A selection of The Imprint’s most impactful stories from the past year
In January of 2025, a landmark federal study of foster care entries between 2017 and 2019 estimated that as many as 5% of those entries were due to parents relinquishing custody of their children. In some states, the percentage was much higher, and Medicaid data in some states suggested to study authors that child behavioral health was the driving force of this scenario.
In the ensuing year, The Imprint has covered parental relinquishment in several states, and you can expect more coverage in 2026. Among the stories reported in 2025: Legislative and judicial efforts in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and Texas to understand and better manage situations where parents feel so out of options that they seek to surrender their own children. And in California, the state has stopped paying for the cost of relinquishments involving adopted children whose parents seek a placement out of state.
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