 waiting to be adopted.
- Over 50% of children entered in foster care return to their family.
- Boys= 52%
- Girls= 48%
Race
- Caucasian 41%
- African American 27%
- Hispani 21%
- Mixed (multiple races) 5%
- American Indian/Alaskan Natie 2%
- Racially Ambiguous (race unknown) 2%
- Asian 1%
- Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 0%
Home
- Non-Relative Foster Family Home 47%
- Relative Foster Family Home 27%
- Institution 9%
- Group Home 6%
- Trial Home Visit 5%
- Pre-Adoptive Home 4%
- Supervised Indepent Living 1%
- Runaway 1%
Most kids in foster care systems live in a foster home, and have no relation to them. About 1/4 of children in foster care systems live with relatives in a foster home. Some, but not many live in an institution (orphanage/children's home), group homes, trial home visits, and pre-adoptive home (live with someone before adoption). A very low percentage of older children in foster care systems can live independently (apartments) but are supervised. Unfortunately, kids do runaway from the system, and many times become homeless.