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Home » Navigating the Child Welfare System from Foster Care to Reunification

Navigating the Child Welfare System from Foster Care to Reunification

December 1, 2013
From The Carlat Child Psychiatry Report
Issue Links: Learning Objectives | Editorial Information | PDF of Issue


Foster Care Facts

According to the most recent statistics available (2012)

  • About 400,000 children are in foster care in the US

  • Almost half (47%) were in non-relative foster homes; 28% were in kinship care

  • 53% of children in foster care had the expressed goal of reunification; 24% had the goal of adoption

  • About half of kids discharged from foster care were reunited with their primary caregivers, 21% were adopted, and the remaining children had different outcomes (eg, emancipation or living with another relative)

  • The median time spent in foster care was just over one year-13.4 months. This is an increase from the median 11.9 months 10 years ago

  • Children can enter foster care at any time from birth to age 18. In 2012, the median age of a child in foster care was 8.5 years old

  • 42% of children in foster care were white, 26% were black, 21% were Hispanic (of any race), and the remainder were another race, multiracial, or undetermined

  • There were slightly more boys in foster care than girls-52% vs 47%

  • Adults who had been in the child welfare system were more likely to experience heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, liver disease, and skeletal fractures

  • More than half of children in the foster care system were exposed to four or more adverse childhood experiences, including neglect, sexual abuse, and household substance abuse


Sources: Child Welfare Information Gateway (2013). Foster care statistics 2012. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau; Stambaugh LF et al, Adverse childhood experiences in NSCAW. OPRE Report #2013-26. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families.

 

Child Psychiatry
KEYWORDS child-psychiatry
    www.thecarlatreport.com
    Issue Date: December 1, 2013
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    Table Of Contents
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    Medication Non-Adherence: The Make-It-or-Break-It of Psychopharmacology
    Skeptics Unite: The International Critical Psychiatry Network (ICPN)
    Navigating the Child Welfare System from Foster Care to Reunification
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