Every other week, The Imprint will feature one key indicator from Kidsdata.org, which offers comprehensive data about the health and well being of children across California.
Note: This article was updated on Oct. 18 to reflect good additional information passed along by reader Melissa Correia.
Among California children who entered foster care for the first time from January to June of 2011, 43 percent were reunified with their parents within a year, and 53 percent remained in foster care.
The percentage of foster children who are reunified with their parents within one year has generally increased over the past decade, but ticked down somewhat over the past two years. Less than 30 percent of children who entered foster care in early 1998 were reunified with parents within a year, and a peak of 45.2 percent reunification was reached in 2009.
The closest comparable national data comes from the Child Family Services Review outcomes data. According to measure C1.3 of the review, 41.3 percent of children who entered care for the first time were reunified within a year of removal in 2011. That is down from 43.4 percent in 2008.
At least one older study suggests that reunification within a year was a dubious prospect for most children entering foster care in the 1990s. The University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute analyzed data from a national sample of children taken into care from July of 1998 to February of 1999, and found that 78 percent of those youths were still in care after a year.
John Kelly is the editor-in-chief of The Imprint