State Foster-Care Lookup
The fastest way to reach a state's foster-care profile. Pick a state below for FY2022 counts, discharge rates, median length of stay, placement settings, ten-year trends, and federal source links.
· ACF AFCARS FY2022 · 51 jurisdictions
Browse by letter
Prefer to skim? Jump to states starting with a particular letter.
What you'll find on each state profile
- • Reunification rate - share of foster-care exits that returned children to family.
- • Aging-out rate - share of exits where the child reached adulthood while still in care.
- • Placement settings - reported shares in relative, non-relative, and group-home or institutional care.
- • Median length of stay - central measure of how long children remain in care.
- • Adoption rate - share of exits that resolved through adoption.
- • Federal source links - direct cites to ACF AFCARS workbooks and reports.
A note on neutrality
Foster care is a sensitive topic. Outcomes are shaped by demographics, funding, court systems, kinship-care availability, and dozens of other factors that vary by state and even by county. Higher or lower numbers do not reflect a state's moral worth, they reflect a complex system the federal data only partly captures. We surface the numbers; you bring the context. See our methodology for what AFCARS does and does not measure.
Other ways to explore
- • Full ranked table of all states
- • Single-measure state rankings
- • Data sources and methodology
- • Plain-language guides