The Annie E. Casey Foundation
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Pennsylvania

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 - Children served during reporting period by placement reason 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 total population of children in foster care each year by placement reason, researchers are able to track longitudinal trends and changes associated with the purpose of removing children from their homes and placing in them in out-of-home care. As shown in the following table, the most common reasons for out-of-home placement in Pennsylvania are caretaker inability to cope, parental drug abuse, and neglect. Other reasons that children are removed from their homes include abandonment, parent or child alcohol abuse, child behavior problem, child disability, death or incarnation of a parent, inadequate housing, physical or sexual abuse, and relinquishment. Many risk factors have been associated with foster care involvement, including low child developmental status, caregiver depression and alcohol use, previous reports of abuse or neglect, and overall lack of social support to predict a higher risk of foster care entry.[5] Policy designed to address such risk factors can therefore reduce the number of children entering foster care.

[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] English, D. J., Thompson, R., & White, C. R. (2015). Predicting Risk of Entry into Foster Care from Early Childhood Experiences: A Survival Analysis Using LONGSCAN Data. Child Abuse & Neglect, 45, 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.04.017

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Definition and Source

PROVIDER

Definition

The number and percent of children in out of home placement during the reporting period by the various reasons they were placed in foster care.

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

A child may be counted under more than one category.  There are often multiple reasons for children to enter out-of-home placement.

S = Suppressed.  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.

Last Updated

May 2024