how many children are in foster care in the us
And instead of being safely reunified with their families â or moved quickly into adoptive homes â many will languish for years in foster homes or institutions. On any given day, there are approximately 415,000 children in foster care in the United States. In 2014, over 650,000 children spent time in U.S. foster care. On average, children remain in state care for nearly two years and seven percent of children in foster care have languished there for five or more years. Despite the common perception that the majority of children in foster care are very young, the average age of kids in care is nearly 9. In 2014, more than half of children entering U.S. foster care were young people of color.