California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care

Facts About Foster Care

"While children are in foster care, they are our children."

Supreme Court Justice Carlos R. Moreno, Chair, Blue Ribbon Commission

The Blue Ribbon Commission believes that all children deserve a permanent and safe home where they are supported and nurtured on the path to becoming productive and responsible adults. For children who experience abuse or neglect, foster care may be necessary, but it is meant to be a short-term, safe haven, not a long-term saga.

California Context

• About 10% of the nation's children live in California, yet the state is home to approximately 20% of the country's foster-care population.
• On any given day in 2007, nearly 80,000 children were in foster care in the state, removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect. This is down from 108,000 in the year 2000.
• The courts hold the legal responsibility for children who have been removed from their homes, serving in effect as "parent" and bearing the responsibility for their safety and well-being.
• Despite media coverage of tragic cases of abuse, more than 75% of foster children enter placement as a result of neglect.
• Domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental illness are factors that contribute to the removal of children from their homes.
• Most parents want to provide a safe and stable environment for their children. Many need help in doing so.

The California Story

• Half of children entering foster care in California are age five or under.
• Approximately 51% of children in foster care in the state have been there for more than two years, 17% of them for more than three years.
• Youth who "age out" of foster care often leave the system ill-prepared to live as adults. They face a significantly increased risk of unemployment, homelessness, mental illness, and involvement with the criminal justice system.
• There are only 132 full-time and part-time judicial dependency court officers statewide, and they are responsible for an average caseload of 1,000.
• Attorney caseloads average 273 and some attorneys handle more than 500 to 600 cases apiece. This far exceeds the recommended caseload of 188. (Social worker caseloads are also high.)
• About 40% of children who first enter care are placed with a relative. These children are more likely to be placed with their siblings, less likely to have multiple placements, and more likely to maintain family relationships as they grow up.

Disproportionality

• African-American and Native American children are more likely than other children to be reported as abused, more likely to be removed from their homes, and less likely to be reunified or adopted.
• African-American children constitute 7% of the state's child population but are more than 30% of the children in foster care.
• Native American children are 0.84% of the state's child population but represent 1.41% of the children in foster care.

The Cost of Child Welfare

• California spends an estimated $4.7 billion a year on child welfare and related issues, half coming from the federal government, the other half from state and county funds.
• Federal funding provides open-ended support for most children who are removed from their homes and placed in foster care but caps funding for most preventive or early intervention efforts that would help struggling parents and keep families intact.
• Society pays a huge cost because of child abuse and neglect. A recent study by Prevent Child Abuse America estimated that nationally, the U.S. spends more than $33 billion in direct costs resulting from abuse and neglect (costs related to immediate needs, such as child welfare and court services, hospitalization, mental health treatment, law enforcement, etc.). The U.S. spends another $70 billion because of secondary, long-term results of abuse or neglect, such as special education, juvenile delinquency, adult criminality, and lost productivity.
• The above figures are economic costs only and do not take into account the incalculable long-term emotional costs to children and families in the system. Removal from their homes is almost always a traumatic experience for children, even when it is necessary.

The statistics in this section are from the following sources:

• California Child Welfare Council
• Juvenile Delinquency Court Assessment project: Research Update (PDF)
• Child Welfare Research Center, Child Welfare Services Reports
• Prevent Child Abuse America