Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS)

New data requirements on the LGBTQ status of foster youth, first announced by the Obama administration and then rejected by Trump, could resurface soon.

The number of youth in foster care continued to fall in 2022, according to state data collected by The Imprint for its annual report on foster care capacity.

Nationwide, foster care numbers dropped in the first months of the pandemic, but the child welfare field is still pondering the impacts.

According to federal data, the number of children in foster care dropped in 2020 nationwide and in almost every state. Illinois was an exception.

The number of youth in foster care dropped by 4.5% between September of 2019 and 2020, according to annual federal data, reaching the lowest total in the past eight years, while adoptions from foster care plummeted as the coronavirus pandemic spread in America.

Tribes and advocacy groups want the federal government to once again begin collecting voluntary data about sexual orientation of foster youth and adoptees.

The process for adding new elements to what’s known as the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, or AFCARS, is now in litigation that started under the Trump administration and continues under President Joe Biden.

By Megan Conn

By John Kelly