Placement stability for children in out-of-home care: a longitudinal analysis

This study examines the number of placement moves experienced over an eight-year period by 5,557 children in one state who first entered out-of-home care between birth and age six. This group comprised 28% of all young children who entered care during this period. Nearly 30% of children in kinship care and 52% of children in nonrelative care experienced placement instability (defined as three or more moves after the first year in care). Children in kinship care, regardless of age, had fewer placement moves than those in nonkinship care. A multivariate analysis found that children who had more than one placement move during their first year of care were more likely to experience placement instability in long-term out-of-home care than if they did not move or were moved only once during their first year in care.