Foster Care Families

What is the Child Welfare System and the Foster Care System?

The child welfare system is a group of services designed to promote the well-being of children by ensuring safety, achieving permanency, and strengthening families to care for their children successfully. Child welfare systems typically:

  • Receive and investigate reports of possible child abuse and neglect
  • Provide services to families that need assistance in the protection and care of their children
  • Arrange for children to live with kin or with foster families when they are not safe at home
  • Arrange for reunification, adoption, or other permanent family connections for children leaving foster care


Foster care (also known as out-of-home care) is a temporary service provided by States for children who cannot live with their families. Children in foster care may live with relatives or with unrelated foster parents. Foster care can also refer to placement settings such as group homes, residential care facilities, emergency shelters, and supervised independent living. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the living situations of children in foster care are as follows:

  • Pre-Adoptive Home
  • Foster Family Home (Relative)
  • Foster Family Home (Non-Relative)
  • Group Home
    • A home-like setting staffed by trained personnel where a group of children, adolescents or young adults live. Group homes may provide temporary shelter or a long-term living arrangement, and may be staffed by one set of houseparents or a rotating staff
  • Institution
    • A private or a public child care institution which accommodates no more than twenty-five children, and is licensed by the State as meeting the standards established for such licensing
  • Supervised Independent Living
    • This is a housing program for foster youth participating in extended foster care, ages 18-21 with an open case. Eligible youth must pass a readiness assessment and find their own place to live (which can include a college dorm, apartment or room to rent). The apartment, dorm, or rented room must pass an inspection. Once it is approved, the youth may be eligible to receive direct funding.
  • Runaway
  • Trial Home Visit

What does the foster care system look like in the United States?

According to the U.S. HHS 2017 Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS) Report:

  • More than 400,000 children are living in foster care
    • This is over 10% higher than 2013
  • More than 100,000 children are waiting to be adopted
  • The average age of foster care children is 8.4 years old, and the average length children stay in foster care is 20.1 months
  • Most children (77%) are living in a foster family home
    • 32% with a relative
    • 45% with a non-relative
  • Black children make up about 14% of the general child population, but 23% of the foster care population
  • A significant portion (56%) of children living in foster care have the goal of reunification with parents/primary caregivers

This report has been integrated into a graphic shown below for easier viewing.

Is the foster care system working successfully?

The short answer to this question is: no. Each year, more children enter the system and more young adults age out of the system with little to no accessible resources to support them. Black children are over-represented in the foster care system but are adopted disproportionately less. See the statistics below provided by Foster America, a child-welfare non-profit organization, and by the Indiana Youth Institute.

The U.S. Department of HHS Children's Bureau conducts periodic Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) to review the services provided by each state and monitor their conformity to national standards. The CFSRs assess:

    • 7 Outcomes
      • Safety Outcome 1: Children are, first and foremost, protected from abuse and neglect
      • Safety Outcome 2: Children are safely maintained in their homes whenever possible and appropriate
      • Permanency Outcome 1: Children have permanency and stability in their living situations
      • Permanency Outcome 2: The continuity of family relationships and connections is preserved for children
      • Well-Being Outcome 1: Families have enhanced capacity to provide for their children's needs
      • Well-Being Outcome 2: Children receive appropriate services to meet their educational needs
      • Well-Being Outcome 3: Children receive adequate services to meet their physical and mental health needs
    • 7 Systemic Factors
      • Statewide Information System (SF1)
      • Case Review System (SF2)
      • Quality Assurance System (SF3)
      • Staff and Provider Training (SF4)
      • Service Array and Resource Development (SF5)
      • Agency Responsiveness to the Community (SF6)
      • Foster and Adoptive Parent Licensing, Recruitment, and Retention (SF7)

According to the U.S. Department of HHS Children and Family Services Reviews (CFSR) 2015-2016 Aggregate Report on 24 states:

  • Only two states met Safety Outcome 1, and only five states met Well-Being Outcome 2
  • The remaining five Outcomes were not met by any of the 24 states.
  • Some of the Systemic Factors were more hopeful with 22 states meeting SF6 and 15 states meeting SF1. However, only 10 states met SF3, only 6 states met SF4 and SF7, only 2 states met SF5, and none of the states met SF2.

