The annual status of children report documents 2000 statistics on child maltreatment, adoption and foster care. Our department-wide service integration effort has allowed SCF to work with other divisions, including Adult and Family Services and the Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs, to address children's safety issues and to plan holistically to meet the needs of families. Although the report shows a decrease of 9.4 percent in the number of child victims, Foley said the number does not reflect a decrease in the efforts of the state's child protection staff. In 2000, SCF experienced an increase in the number of reports of child abuse and neglect. Consistent with the decrease in abuse and neglect, the number of children requiring foster care declined slightly.
Data indicate that for the second year more children left foster care than entered foster care.
Adoptions for children ages 14 and older, who are considered to be more challenging to place, reached a record high of 43, or 5 percent, of all adoptions. Two-thirds of the children adopted from SCF were adopted by their relatives or their foster parents. Protecting children and strengthening families is a shared community responsibility.