Foster Care Today

On any given day in America, somewhere between 329,000 and 400,000 children are in state-run foster care. Precise numbers are difficult to establish because data collection varies widely by state, and some figures are estimates at best. This is part of the problem SOC aims to address.

A conservative estimate for the number of children in state care is at the mid-range: 360,000 babies, toddlers, school-age children, and older youth.

Think about it, 360,000 is equal to:

• 12,000 classrooms filled with children

• 19 Madison Square Gardens

• Nine Fenway Parks, overflowing with children

It was never supposed to be this way.

Foster care, with roots extending back to the Colonial era, was designed as a temporary arrangement to care for children whose parents are unable or unwilling to do so until a permanent solution can be found. But for too many American children, the system is anything but temporary.

One in ten foster children is legally free for adoption and has a permanency plan of adoption, yet remains in care.* The problem is not a lack of families willing to adopt.

Every year, some 20,000 young people exit the foster care system without a permanent family. The state calls this “emancipation.” We call it a tragedy.

The children no one is counting.

In addition to the children who are “emancipated,” there is a group of children excluded from all of these numbers: foster children who are missing from care.

This is the focus of the State of the Children Project’s first research initiative.

What we know:

• Foster children leave care every day.

• Human traffickers prey on children who run away from, or are pushed out of, placements.

• In some states, no one is looking for these children.

Our goal is to change that.