These links lead you to libraries of foster care research, studies and reports.
- Casey Family Programs’ libary: Library of material on foster care and child welfare issues, including child welfare improvement strategies, education, employment, housing, law and policy, and recruiting foster families.
- Administration for Children & Families studies: A collection of research projects and studies compiled by the Administration for Children & Families – a branch of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The Multi-Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs (Chafee Independent Living Evaluation Project) study is listed as a Featured Project.
- Child Welfare Information Gateway research: These resources present statistics and data gathered by the Child Welfare Information Gateway on the different types of abuse and neglect as well as the abuse and neglect of children with disabilities, abuse and neglect in out-of-home care, recurrence, and fatalities.
- Children’s Bureau statistics and info: Adoption and foster care statistics provided by the Children’s bureau, an organization that provides state and national data on adoption and foster care, child abuse and neglect, and child welfare. Includes reports on trends in foster care and adoption presented by AFCARS (The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System), state-by-state adoption and foster care statistics, and a number of other foster care-oriented reports.
- Childstats.gov: Presents a number of demographic charts and a bevy of statistical data compiled using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. These studies focus primarily on key national indicators of well-being among adopted children.
- Childstats.gov on adoption: Another study by Childstats.gov that depicts the percentage of adopted students who complete high school and enroll in college immediately afterward, broken up by race and Hispanic origin.
- Educational Outcomes for Children and Youth in Foster and Out-of-Home Care: This 14-page fact sheet produced by the Casey Family Program provides statistics and research about the educational issues affecting children in foster care.
- Foster care facts presented by the National Foster Care Coalition: Includes a summary of the President’s Proposed FY 2013 Budget on Select Children’s Issues.
- Foster Care to 21 Issue Brief: 2011 brief from the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative relating to the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, which provides support to states to extend foster care to age 21 for certain young people. The brief examines extended foster care and explores the question of why it is important to remain in foster care beyond the age of 18.
- National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect: Neglect, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, and sexual abuse data compiled using the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) and presented via the Administration for Children & Families.
- National Resource Center for Permanency & Family Connections research: This site includes studies presented by AFCARS (The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System) including state specific foster care statistics, as well as foster care numbers and trends from the Child Welfare Information Gateway, and additional foster care studies by the Children’s Bureau, NSCAW (National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being), the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Children’s Defense Fund, the Kids are Waiting Campaign, and Generations United.
- National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections: A collection of resources that relate to older youth being emancipated from the foster care system and ideas on how to ensure a smooth transition to post-foster-program life.
- Reports to congress on Child Welfare Outcomes for the years 2006-2009: Presented by the Administration for Children & Families.
- State-by-state child welfare financing factsheets for FY 2010: collated by the Children’s Defense Fund.
- State data on children: Dozens of reports conducted at the state level on a plethora of topics related to child welfare, available on the Children’s Defense Fund website.
- The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System: AFCARS collects case level information on all children in foster care for whom State child welfare agencies have responsibility for placement, care or supervision, and on children who are adopted under the auspices of the State’s public child welfare agency