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Statistics on children, youth and families in Pennsylvania from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children

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Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children

Change Indicator

Foster Care - Length of stay of children who exited and those remaining in care in Pennsylvania

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Why This Indicator Matters

Foster care, also known as out-of-home care, is a court-monitored process that involves removing children from their families following a substantiated report of abuse or neglect. [1] All child maltreatment reports are investigated by either Child Protective Services (CPS) or General Protective Services (GPS), depending on the nature of the referral, to determine the child’s safety within the household as well as the level of risk for future harm.[2] Children are typically only placed in foster care after family preservation and in-home services fail to improve their safety and well-being in the home. Out-of-home placement is often viewed as temporary, as achieving and maintaining permanency is always the primary priority of child welfare agencies, whether that be in the form of reunification with their caregivers or finding new homes with relatives or adoptive families.[3] Family issues with substance use, mental illness, or domestic abuse are among the most common factors that lead to children entering the foster care system.[4]

By examining the length of stay of children in foster care by their reason for exiting the system, researchers are able to track longitudinal trends and changes associated with when and why children are being discharged from foster care. As shown in the following table, the median number of months children stay in foster care vary significantly by the reason for discharge, and these variations have been fairly consistent over the past decade. Children discharged to live with relatives typically only stay in the system for a few months, whereas those exiting for adoption, guardianship, or emancipation often stay in foster care for at least a year. While reunification to the original home continues to be the preferred permanency option of child welfare agencies, this outcome usually takes around 6 months to achieve as families must first prove to the court that they can keep their child safe, meet all their essential needs, and serve as responsible caregivers. [5] Because longer periods of time in foster care has been correlated with greater risk of remaining in the system rather than achieving permanency, federal policy has focused on reducing the overall length of stay for children in out-of-home care.[6]

[1] Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2023). Overview: Out-of-Home Care. United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau. https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/outofhome/overview/

[2] Rizvi, M. B., Conners, G. P., King, K. C., Lopez, R. A., & Rabiner, J. (2022). Pennsylvania Child Abuse Recognition and Reporting. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33351411/

[3] Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2023). Achieving & Maintaining Permanency. United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau. https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/permanency/

[4] Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2023). Achieving & Maintaining Permanency. United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau. https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/permanency/

[5] Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2016). Reunification: Bringing Your Child Home From Foster Care. United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau. https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/reunification.pdf

[6] Ringeisen, H, Tueller, S., Testa, M., Dolan, M., & Smith, K. (2013). Risk of Long-Term Foster Care Placement Among Children Involved with the Child Welfare System. United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/nscaw_ltfc_research_brief_19_revised_for_acf_9_12_13_edit_clean.pdf

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Definition and Source

PROVIDER

Definition

The median length of stay (in months) for those children discharged during the reporting period and for those children remaining in foster care on the last day of the reporting period.  The length of stay is based on the latest removal period.  The number of days in placement is divided by 30.4375.

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.

Notes

NA = Not Applicable.

Last Updated

May 2024