FOSTER CARE
How many children are in Foster Care nationally?
There are approximately 424,000 foster youth nationwide. Despite child welfare’s efforts to prevent the removal of children from their parents, the number of children in foster care has been increasing.
The median age of children in foster care is 6 ½ years old. While many people stereotype foster children as troubled teens, the truth of the matter is that most foster children are just that — children. Their biological parents are taken from them at a very young age, which can have a huge impact on their cognitive and emotional development growing up if they are not cared for properly in their youth
African American children represent 29% of the children in foster care, but only 14% of the U.S. child population.
20,000 youth age out of the foster care system between the ages of 18 – 21 annually.
The exact time a foster care ages out of the system depends on where they live. Regardless, roughly 20,000 youth are forced to exit the system annually without having found a forever family, leaving them to fend for themselves