Where Are the Missing Children?

The Children No One Is Counting

Across America, children are missing from state-run care. Sometimes referred to as “throwaways,” these boys and girls must feel completely alone in the world.

Most states cannot reliably answer, in real time, which children are missing, for how long, or what actions are underway to find them. This leads to delayed response, inconsistent prevention, and avoidable harm.

The root cause is fragmentation. Definitions of “missing” vary across jurisdictions. Data is siloed and delayed. Accountability is diffuse, with no single actor owning the problem or its resolution.

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