Definition: Number of children and youth ages 0-20 in foster care on July 1, by type of out-of-home placement (e.g., among California children/youth in foster care on July 1, 2018, 7,452 were placed in foster homes).
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. Foster family agencies are operated by private non-profit organizations, whereas foster homes are licensed directly by a county. Children who have signed adoption agreements are categorized as 'pre-adoption.' A 'runaway' is a foster child who has left care voluntarily and cannot be accounted for. Children in 'other' placement types include those in non-foster care, those in supervised independent living or transitional housing, and all others with non-missing placement type information. Children with missing placement type information are included in the 'total children in foster care' category; children with missing county assignment are included in data for California.
