Statistics

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More than 420,000 children are currently in foster care in the United States. This amount does not include the constant influx of immigrants across our southern borders. South Carolina has 3,879 children in foster care. You can check the Foster Care Dashboard for local statistics per county. It is updated daily by Michael Leach. You can find it the statistics here.

Facts

  • 90% of these children will suffer trauma while in care. 
  •  Even though Foster Care’s goal is reunification with their biological family, only 50% will go home.  
  • 80% of the males in foster care will become incarcerated. There is a phenomenon called the Foster Care to Prison Pipeline 
  • 71% of females will become teen parents and then have their children placed into foster care. It is called the Cycle of Abuse and can span many generations. 
  • 40% will become runaways and then homeless. One in five report expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness between ages 17 and 19, and over one in four (29%) report being home­less from 19 to 21. 

Kids Count Data

KIDS COUNT offers a vast array of state-by-state sta­tis­tics on these issues, with much of it avail­able by race and oth­er demo­graph­ic fac­tors, includ­ing data on: 

  • Safe­ty and risky behav­iors, such as youth resid­ing in juve­nile deten­tion facil­i­ties, and teens abus­ing alco­hol or using cig­a­rettes, mar­i­jua­na and oth­er drugs 
  • Men­tal and phys­i­cal health prob­lems, such as young adults feel­ing depressed or hope­less, and health con­di­tions (e.g., obe­si­ty, asth­ma and spe­cial health care needs) 
  • Aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment and relat­ed issues, for exam­ple, test scores, house­hold inter­net ser­vices, school dis­ci­pline, stu­dents miss­ing school, stu­dents not com­plet­ing high school, teens nei­ther work­ing nor in school, and much more 
  • Youth and young adult well-being, over­all, span­ning 60+ mea­sures of employ­ment, pover­ty, edu­ca­tion, health, and fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty issues 

We need to do better

Human traffickers are exploiting those teens from group homes. An offer of a family often lures teenagers into trafficking. Their traffickers are often friends or even fellow group home residents. They are forced into sex trafficking or human labor without pay. These kids usually run away frequently, and no one searches for them or notices they are missing. They are just added to a statistic. The teens are possibly incarcerated due to sex crimes such as prostitution.

Often, foster teens are just thrown into group homes and forgotten, and foster homes are afraid of them, so we need to pay more attention to them. You are literally reshaping their lives by helping them stop the cycle of abuse that brought them into foster care. You are helping them, not becoming statistics. Having teens can be challenging, but in my experience, they can be the most rewarding children. Would you like more information on foster care and myths? https://bridgetoindependence24.com/common-misconceptions-about-foster-care-debunking-the-myths/ Here is another great blog post.

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