The Foster Care Data We Don’t Track – And How This Hurts Children

Most of what we know about child welfare policy and

foster care comes from very thin data:

Important foster care statistics about the lives of children are in care are often not consistently reported and tracked. Poor data complicates the making of successful policy or spending decisions. If we want laws, policies, programs, and budgets that improve the lives of abused and neglected children and the wellbeing of our communities, we need to see a realistic evaluation of the outcomes being lived by the children in the system.

Minnesota (and most states) do not consistently track or report some of the most important facts about foster children’s lives: how many are stuck in care for years without a permanent family; how many are moved 10 or 15 times; how many are abused in placement; how often they change schools; how many are medicated without therapy; what happens to them after they age out. When those realities are invisible, it is easy for agencies to say “we’re doing our best” and for lawmakers to keep funding the same approaches.

Imagine trying to fix a hospital with no information about infections, readmissions, or deaths. That is where we are with child protection and foster care – we don’t know

foster care outcomes. Without better data, it is almost impossible to tell which policies are helping, which programs are failing, and where children are being hurt right now. The result is that children pay the price with their bodies, their schooling, and their futures.

There are conflicting laws and policies about child protection data that keep this information from the public. Much of this data could be available as it is deidentified (no names, just numbers) and data from small counties that fear loss of privacy could report without counties being named. These underreported and missing pieces of information would dramatically change how we talk about child protection and give legislators a more accurate picture of where to put resources:

• How many abused and neglected children suffer egregious harm or die at the hands of their caregivers even after CPS involvement (and which counties)?

• How many are still in foster care after two, three, or five years?

• and how many families multiple often decades long histories of CPS involvement?

• How long do children wait after parental rights are terminated before they are adopted, and how many never get out?

• How many foster children experience six, ten, or more placement moves, and how many County/State fosters become teen/preteen moms or involved in crime and violence that puts them in jail or prison?

• How many foster children are abused, sexually assaulted, restrained, or secluded in group homes and residential facilities and how many girls and women charged with prostitution have had CPS involvement? (60-80%).

• How many fosters change schools multiple times a year, are suspended or expelled, or fail to graduate on time? How many go to post-secondary school, find meaningful work and support themselves?

• Hom many aged out fosters become homeless or fail because of dropping out school, mental health issues, addiction or substance abuse?

• How many CPS children are using mind altering drugs (legally or illegally) how many have been put on two or three psychotropic medications, without consistent trauma‑focused therapy?

• How many children and youth develop trauma inflicted behavior problems that put them in jail? We do know that most prison inmates have histories of child abuse and that for over 20 years America’s 9-year recidivism rate has remained at 80%.

• what are suicide and self harm rates among

• What happens to the children that pass-through CPS? How many are back in the system with their own families a few years later? How many families have many decades of CPS involvement?

These are not abstract questions. They point directly to where change is needed: more support for kinship and permanent placements, stronger oversight of facilities, better school‑of‑origin protections, real mental‑health services instead of pills, and serious housing and education supports for young people leaving care.

The good news is that this information can be collected and shared in ways that protect privacy. Agencies already hold most of the raw data. With secure systems, they can link child protection, education, and health records internally, then publish only de‑identified, aggregate numbers: rates, percentages, and counts big enough that no individual child can be identified. Privacy laws are meant to protect children’s identities, not to protect system failures from public view.

So where do ordinary people fit in?

First, by understanding that data is not a distraction from children’s stories — it is a way of honoring them. Every number in these missing metrics represents real children sleeping in cars, bouncing between schools, being over‑medicated, or leaving care to homelessness. When we demand better reporting, we are demanding that those children are finally seen.

Second, by using their voice. Most legislators will never see the inside of a child protection office or a group home. They depend on what agencies choose to show them. When they hear from constituents that “we want honest numbers about how our foster kids are actually doing,” it changes the conversation. It tells them that better data is not about blame; it is about giving them the tools to fix what is broken.

You can help in two simple ways:

1. Share this message with your friends, coworkers, faith community, and local networks. The more people understand that the biggest gaps are in what we do not measure, the harder it becomes to look away.

2. Send this post to your state representatives and senators, with a short personal note: “I want our state to track and publish these foster‑care metrics so we know whether children here are safer, more stable, and better prepared for adulthood. Please make this a priority.”

Policy change often starts with a handful of persistent voices refusing to accept “we don’t have that data” as an answer. By spreading this information and pressing your elected officials to demand these missing metrics, you can help move Minnesota toward a child protection system that is honest about its failures, learns from what works, and finally begins to make life safer and more hopeful for abused and neglected children in your community.

Use the Read More Templates to your State Representative (below)

Find your State Rep Here

 

 

Subject: Please require better foster care data for Minnesota kids

Dear [Representative/Senator] [Last Name],

I am writing as a constituent to ask you to make better foster care data and reporting a priority at the Capitol.

Right now, Minnesota does not consistently report some of the most important information about abused and neglected children in foster care, such as:

• How many children remain in foster care for two, three, or five years without a permanent family

• How often children are moved from home to home, sometimes 10 or more times

• How many are abused, sexually assaulted, restrained, or secluded in group homes and residential facilities

• How many foster youth change schools multiple times, are suspended or expelled, or do not graduate on time

• How many are on multiple psychotropic medications without consistent trauma‑focused therapy

• What happens to youth one or two years after they age out – whether they are housed, in school, working, or homeless and involved with the justice system

Without this information, it is very hard for you – and for the public – to see where our system is failing children and where policy and resources should be focused.

I am not asking for anyone’s private records to be made public. I am asking the Legislature to require agencies to link existing data securely and publish de‑identified, aggregate numbers: rates, percentages, and counts big enough that no child can be identified. Privacy laws should protect children’s identities, not hide system failures.

Please support legislation that would:

• Require annual public reporting on key foster care outcomes (time in care, placement stability, abuse in care, school disruption, mental health treatment vs. medication, and post‑care outcomes), and

• Require those data to be broken out by county, race, tribal affiliation, disability, age, and gender, with small‑cell suppression where needed.

Minnesota’s abused and neglected children deserve a system that is honest about what is happening to them and uses real data to do better.

Thank you for your work and for considering this request.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address or City]
[Your Email]

 

PHONE VERSION:

Subject: Foster care data request

Dear [Representative/Senator] [Last Name],

Please support legislation requiring Minnesota to publish de‑identified, statewide and county‑level data on key foster care outcomes: time in care, placement moves, abuse in care, school changes and graduation, mental health treatment vs. medication, and what happens to youth after they age out. Without these numbers, we cannot see where foster children are being harmed or where resources and reforms are most needed.

Privacy laws should protect children’s identities, not hide system failures. I’m asking you to make honest foster care data a priority this session.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[City]

KIDS AT RISK ACTION / KARA / INVISIBLE CHILDREN

#FosterCare

#ChildProtection

#ChildWelfare

#DataForGood

#MNLeg

#TraumaInformed

#YouthJustice

#FosterYouth

#GroupHomes

#ChildAbusePrevention