One in twenty children in the United States will spend time in foster care. Children in the foster system are among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable members of society, and they have systematically worse outcomes than their peers across a variety of measures. In an effort to help children in foster care, researchers have created several high-quality datasets that follow children who enter the foster system such at the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) and the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD).
Although these surveys provide data on foster children and their outcomes, we have surprisingly little data on foster systems themselves. Anecdotally, we know that foster systems vary considerably from state to state and have evolved over time. Thus, there is no such thing as the U.S. foster system; rather there are many different foster systems across the country. We are building a database that documents the rules which govern state-level foster care systems. Researchers can then combine this data with existing data on child outcomes to address a host of important research questions on how the characteristics of a foster system affect children. The current version of the database is available here. We envision it as a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. The database has the potential to transform long-held assumptions about everything from foster child mental health to racial gaps in the foster system to the design of substance abuse interventions that help parents to reunite with their children.