Change Indicator

Children in child welfare system who have been adopted by age group in United States

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Definition and Source

PROVIDER

Definition

Children and youth from birth up to age 20 in the child welfare system who have been adopted by age. Some states allow children to remain in the foster care system until their 18th birthday while other states have age limits that extend a few years beyond this. The current indicator includes children up to age 20 regardless of their state limit.

Percent estimates in each age group are based on the total ages 0 to 20 where age is known. Missing age data are excluded from percentage and frequency distributions. Age at adoption was calculated as the difference between the child’s date of birth and date of adoption finalization. In the AFCARS adoption file, only the month and year of the child’s birth are provided, so the date of children’s birth was imputed as being on the 15th day of the month. National estimates include Puerto Rico.

Data Source

Child Trends analysis of data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), made available through the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect.

The data used in this publication, Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) 2021 #274, were obtained from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect and have been used in accordance with its Terms of Use Agreement license. The Administration on Children, Youth and Families, the Children's Bureau, the original dataset collection personnel or funding source, NDACAN, Cornell University and their agents or employees bear no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.

Notes

National estimates include cases where the location is unidentified.
N.A. - Data not available.
N.R. - Data are not reported.

Last Updated

April 2023