How are children in foster care doing at school?

A study conducted by Blome in 1997 compared children with and without a history of foster care placement. Children with a history were found to:

  • be more likely to be placed in general track classrooms (as opposed to advanced)
  • be less likely to enroll in college prep courses
  • spend less time on homework
  • report lower grades and more disciplinary problems
  • have lower educationally-related expectations
  • experience more school moves
  • report less parent involvement in homework
  • be more than 2X as likely to have dropped out
  • be less likely to receive a GED

Another study was done by Kortnenkamp and Ehlre in 2001. Compared to children in their parent's care, children in the child welfare system:

  • were more likely to be suspended and to be placed in special education
  • had uniquely low levels of engagement and high levels of behavioral and emotional problems and physical, learning, or mental health conditions
  • were more likely to receive mental health services and less likely to be involved in extracurricular activities

In 2017, O'Higgins, Sebba, and Gardner reviewed how foster care children's educational achievement relates to over 70 factors. Their research revealed that children in foster care:

  • who are male or a person of color tend to have worse educational attainment
  • with behavioral problems or special educational needs are at a higher risk of academic difficulties
  • with special educational needs are at a greater disadvantage than children with the same needs in the general population

Some general statistics are shown in a graphic below, provided by The Possibility Project.

What can improve foster care children's school achievements?

Given the likelihood for children in foster care to experience educational difficulties, it is important that they get additional attention. In 2012, Forsman and Vinnerljung identified 9 effective educational interventions for children in out-of-home care.

  • Kids in Care project - guided tutoring by foster parents
    • improvements in reading comprehension and math
  • Letterbox Club - children given books, stationery and mathematical games
    • improvements in reading and math
  • Group Teach Your Children Well (TYCW) - group-based direct-instruction tutoring by university student volunteers
    • improvements in word reading and spelling
  • KUMON Supplemental Program - individualized learning program
    • improvements in readings
  • Tutoring by teacher volunteers
    • improvements in reading and math
  • Paired Reading - tutoring by foster parents
    • improvements in reading
  • Helsingborg Project - individualized educational and psychological support from a psychologist and special education teacher
    • improvements in IQ and literacy
  • Learning Material Distribution - children given books and a handheld computer
    • improvements in literacy skills
  • Education Specialist - children are designated a liaison for social workers to work with
    • improvements in reading and math

These interventions are certainly not the only ones that may be effective for foster care care children. It is reasonable to assume that any intervention designed for children would help. Another study conducted by Evans, Brown, Rees, and Smith in 2016 identified some of the above interventions as being effective, in addition to:

  • Individual TYCW - direct one-to-one instruction by trained foster carers
    • improvements in sentence comprehension and math computation
  • Fostering Individualized Assistance Program (FIAP) - family specialists work with caseworkers, teachers, therapists, foster parents, and biological families to tailor services for individual children
    • decreases in suspension
  • Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care - temporary placement into an alternative home with specialized foster parents
    • increases in time spent on homework
    • improvements in attendance
  • Head Start - includes a wide set of services that support disadvantaged pre-schoolers
    • improvements in pre-academic skills
    • improvements in teacher-child relationships
  • Kids in Transition to School - classroom-based program for kindergarteners
    • improvements in early literacy skills
  • On The Way Home (OTWH) - families are assigned a trained family consultant who works with a school mentor, trains parents, and provides homework support
    • decreases in drop-out rates

Another study by Berridge in 2017 found that students with committed/trusted support systems showed the most promise in educational progress. The results demonstrate the importance of stable support systems, in the form of foster families, carers, teachers, etc. which encourages agency and resilience, and in return, educational achievement.