The National Foster Care Placement Crisis: Why Are Kids Sleeping in Offices? [VIDEO]
In recent years, some Kansas children in foster care have ended up sleeping in child welfare offices overnight because there were no relatives, foster homes or care centers available.
It’s not just Kansas; it’s happening in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, New Mexico, Illinois, Colorado, and more. Across the U.S., children are also staying in hospital ERs, hotels, and even out-of-state places, and some are experiencing one-night “emergency” placements in foster homes. These varied situations are happening in Michigan, Montana, Georgia, Washington, West Virginia, and other states.
What’s behind this national foster care placement crisis? Watch the short video below for Alex’s story, a fictional story based on the lives of real-life children and families we serve.
Alex’s Family Experiences Stress Escalating to a Crisis
Alex entered foster care six months ago. With no foster families or treatment centers available, Alex ended up spending the night in a child welfare office.
Foster care was supposed to help Alex, but this is not what we’d want for our children. Where did the system go wrong?
Let’s rewind. Alex’s journey began when his family faced many challenges: unmet mental health needs, financial stress, and housing problems.
Big problems can lead to big emotions. Alex’s stress led to behavior challenges and school fights, eventually involving the juvenile justice system because Alex couldn’t access the help he needed.
His parents were scared, overwhelmed and at a crisis point.
With no other options, they turned to foster care, hoping it could help Alex. But this isn’t what foster care is for.
Five Converging Factors Led to Placement Crisis
Alex’s example – when parents voluntarily relinquish their children to foster care due to the enormity of their mental and behavioral health needs – happens every day. While this is just one of the reasons kids enter foster care, it illustrates how foster care is shifting.
According to U.S. data for FY 2022, the most common reason children enter foster care is not abuse — it is neglect (62%), often related to family stress and financial difficulty. Other common reasons are parental drug abuse (33%), caretaker inability to cope (13%), housing (11%) and child behavior problems (8%). Physical abuse and sexual abuse are less common reasons for removal, at 13% and 4% respectively.
While states work to prevent any occurrences of youth in foster care sleeping in offices, it’s only a symptom of larger problems. Targeting one symptom will not solve the root cause.
Based on the data and KVC’s child welfare experience, it appears the national foster care placement crisis is the result of at least five factors converging:
- Inadequate foster care prevention investment
- Nationwide mental health crisis
- The COVID-19 pandemic and decline in foster homes
- Deinstitutionalization of foster care and juvenile justice
- Reduction in high-quality residential treatment options for children
Here’s more information about each factor:
(1) Inadequate Foster Care Prevention Investment:
While foster care is sometimes needed for a child’s safety, it should be a last resort because family separation is traumatic. One reason kids like Alex have ended up entering foster care and later sleeping in child welfare offices is because the social safety net for working families is badly damaged. Due to inadequate foster care prevention spending on concrete supports like temporary food or housing assistance and a lack of access to mental and physical healthcare, many states far exceed the national rate of children in foster care. Safely reducing the number of kids in foster care will help states care for those children who depend on foster care for their safety.
(2) Nationwide Mental Health Crisis:
A second factor is the national child and adolescent mental health emergency declared by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2021. Mental health needs have been on the rise for years due to social isolation, loneliness, social media, childhood trauma, cultural pressures like academic achievement, and more. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this. These days, more youth are entering foster care because their families can’t access mental health treatment. Families mistakenly believe those services are more available in foster care. Often, youth who end up sleeping in offices have complex mental, behavioral and physical health needs, making foster care a safety net for the mental health system. Once in foster care, these youth often need specialized therapeutic foster homes or residential treatment.
(3) The Pandemic’s Impact on Family Stress and Foster Family Decline:
A third factor in recent years was the global pandemic. It increased stress for all families, and made some foster families understandably more concerned about taking in children due to a possible spread of the virus. The COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to a nationwide decrease in foster homes overall, exacerbating the national foster care placement crisis.
(4) Deinstitutionalization of Foster Care and Juvenile Justice Systems:
A fourth factor is deinstitutionalization. There’s been a positive national effort to shift both the foster care and juvenile justice systems from institutions to community settings. In fact, KVC has proudly been part of this national movement because we know children grow best in families – not group homes. However, this shift away from institutions requires there be community services available like intensive mental health treatment and programs that strengthen families. More community-based services are needed to support the well-intentioned deinstitutionalization movements.
(5) Reduction in High-Quality Residential Treatment for Children:
Finally, a fifth factor has been a decrease in the number of residential treatment beds for children. One article from the Manhattan Institute documents that the number of residential treatment beds decreased by 66% from 2010-23. In addition, the federal Family First Prevention Services Act introduced some restrictions on reimbursement that inadvertently reduced access to high-quality residential treatment. One organization recommends the federal government could help states address the placement crisis by “exempting Qualified Residential Treatment Programs (QRTPs) from classification as institutions for mental disease under Medicaid, amending the Family First Prevention Services Act to provide an exemption from QRTP standards for programs serving youth in the juvenile justice system, and significantly increasing federal investment in developing alternative placements to congregate care that can capably serve and support older youth and youth with higher levels of need.”
How We Can Stop Kids from Sleeping in Offices
No child should sleep in an office – it’s wrong. In addition, no child should be removed from a safe, loving caregiver to access mental or behavioral health services.
At KVC, we are accountable for how well we care for children and families. The federal Child and Family Services Review looks at each state’s foster care performance against national standards. Likewise, nonprofit providers share their data with state agencies, donors, and legislators.
However, until states ensure youth with significant behavioral health needs can access treatment outside of foster care and safely reduce the number of children in foster care, it will be difficult for the system to ensure placement stability for children.
So as states, communities, and a nation, let’s invest in child and family wellbeing and help families before crises occur. We can look to states with good access to mental health treatment and low rates of children in foster care to learn how they’ve succeeded.
Let’s invest in foster care prevention by expanding mental health treatment access, concrete economic supports, and community-based services.
With these changes, we’ll ensure families can access support. We’ll also ensure foster care is only used as a last resort when children experience abuse or neglect.
Every Child Deserves a Permanent Home and a Loving Family
At KVC, we are driven to make sure every child has a permanent home and a loving family. In fact, our core organizational value that originated with our past CEO of 35 years is continually asking ourselves: What would you want for your child? In this way, we bring empathy and the golden rule of “loving your neighbor as yourself” to our work daily, serving children in the way we would want our sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren served by a child and family wellbeing system.
We are so thankful for the thousands of adults who have opened their homes to be kinship caregivers or foster families for children in need.
But many more adults and families are needed! There are many ways you can get involved:
- Advocate – Contact your legislators and ask them to support increased investment in foster care prevention and mental health treatment. We must go “upstream” to strengthen families and prevent children from needing foster care.
- Foster or Adopt – There’s a child or teen who needs someone just like YOU – and at KVC, we make sure the opportunity to foster is open to all people. You can foster a child at any stage of life, regardless of your relationship status, gender, income level or where you live. What matters most is how much you care. We have options that work in your life, right where you are – for exactly who you are. Learn more about becoming a foster parent in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, or West Virginia.
- Get Your Organization Involved – Are you part of a church or other faith-based community that wants to help? Is your employer or civic group looking for a way to give back to the community? We have many ways to get involved, from Holiday Hero gift donation drives to group volunteer days. Visit our Get Involved center.
Further Reading
- KVC Kansas (2019): We Can Safely Reduce the Number of Kansas Children in Foster Care by Half – Here’s How
- Kansas Reflector: ‘It’s set up to fail’: Kansas youth justice leaders discuss state’s lack of progress
