Foster Care Systems Database Project

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 (for example, the National Youth in Transition Database).

Although we have good 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.

The Foster Care Systems Database documents the diversity in foster care systems across states and over time by cataloging the rules that govern each state’s foster care system. The database is searchable, with each rule providing links back to the original source as well as capturing some basic metadata (e.g. state, effective years, etc.). The database allows researchers to search for rules for any state or group of states on any topic, all in one place.

We started this project by focusing on four states: Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, and Texas. Our larger goal is to canvas statewide rules for all 50 states!  

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