Foster Care Adoption

Quick Facts
On any given day, more than 500,000 children are in the U.S. foster care system.

127,000 children in the U.S. are waiting to be adopted - just waiting for the right family to find them.

More children in foster care wait for adoption each year than are adopted.

In 2006, 79,000 children had parental rights terminated by the courts, yet:

Only 51,000 were adopted from the foster care system;

A child waiting to be adopted has been in foster care an average of 39 months;

A child in foster care can wait five years or more to be adopted.

The average age of the child waiting to be adopted from foster care is eight years old. Many are older, in sibling groups, are minority children and/or have special needs.

Each year, 20% of children (26,517 in 2006) exit foster care at age 18 without an adoptive family – of those,

2% earn a bachelor’s degree or higher;

51% are unemployed;

25% have been homeless at some point;

30% receive public assistance;

Many end up in prison and many have children of their own who also end up in foster care.

In a recent survey of public opinion, 45% of those surveyed believed children were in foster care because of juvenile delinquency when the reality is that these kids have been abused, neglected or abandoned.

Kelly Rosati
Senior Director, Sanctity of Human Life
Focus on the Family

Foster Care Adoption Information by State