The Issues
The Alliance for Children’s Rights:
National Foster Youth Institute:
Juvenile Law Center:
National Conference of State Legislators:
- Only 58% of young people in foster care graduate from high school.
- Only 3% of former foster youth graduate from college.
- Teen girls in foster care are 2.5 times more likely to become pregnant by age 19.
National Foster Youth Institute:
- A background of abuse and trauma makes current and former foster youth more vulnerable to sex trafficking.
- Approximately 60% of children who were victims of child sex trafficking had been involved with child welfare services.
Juvenile Law Center:
- Approximately 20,000 youth age-out of foster care at age 18 without a permanent family and often without supportive adults in their lives.
- Half of all young adults who age-out of foster care end up homeless or incarcerated.
- LGBTQ-identified youth, youth of color, and young parents are over-represented in the youth homelessness population.
National Conference of State Legislators:
- Foster care alumni are diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at a rate of 21.5%, versus 4.5% of the general adult population.
- Foster care alumni are diagnosed with Major Depressive Episode at a rate of 15.3% versus 10.6 percent of the general adult population.