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Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children

Foster Care - Population flow during reporting period in Pennsylvania

Change Indicator

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Why This Indicator Matters

It is important to understand the total population of children in out-of-home care, with comparison of rates of new entries and discharges. Since 2012, the total population of children served in foster care has continued to increase, with first-time admissions outpacing the number of children exiting foster care.
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Data Provided By

Definitions: Number of children in out-of-home placement on the first day of the period, admissions and discharges during the period, number of children on the last day of the period and total number of children served during the period.

Data Source: PPC analysis of AFCARS longitudinal file produced by Public Consulting Group for Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Office of Children, Youth and Families.

Footnotes: The same child can have multiple admissions and discharges during the period, but the numbers at the beginning and end of the period and the total number served are not duplicated.

As noted above, this is based on the AFCARS longitudinal file.  Additions and changes to that file after the initial submission are not reflected here. All these reports are based on the initial submissions. 

Statistics (rates, ratios, percents) are not calculated and displayed for counts less than 10 (or less than 3 for Bayesian/Nearest Neighbor rates). This is due to the unreliability of statistics based on small numbers of events.

Updated October 2022.