Children in care, Sep 30
368,530
FY2013–FY2022 AFCARS 50 states + D.C. Reproducible source pipeline
How many children are in foster care in your state, and where do they go next?
According to the U.S. Children's Bureau (Administration for Children and Families), AFCARS workbooks and jurisdiction reports publish state foster-care counts and discharge outcomes. Compare those rebuilt tables here, with every figure traceable to its source file.
Data release cadence
Current vintage: FY2022 AFCARS jurisdiction reports (Sep 30 snapshot). PlainFoster rebuilds when the U.S. Children's Bureau publishes a new AFCARS release.
Stock vs exit-path leaders, FY2022
According to the U.S. Children's Bureau AFCARS FY2022 tables, 366,394 children sat in foster care across the 50 states and D.C. on September 30. California carried the largest stock (45,924), Washington led reunification exits at 67.0%, and Maine led adoption exits at 41.8% - three jurisdictions on three different denominators.
- 45,924
- California Sep 30 stock
- 67.0%
- Washington reunification (≥500 exits)
- 41.8%
- Maine adoption (≥500 exits)
- 2.51×
- Reunification spread across 51 jurisdictions
September 30 counts are a stock; reunification and adoption rates are shares of that fiscal year's exits. PlainFoster does not license, place, or advise on individual cases.
Entries
186,602
Exits
201,372
Reunification
45.2%
Adoption
26.3%
Three leaders, three questions
Largest caseload, highest reunification share, and highest adoption share rarely belong to the same jurisdiction.
FY2022 discharge outcomes
Rates are calculated from discharge counts in all 52 jurisdiction reports. “Other” is the residual for documented categories not broken out here, including guardianship, living with relatives, agency transfer, runaway, and death.
Understand the data before comparing
These editorial pages explain the source boundary, the composite grade, and how to read one important discharge measure without turning it into an overall verdict.
Profile grade distribution
Equal-weight composite of four source-backed measures.
Highest reunification rates
Share of exits to a parent or primary caretaker · jurisdictions with ≥500 FY2022 exits.
Highest aging-out rates
Share of FY2022 exits coded as emancipation · jurisdictions with ≥500 exits (small-N omitted).
Four verified measures
Each comparison is tied to a count or median in the FY2022 jurisdiction report.
The decade behind the FY2022 count
A single-year snapshot cannot show direction. Summing the 51 public jurisdictions for every reported year gives the shape of the caseload since FY2013.
Children in foster care, FY2013–FY2022
Point-in-time count on September 30, summed across 51 public jurisdictions (50 states + D.C.)
Where children in foster care live
Top 12 states by children in care on September 30, 2022.
Children in foster care by state (top 12)
Area is proportional to the September 30, 2022 point-in-time count
Getting kids home: fast and successful, or one or neither
Reunification rate plotted against the median months a child stays in care, 2022 state rows with both figures reported.
How to read this
- Each dot is one state; hover, tap, or tab to a dot for its exact figures.
- The dashed lines mark the median state on each axis, not the midpoint of the range.
- Top-right is the goal: a high reunification rate reached without a long stay in care.
- Neither axis alone tells the full story - a short stay with a low reunification rate often means more exits to other, less favorable outcomes.
About this data
How PlainFoster works, and why you can trust these numbers
What this site is
PlainFoster is an independent public-data reference for U.S. foster care statistics. Every figure traces to official ACF AFCARS jurisdiction workbooks and reports, federal fiscal years 2013 through 2022; nothing is estimated or typed in by an editor.
Editorial process
- Source. Collect FY2013-FY2022 AFCARS jurisdiction workbooks and reports directly from the U.S. Children’s Bureau (Administration for Children and Families).
- Verify. Rebuild each figure from the official file and cross-check representative values against the cited federal source before publishing.
- Publish. Compile per-state profiles, rankings, and national trends tagged to their AFCARS vintage.
Editorial independence & corrections
A 2026 audit found that the former database could not be recreated from the checked-in ETL and that representative figures disagreed with the cited federal source. PlainFoster rebuilt the data from the official workbooks and reports, removed unsupported indicators, and retired research pages based on the superseded values; see source hashes, checks, and calculations. PlainFoster's editorial process is independent and accepts no compensation from entities it covers. Found an error? File a correction via the contact page.
Frequently asked
What period does PlainFoster cover?
The comparable state count series covers federal fiscal years 2013 through 2022. Outcome and placement rates use FY2022 jurisdiction reports.
How are state grades calculated?
The PlainFoster profile grade equally weights four within-release percentile ranks: reunification, adoption, aging out, and median length of stay. It is not an official federal assessment.
Why are per-capita and maltreatment figures absent?
Their former database values could not be recreated from the archived source path. PlainFoster withholds them until an exact publisher file, definition, period, unit, and tested parser are wired into the ETL.
What does the national total include?
The ACF national FY2022 aggregate includes the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. PlainFoster public state tables cover the 50 states plus D.C.