The Cumulative Prevalence of Congregate Care Placement for U.S. Children by Race/Ethnicity, 2019

Congregate care placement is among the most consequential forms of foster care placement that youth can experience, as it means a removal from both the family of origin and a family setting more broadly. Unfortunately, little research has estimated how common this intervention is. In this article, we use data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS) and synthetic cohort life tables to show what proportion of children ever placed in foster care will ever be placed in congregate care, what proportion of children in the entire population will ever be placed in congregate care, and how these proportions vary by state of residence and race/ethnicity. Our results support four main conclusions. First, roughly 15% of all children ever placed in foster care will experience congregate care placement. Second, among children who will ever be placed in foster care, the risk of congregate care placement peaks at age 16. Third, congregate care placement is highly stratified by race/ethnicity. Finally, there are vast geographic differences in both congregate care placement and ethno-racial disparities therein. Taken together, these findings enhance our understanding of the demography of the child welfare system with implications for research, policy, and practice.