Definitions: The number and percent of children and youth up to age 20, exiting the foster care system, by race or Hispanic origin. Most states allow children to remain in the foster care system until their 18th birthday, though some states have age limits that extend a few years beyond this. The current indicator includes children up to age 20 regardless of their state limit.
Percent estimates in each race/Hispanic origin category are based on the total ages 0 to 20, exiting foster care. A small number of AFCARS records across many states were missing information on the child’s race/Hispanic group and were also not included in the “unable to determine” category. These missing data are excluded from percentage and frequency distributions. Children and youth are categorized as leaving foster care if they exited during the current fiscal year and remained out of foster care on the last day of the year. Indicator includes children who have entered foster care in the current fiscal year or in a prior fiscal year. Race or Hispanic origin are mutually exclusive categories. Children who are of Hispanic origin are not classified as any other race. National estimates include Puerto Rico.
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Data Source: Child Trends analysis of data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), made available through the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Footnotes:
Updated May 2013.
N.A. - Not available.
Note: Maps use the natural break classification method, which reflects patterns
in the data by dividing the map into naturally occurring groups. Using statistical tools, this method
determines cut-off points for each group by identifying large gaps in data values.
Note: The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are
not included in maps and rankings because they are not states and therefore comparisons on many
indicators of child well being are not meaningful.