Data Snapshot Looks at Families and Kids in Foster Care

Child wel­fare sys­tems in the Unit­ed States are increas­ing­ly opt­ing to place kids in fos­ter care with fam­i­lies, accord­ing to a new data brief from the Casey Foun­da­tion. The pub­li­ca­tion, ​“Keep­ing Kids in Fam­i­lies,” reveals that 86% of kids were placed with fam­i­lies in 2017 — up 5 per­cent­age points from 2007.

This good news, how­ev­er, arrives with two clear caveats.

Teenagers in fos­ter care were just as like­ly to end up in a group home in 2017 as they were 10 years pri­or. And while fam­i­ly place­ment rates for chil­dren of col­or improved from 2007 to 2017 (between 1 and 5 per­cent­age points), rates for white chil­dren rose even more (6 per­cent­age points) dur­ing this same time frame.

Read or down­load ​“Keep­ing Kids in Families”

Read the Casey Foun­da­tion’s news release about the snap­shot’s findings