The Chronicle of Social Change, a US national news site focused on children, youth and families, has released this ambitious data and reporting project to examine where kids go when they’re removed from home. “Who Cares: A National Count of Foster Homes and Families” yielded significant findings about states’ struggles to recruit and retain foster homes, and their increased reliance on relatives and group homes.
There are other options, but there are three main sources of placements for these kids:
1-The homes of relatives, which many states and the federal government stress as the preferable placement for kids when possible. This is a group that includes both licensed relatives and guardians, as well as informal placements with unlicensed relatives
2-Non-relative, licensed foster homes
3-Congregate Care, a term used to describe group settings such as group homes and institutions.
To develop as much knowledge as possible about each state's use of both options, the research team initiated information requests with each state and the District of Columbia and then obtained federally collected data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). They have presented some of the key datasets as national maps and charts, and include much more information in each state profile.
After several years of steady increase, the Chronicle of Social Change projects that the number of youth in foster care in the US is decreasing. But many states often fail to recruit and retain enough homes for the kids in their custody. This project attempts to put numbers on the foster care capacity in each state. This includes the number of youth in care, the availability of foster homes, the reliance on relatives, and the use of group homes and institutions.
The project measures changes in the number of non-relative homes in each state, the number of children and youth placed with family members or "fictive kin," the number of foster youth in group homes, and the number of youth in foster homes.