On March 20, 2024, the Administration for Children and Families released the AFCARs data for 2022. Again this year, the report shows a significant decrease in foster care placements from the 2021 figure of 391,641 to 368,530 children in care in 2022, a 5.9 percent decrease from 2021 and a more than 15.6 percent decrease from the peak of 437,010 in FY 2017. The numbers represent children in care on the last day of the federal fiscal year, September 30. Similar to FY 2021, most states decreased both entries and exits in 2022; there is also another small drop in adoptions and children waiting for adoption.

Forty states (including Washington DC) experienced an overall decrease in foster care population with eleven states and Puerto Rico seeing an increase:

  • Delaware: 444 to 548
  • Georgia: 10,504 to 10,838
  • Louisiana: 3,301 to 3,682
  • Maine: 2,202 to 2,429
  • Mississippi: 3,540 to 3,825
  • Nebraska: 3,835 to 3,873
  • New Hampshire: 1,091 to 1,181
  • North Carolina: 11,238 to 11,258
  • North Dakota: 1,510 to 1,547
  • Vermont: 1,054 to 1,096
  • Virginia: 4,977 to 5,039
  • Puerto Rico: 2,135 to 2,136

Entries into foster care decreased overall from a total of 206,812 in 2021 to 186,602 in 2022. The number of entries for 2022 represents the lowest number of foster care entries since AFCARs data collection began. Several states reported significant decreases, but the most notable is Texas (15,127 in 2021 to 9,486 in 2022).

For FY 2022, twelve states saw an increase in entries into foster care; most reported small increases:

  • Connecticut: 1,168 to 1,250
  • Delaware: 294 to 370
  • Georgia: 4,718 to 5,321
  • Louisiana: 2,358 to 3,096
  • Maine: 909 to 1,130
  • Maryland: 1,538 to 1,541
  • Mississippi: 2,029 to 2,150
  • New Hampshire: 591 to 740
  • Oklahoma: 3,472 to 3,509
  • Rhode Island: 777 to 812
  • Vermont: 591 to 637
  • Virginia: 2,335 to 2,372

Similarly, the number of exits from care also decreased across the states. Nationally, the number of children who exited foster care decreased from 214,971 to 201,372, the fewest number of exits since AFCARs data collection began. Despite the overall decrease, twelve states increased the number of children that exited foster care:

  • Arizona: 7,379 to 8,207
  • Arkansas: 2,655 to 2,836
  • Kansas: 3,199 to 3,253
  • Kentucky: 5,278 to 5,322
  • Louisiana: 2,551 to 2,635
  • Missouri: 6,146 to 6,310
  • Nebraska: 1,676 to 1,798
  • New Hampshire: 597 to 598
  • North Carolina: 4,107 to 4119
  • South Carolina: 2,758 to 2,942
  • Tennessee: 5,331 to 5,350
  • Wyoming: 765 to 769

During the pandemic the anecdotal information suggested a freeze up in the courts; this was evident in the number of adoptions which had a historic drop in 2020, possibly the biggest year to year drop since adoptions have been tracked in the late 1990s. The trend has continued, with adoptions dropping again in 2022, from 54,240 to 53,665, a smaller but still significant decrease. The adoptions account for 27% of all discharges from care in 2022. Twenty-one states had an increase in adoptions:

  • Arizona: 1,977 to 2,371
  • Arkansas: 768 to 848
  • Connecticut: 460 to 483
  • Illinois: 1,602 to 1,658
  • Kansas: 840 to 959
  • Kentucky: 1,212 to 1,339
  • Louisiana: 602 to 686
  • Maryland: 220 to 252
  • Massachusetts: 755 to 835
  • Minnesota: 1,001 to 1,103
  • Mississippi: 566 to 604
  • Missouri: 1,419 to 1,470
  • Montana: 313 to 340
  • Nebraska: 368 to 392
  • Nevada: 727 to 744
  • New York: 1,145 to 1,248
  • Oklahoma: 1,494 to 1,629
  • Rhode Island: 231 to 252
  • South Carolina: 459 to 501
  • South Dakota: 222 to 247
  • Wyoming: 105 to 109

While adoption dropped, so did the number of children waiting to be adopted, decreasing from 113,754 children in 2021 to 108,877 in 2022. Of children waiting to be adopted, the numbers of terminations of parental rights in this group decreased slightly, from 65,030 to 64,561.

According to the AFCARS Report, reasons for entry into foster care remained the relatively the same despite the decreased numbers.

  • neglect: 62% (-1 percent),
  • parental drug abuse: 33% (-3 percent),
  • caretaker inability to cope: 13% (-1 percent),
  • physical abuse: 13% (+1 percent),
  • housing: 11% (+2 percent),
  • parental incarceration: 6% (the same),
  • parental alcohol abuse: 6% (the same),
  • sexual abuse: 4 % (the same).

The categories of abuse overlap with some parents in two or more categories, so it is not accurate to dismiss 62 percent of the entries into foster care as “only” neglect.

18,538 youth emancipated or “aged-out” from foster care, a slight decrease from 19,130 the year before. 46% of children leaving care were reunified with their parents or primary caretaker(s); this number shows a continued gradual decline of the percent of reunifications in recent years, from 51% in 2016, 48% in 2020, 47% in 2021, and now 46% in 2022. There was a small decrease in the number of children living with relative caregivers, from 133,873 or 35% in 2021 to 123,294 or 34% in 2022. There were also small decreases in the number of children and youth in group homes (from 15,432 to 14,948) and institutions (from 19,929 to 18,780), though the percentages of children and youth in these placement settings remained the same (4% and 5%, respectively).

As far as adoptions, a new statistic was added two years ago: time elapsed from the termination of parental right (TPR) to adoption. In 2022, there was a mean of 12.4 months and median 9.0 months from TPR to adoption, small decreases from 2021. For the children waiting to be adopted, the period from TPR is mean of 19.1 months and the median 10.0 months, small increases from last year.