This fall, the US Department of Health and Human Services released the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) data for fiscal year 2020—October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020. As we would expect, the system appears significantly affected by the pandemic. (Access the national report and the state-by-state report)
Number of Children in Care
Between 2019 and 2020, the number of children entering care across the US went down by more than 35,000 (14.1 percent), from 252,352 to 216,838. This drop is notable compared to historic trends. Since 2011, entries have been quite steady, with changes ranging from -4 percent to +4 percent from year to year.
Entries into care increased in only Arkansas, Illinois, and North Dakota. Illinois entries rose by 16.8 percent. The other two increases were very low (1.1 percent for Arkansas and 0.3 percent for North Dakota.)
Exits from care also went down, from 249,675 in 2019 to 224,396 in 2020. Since entries dropped more than exits, the number of children in care was lower too. In 2019, there were 426,566 children in care at fiscal year end. At the end of fiscal year 2020, that number was 407,493.
Of the children in care at the end of the fiscal year, 117,470 were waiting to be adopted. This number is only a small reduction from 2019, when 123,809 were waiting for adoption.
The number of children served by the foster care system at any time during fiscal year 2020 also went down notably, from 676,168 in 2019 to 631,832 in 2020. This reduction of more than 6 percent compares to other year to year changes of a percentage point or two between 2011 and 2019.
Aging Out
One of the few numbers that didn’t change much between 2019 and 2020 was the number of children who aged out of care. In 2020, 20,010 children exited care to emancipation, compared to 20,445 in 2019. Because there were fewer exits from care, the percentage went up. Emancipation made up 9 percent of exits from care in 2020, compared to only 8 percent in 2019.
There was a moratorium instituted on youth aging out of care during the pandemic, but it didn’t begin until December 2020 so we’ll need to wait for next year’s data to see if that had any impact. The legislation also allowed those who had aged out to re-enter care if they wanted to, which may affect entry numbers next year.
Other Exits
In 2020, 107,333 children exited care to be reunified with their primary caregivers and 12,463 left to live with other relatives. During the year, 23,160 exited to guardianship, which is usually with relatives.
As a percentage of all exits, there were just slight changes between 2019 and 2020, with a slightly higher proportion of reunifications and slightly lower adoptions and guardianships than the year before.
| 2019 | 2020 | |
| Reunification | 47% | 48% |
| Adoption | 26% | 25% |
| Guardianship | 11% | 10% |
| Emancipation | 8% | 9% |
Adoptions from Care
Adoptions dropped dramatically, with 57,881 adoptions completed with public agency involvement in 2020, compared to just over 66,000 in 2019. This was the lowest number of adoptions since 2016. This reduction is significant, especially when viewed compared to the trends over time. Since 2011, there have been just small changes in adoptions from year to year, with steady increases, averaging 5.5 percent, each year from 2015 to 2019. The drop from 2019 to 2020 was a dramatic departure, with a decline of 12.6 percent.
State Adoption Data
At the state level, only nine states experienced increases in adoptions in 2020. In comparison, in 2019, 35 states and Puerto Rico saw increased adoption numbers. In 2018, it was 32 states and the District of Columbia.
The increases were mostly modest:
- Alabama—10.6 percent
- Idaho—7.6 percent
- Iowa—3.1 percent
- Oregon—10.7 percent
- South Carolina—4.2 percent
- Tennessee—1.7 percent
- Vermont—1.2 percent
- Virginia—9.8 percent
- Wisconsin—5.2 percent
On the other hand, some states saw steep declines in adoptions:
- Connecticut—31.9 percent
- New Hampshire—34.2 percent
- New Jersey —32.2 percent
- New York—40.9 percent
Race and Ethnic Background
The racial makeup of waiting and adopted children is similar to previous years, with a difference between the populations of children waiting to be adopted and those adopted from care. In general, a higher proportion of children adopted from care were white (51 percent) than were in the waiting child population (44 percent). In 2020, 17 percent of children adopted from care were African American while 22 percent of waiting children were African American.
Age at Adoption
The average age of children adopted in 2020 was 6.5 years, while the average age of waiting children was 7.9. Both of these numbers are similar to recent year’s data.
About 6,500 children older than 12 were adopted in 2020, including 120 who were 18 or older. Of course, these numbers pale in comparison to the number of teens who are waiting to be adopted, which was more than 25,000 at the end of the fiscal year.
Relationship to Adoptive Parent
Of all adoptions, 54 percent were by foster parents, 35 percent by relatives, and 11 percent by individuals or couples who were neither kin nor foster parents. Most adopting parents were in a couple, although 25 percent were single women and 3 percent were single men. These numbers remain relatively consistent each year.
Adoption Assistance
The report shows that 94 percent of children adopted during the year received adoption assistance benefits. In 2019, it was 93 percent.
Time in Care
Another likely indicator of a system slowed by the pandemic is time in care. The average time a child had spent in care in 2020 was 21 months, compared to 19.6 in 2019. For children who were waiting to be adopted, the average time in care since their parental rights were terminated increased to 20.1 months from 17.6 in 2019.