Children in Foster Care

There are over 400,000 kids in foster care today. Only 51 percent of foster children are reunified with their parents or primary caretakers. The rest are either adopted, live with other relatives, emancipated, runaways, or remain in long-term foster care. Currently, more than 107,000 children are waiting to be adopted in the United States alone. No two foster children are the same and their lives don’t look the same later. Our approach must meet the needs of thousands of children by understanding what care looks like today. 

“Over 20,000 are emancipated or age out of the foster care system each year.” 

Among children waiting to be adopted, only one percent have trial home visits that encourage reunification with their birth families. During the child’s case management, all parties work to determine whether placement with their families are viable options. In many cases, the unfortunate facts reveal that some parents remain unfit to care for their children and there is little to no chance that placement will ever occur. This leads to over 20,000 children being emancipated or aging out of the foster care system each year. 

These numbers demonstrate the repetitive trend from year to year. While 200,000 children exit the system, there are nearly the same number of children entering it the following year. This cycle has become a trend, and in the most severe cases, a generational occurrence. Children who were in foster care are having children of their own who are eventually place in the foster care system. The importance here is understanding the numbers. As trends are identified, the reoccurring problems will be clearer. There is a causal connection surrounding the outcomes of children aging out with no community support.

If nothing else, the numbers continually echo the fact that the system is producing the same results year after year. Seemingly, the same solutions are being employed and solidifying the inevitable result that children and families will remain in the generational foster care cycle.