Definition: Estimated median length of stay in care among children ages 0-17 entering foster care (e.g., among California children entering foster care in 2017, half will stay in care more than 17.4 months and half will stay in care less than 17.4 months).
Data Source: Webster, D., et al. California Child Welfare Indicators Project Reports. UC Berkeley Center for Social Services Research (Jul. 2019).
Footnote: Data are based on unduplicated counts of children under the supervision of county welfare departments and exclude cases under the supervision of county probation departments, out-of-state agencies, state adoptions district offices, and Indian child welfare departments. Data are excluded for placements shorter than 8 days. The notation S refers to data that have been suppressed because there were no cases on which to calculate an estimate.