On November 1st, 2022, the Administration for Children and Families released the AFCARs data for 2021. Again this year, the report shows a significant decrease in foster care placements decreasing from the 2020 figure of 407,493 to 391,098 children in care in 2021, a 3.9 percent decrease from 2020 and a more than 10.5 percent decrease from the peak of 437,000 in FY 2017. The numbers represent children in care on the last day of the federal fiscal year, September 30.

As happened in FY 2020, again most states decreased both entries and exits in 2021; there is also another small drop in adoptions.

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

  • Arizona: 13,599 to 14,890
  • Arkansas: 4,280 to 4,500
  • Idaho: 1,534 to 1,601
  • Illinois: 20,568 to 21,086
  • Missouri: 12,650 to 13,194
  • Nebraska: 3,605 to 3,835
  • North Carolina: 10,630 to 10,710
  • Tennessee: 8,839 to 9,227
  • Virginia: 4,773 to 4,977
  • Wyoming: 815 to 836
  • Puerto Rico: 2,092 to 2,135

Entries into foster care decreased overall from a total of 216,838 in 2020 to 206,812 in 2021. The number of entries for 2021 represents the lowest number of foster care entries since AFCARs data collection began. For FY 2021, sixteen states (including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico) saw an increase in entries into foster care; most reported small increases while a few with larger foster care populations saw larger increases:

  • Alabama: 3,504 to 3,631
  • Delaware: 273 to 294
  • Washington, D.C: 212 to 243
  • Hawaii: 1,029 to 1,037
  • Idaho: 1,081 to 1,346
  • Iowa: 2,628 to 2,904
  • Kansas: 3,032 to 3,172
  • Mississippi: 1,800 to 2,029
  • Missouri: 6,499 to 6,819
  • Nevada: 2,788 to 2,820
  • North Carolina: 5,119 to 5,431
  • Pennsylvania: 7,254 to 7,499
  • Tennessee: 5,860 to 6,185
  • Vermont: 556 to 591
  • West Virginia: 4,707 to 4,710
  • Puerto Rico: 590 to 761

Similarly, the number of exits from care also decreased across the states. Nationally, the number of children who exited foster care decreased from 224,396 to 214,971, the fewest number of exits since AFCARs data collection began.

Despite the overall decrease, sixteen states (including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico) increased the number of children that exited from foster care:

  • Alabama: 3,603 to 3,741
  • California: 23,704 to 24,199
  • Connecticut: 1,397 to 1,553
  • Washington, D.C.: 298 to 306
  • Hawaii: 1,089 to 1,138
  • Illinois 5,328 to 6,193
  • Maine: 892 to 979
  • Maryland: 1,359 to 1,858
  • Nevada: 2,909 to 2,961
  • New York: 6,478 to 7,040
  • North Carolina: 4,535 to 4,537
  • North Dakota: 901 to 960
  • Rhode Island: 917 to 1059
  • Utah: 1,721 to 1,751
  • West Virginia: 4,515 to 4,759
  • Puerto Rico: 518 to 552

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 continued in 2021 with adoptions dropping again, from 57,881 to 54,240, a smaller but still significant decrease. The adoptions account for 25% of all discharges from care in 2021.

Nineteen states (including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico) saw an increase in adoptions:

  • California: 5,562 to 6,242
  • Connecticut: 450 to 460
  • Washington, D.C.: 98 to 110
  • Hawaii: 206 to 273
  • Illinois 1,522 to 1,602
  • Maine: 247 to 339
  • New Hampshire: 183 to 241
  • New Mexico: 281 to 319
  • New York: 974 to 1,145
  • North Dakota: 197 to 229
  • Ohio: 1,466 to 1,622
  • Pennsylvania: 2,087 to 2,214
  • Rhode Island: 152 to 231
  • South Dakota: 209 to 222
  • Utah: 518 to 560
  • Virginia: 844 to 878
  • West Virginia: 1,683 to 1,856
  • Wyoming: 98 to 105
  • Puerto Rico: 87 to 129

While adoption dropped, so did the number of children waiting to be adopted, decreasing from 117,446 in 2020 to 113,589 in 2021. Of children waiting to be adopted, the numbers of terminations of parental rights in this group increased slightly, from 63,836 to 64,985.

According to the AFCARS Report, reasons for entry into foster care remained the relatively the same despite the decreased numbers, with one notable exception, a marked decrease in “caretaker inability to cope”:

  • neglect: 63% (-1 percent),
  • parental drug abuse: 36% (+1 percent),
  • caretaker inability to cope: 14% (-20 percent),
  • physical abuse: 12% (-1 percent),
  • housing: 9% (the same),
  • 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 otherwise reasons for removal would total 150% so it is not accurate to dismiss 63 percent of the entries into foster care as “only” neglect.

19,130 youth emancipated or “aged-out” from foster care, a slight decrease (880 fewer) from the year before. It is unclear what this statistic means since there was a major push (including added federal funds) to keep young people in foster care if they were about to age out.

As far as adoptions, a new statistic was added last year: time elapsed from the termination of parental right (TPR) to adoption. In 2021, there was a Mean at 13.0 months and Median 9.6 months from TPR to adoption, small increases from the year before. For the 117,000 waiting to be adopted, the period from TPR is Mean of 19.0 and the Median 9.0 months, small decreases from last year.