Children in Foster Care Increasingly Likely to Live in Families, the Annie E. Casey Foundation Finds

BALTIMORE, April 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Annie E. Casey Foundation today released "Keeping Kids in Families: Trends in U.S. Foster Care Placement," using data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia over a 10-year period to look at how placements for young people in foster care have changed.

The report finds nationwide care systems placed 86 percent of these children in families in 2017, compared with 81 percent in 2007. Despite this improvement, the group placement rate for teens has remained stagnant, and there are persistent racial disparities for children of all ages.

Being part of a family is a basic human need and essential to well-being. The new data suggest a growing consensus that young people in the child welfare system should live in families. Through the Family First Prevention Services Act, signed into law in 2018, states are empowered to prioritize family placement.

"Child welfare systems are making progress in keeping children with families, which we know leads to better outcomes for young people," said Lisa Hamilton, the Casey Foundation's president and CEO. "But systems must do more to find families for teenagers and youth of color. We see success in several states, and other jurisdictions could apply these lessons."

Key findings:

• For teenagers, progress in family placements has been elusive. Nationwide, more than a third of young people in child welfare systems who are 13 and older lived in group placements in 2017 ― the same proportion as 10 years ago.
• Systems increased the placement rate of white youth in family homes from 81 percent to 87 percent, but outcomes for Latino and African-American children improved by just 3 percent, and by just 1 percentage point for Asian-American children.

The Casey Foundation calls on state child welfare systems to use the opportunities afforded by Family First to increase available services to stabilize families. Similarly, states can:

• Prioritize recruitment of kin and foster families for older youth and youth of color;
• Engage families in decision making, since kin and foster parents should be treated as important members of a child's team; and
• Require director approval for non-kin placements.

Contact: Beau Boughamer | [email protected] | 410.458.5018

SOURCE The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Related Links

http://www.aecf.org

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