Frequently Asked Questions

PlainFoster covers all 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, 51 state profiles in total. National ACF workbook totals also include Puerto Rico.

The count series covers AFCARS federal fiscal years 2013 through 2022. State outcome and placement measures use FY2022 jurisdiction reports.

The PlainFoster grade equally weights four within-release percentile ranks: reunification and adoption rates, aging-out rate, and median length of stay. It is an editorial display, not an official federal assessment.

AFCARS stands for the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System. It is the federally mandated system through which states report foster care data to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. All states are required to report AFCARS data quarterly.

Foster care outcomes are shaped by complex structural factors: funding levels, caseload sizes per caseworker, rural service gaps, court practices, and state policy decisions, not simply by how hard child welfare workers try. Grades reflect system-level performance, not judgments on any community.

Their former database values could not be recreated from the archived sources that the site claimed to use. PlainFoster withholds them until a publisher file, exact definition, reporting period, unit, and tested parser are wired into the ETL.

No. PlainFoster is not affiliated with the Administration for Children and Families, HHS, or any government agency. We are an independent data portal that makes publicly available federal data more accessible.