Foster care by state




Californiaedit

California has the largest population of foster care youth in the nation, with 55,218 children in the system as of 2012. This is over twice as many as the 20,529 foster children in New York, the state with the second largest population of foster youth, had by the end of 2012. Over 30 percent of California foster youth reside in Los Angeles County, amounting to 18,523 children. Children can be removed from their homes and placed into the foster care system for a variety of reasons, but in California, 81.2 percent of children were removed because of neglect. Even after being placed in the foster care system, however, these children might not find the kind of care or stability they need. Girls in foster care have been shown to have marginally higher rates of teenage pregnancy than the general population of California. Children in foster care also have to face disproportionately higher rates of mental illnesses as some studies have shown that as much as 47.9 percent of foster care youth showed signs of serious emotional or behavioral issues.

After "aging out" of the system at age 18, research has shown that previous foster youth still face difficult instability in their lives. As much as 30 percent of previous foster children are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Only about 50 percent graduate from high school and less than 10 percent graduate from college. A study focused on foster care alumni in Los Angeles County showed that about 65 percent leave foster care without a place to live and 25 percent are incarcerated by age 20. Despite these difficulties, California is working toward easing the transition for foster youth through programs and legislation like the California Fostering Connections to Success Act of 2010, which expanded upon similar federal legislation and increased the age limit for receiving foster care benefits.

Texasedit

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services manages foster care in the state. As of 2014update Black children are disproportionately high in the system, even despite an increase of Hispanic children from 2002 to 2013.

Marylandedit

After a class action lawsuit was filed in 1984, a federal court ruled that Maryland had not been ensuring the constitutional rights of its foster children. As a result, the state's foster care program was placed under a consent decree in 1988. The decree remained in place in 2003 when state employee Michelle Lane discovered and made known continued issues with social worker assignments under the program. In 2009, the decree was modified to apply various standards independent of federal or constitutional requirements. As of September 2018, Maryland's foster care program remained under court supervision, with an exit requiring full compliance with the consent decree for three six-month reporting periods in a row.

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