Research shows that families are essential to a child’s healthy development. Additionally, federal law requires that children removed from their homes are placed in the least restrictive setting possible — the setting most like a family. Yet a recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report found that 4 out of 10 children in group placements had no reason warrenting such a restrictive setting.
An analysis of 2013 data on the placements of children from birth through age 20 showed that the percentages living in group placements ranged from 4% to 35%. Five states that have kept family placements high and group placements low.
In this "Five Questions" edition, Geen discusses findings from the KIDS COUNT Policy Report, Every Kid Needs a Family, about the importance of connecting children in foster care with families.
Today, private providers of residential placements based on the ophanage model are now moving to serve more young people in families. Learn now long-time providers in New York and California are adjusting thier services to better connect kids in child welfare with families.
On any given night, about 57,000 children under the care of our nation’s child welfare systems are going to bed without the care and comfort of a family. In its latest KIDS COUNT policy report, Every Kid Needs a Family: Giving Children in the Child Welfare System the Best Chance for Success, the Foundation highlights this and other sobering statistics that point to the urgent need to ensure, through sound policies and proven practices, that everything possible is being done to find loving, nurturing and supported families to help raise more of these children.
Download Every Kid Needs a Family: Giving Children in the Child Welfare System the Best Chance for Success, the latest KIDS COUNT Policy Report.
After a decade of steady decline, the number of children in foster care increased from 2012 to 2013. In 2013, there were approximately 402,000 children in the system.
In 2013, a total of 238,547 children exited the foster care system. Two out of three (66%) of those exiting care were either reunified with their parents or primary caretakers, other relatives or guardians; and 21% were adopted.
Interview
Tracey Feild, director and manager of the Child Welfare Strategy Group, discusses child welfare funding reform.
The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative's work to help young people make successful transitions from foster care to adulthood is supported by a network of co-investors.
