KARA reports on real world conditions for foster children. The following are their stories, metrics, and articles about life in Child Protective Services.
A few facts about children in foster care:
- They are 40 to 50 percent more likely to be homeless.
- They face violence and multiple forms of abuse at once, not one at a time.
- Up to 60 percent have chronic illness and developmental delays, and they carry more physical and chronic conditions than their peers.
- They are prescribed psychotropic medications at 6.8 times the odds of other children on Medicaid, and at two to four times the rate in the states GAO examined.
- 89 percent meet criteria for at least one psychiatric diagnosis, and as adults they carry PTSD at nearly double the rate of war veterans.
- 31 percent visited an emergency room or urgent care in the past year, and ER visits for suicide, self-injury and fractures climb in the months before a child is ever removed.
- About 25 percent attempt suicide.
- Among gay foster youth, 45 percent attempt suicide if their school is not affirming. At an affirming school it is 26 percent.
- About half have been sexually abused.
- Among girls in the juvenile justice system, 81 percent in South Carolina had been sexually abused and 93 percent in Oregon had been sexually or physically abused.
What we can do about it
None of this is fate. It is the predictable result of a system that stays hidden and underfunded until a child is already broken. The single biggest change is to stop treating child protection as a closed proceeding. Juvenile court is sealed in most states in the name of protecting children, and the practical effect is that no reporter, no legislator and no taxpayer ever sees what happens inside. Open the data. Publish caseloads, placement moves, medication rates, and outcomes by county, the way we publish school test scores.
Then fund the front end. The research above shows children arriving in care already sick, already medicated, already in the emergency room. Emergency visits spike about four months before removal. Those are visible warnings that nobody is authorized to act on. Home visiting nurses, real substance abuse treatment for parents, and caseworkers with caseloads under 15 prevent far more damage than any placement does.
Inside the system, three fixes carry most of the weight. Cap placement moves, because instability drives almost every bad number on this page. Require independent review before a child is prescribed multiple psychotropic drugs. Train and certify foster homes and schools as affirming for LGBTQ youth, which cuts the suicide attempt rate nearly in half on its own.
And keep telling the stories. Numbers move budgets, but a name and a face move the people who vote on them. Volunteer as a guardian ad litem or CASA. Ask your legislator how many children moved three or more times last year. If they cannot answer, that is the problem.
Their Stories,
77 years of child abuse; https://invisiblechildren.org/2025/01/27/77-years-of-child-abuse/
2-year old Lylah Koob; https://invisiblechildren.org/2026/06/19/2-year-old-lylah-koobs-death-why-from-the-safe-passage-report/
Death in Care https://invisiblechildren.org/2026/06/30/investigative-report/
Problems and Solutions: https://invisiblechildren.org/2026/07/05/foster-care-realities-the-problem-and-solutions/
Child death in child protection; https://invisiblechildren.org/2026/06/10/children-dying-in-cps/
Isabella’s story; https://invisiblechildren.org/2026/04/30/isabellas-story-child-abuse-foster-care/
Ethan’s story; https://invisiblechildren.org/2026/04/11/ethans-story-foster-care-trauma/
What happened to Portia: https://invisiblechildren.org/2025/10/22/what-happened-to-portia-2/
Sally’s story (it can’t happen here); https://invisiblechildren.org/2025/05/17/it-cant-happen-here-sallys-story-podcast/
