How many kids are in foster care?

The US foster care system serves over 600,000 kids annually. West Virginia, Alaska, and Montana have the highest rates.

Updated on Wed, August 23, 2023 by the USAFacts Team

Foster care is intended to provide a temporary stable home for children who cannot safely remain in their current situations due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment. The federal foster care program, known as title IV-E, funds services that are managed locally — in 50 states, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and tribes with approved title IV-E plans.

The most recent report from 2021 shows that an estimated 606,031 children passed through the US foster care system over the course of one year. This number, from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), represents both the children who were already in the system at the beginning of the federal fiscal year (October 1, 2020) and the children who entered into the system over the next 12 months. On the last day of the fiscal year, September 30, 2021, approximately 391,098 kids were in foster care.

The Department of Health and Human Services set up AFCARS to collect foster care and adoption data from each of the title IV-E jurisdictions. The program tracks the number of children who enter and exit foster care, who are adopted, and who are waiting to be adopted.

The program also reports the number of children waiting to be adopted after their parents’ parental rights were terminated as of the last day of the fiscal year. In 2021, that number was 64,985.

How has the number of children in foster care changed?

Over the last two decades, the number of children in foster care has declined each year, with the exception of a five-year span between 2013–2018.