Fact Sheet

CO Data about Foster Care and Adoption
• CO Foster care count (Jan 2023 - Dec 2023) = 6718 kids living in foster care. For
most, it is a temporary placement, after which they will be reunited with their
families. However, about 400 of these youth cannot be reunified, and are in need
of adoptive homes.
• 42% of kids will remain in foster care for over 12 months
• 8% of kids spent over 3 years in foster care before being placed for adoption
• The CO re-entry into foster care rate is at 17.5% (national rate is 8.3%) – this
speaks to the need for services that Raise the Future offers, that help connect
families and and help them form healthy attachments
• 30% of Colorado youth in foster care experience more than 2 foster
placements per year, a disruptive, stressful, and traumatizing event
• As of 2023 there were about 2,147 certified kinship and foster families available.
• Nearly 13% of adoptions of foster children in CO in the past decade have failed,
and those youth are returned to the foster care system. Adoptive parents cite
behavioral challenges as the reason. Financial assistance to adoptive parents to
pay for therapy, day care and other help varies widely by CO county, creating an
inequitable system that can contribute to families failing to stay together.
o Raise the Future is the only ambassador organization in CO for The Karen
Purvis Institute, whose trauma-healing methodology is specifically
designed to support and heal childhood trauma for foster/adopted youth
National Data
• National data shows that 25% of youth that emancipate from foster care will be
involved with the criminal legal system within two years of leaving foster care. If a
child has moved to five or more placements, they are at a 90% risk of being
involved with the criminal legal system. Colorado state officials say the primary
solution to addressing this problem is to place foster kids into permanent homes,
either through adoption or being reunited with their birth families.
• Of the 400,000 children in foster care nationally, approximately 117,000 are
waiting to be adopted.
• Each year, approximately 20,000 youth will age out of the foster care system
when they turn 18 or 21, or when they finish high school (depending upon the
state in which they live.) Approx 200 emancipate from Colorado’s foster care
system each year
• Seventy percent of women who have aged out of the foster care system get
pregnant by the age of 21.
• 21% of foster youth who emancipate from foster care without a family will be
incarcerated by age 21
• Because of the complex traumas faced by children and youth in foster care,
foster care alumni experience posttraumatic stress disorder at a rate nearly five
times higher than the general adult population.
• A 2018 Children’s Bureau report to Congress showed that 60% of domestic child
trafficking victims and 70% of youth in detention centers have spent time in foster
care.
• Forming secure attachments to safe, caring adults is the single most important
protective factor against negative long-term health and wellbeing outcomes for
youth (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2020)
Raise the Future Data

• A 2018 report from the Colorado Department of Human Services showed that
70% of youth in foster care that received Raise the Future’s Youth Advocate
services were adopted, compared to 44% of youth receiving only traditional
services.
• Raise the Future has placed almost 11,000 youth with loving families since their
founding in 1983
• With support from Raise the Future, last year 313 youth exited foster care into
the home of a loving and stable adult
• Raise the Future provided trauma-informed training to over $3,500 families and
professionals last year, equipping them with the skills and tools necessary to help
youth and families heal, connect, and thrive
• As part of Raise the Future’s statewide, comprehensive family support services,
they train families and professionals in Trust-Based Relational Intervention, an
evidence-based caregiver model proven to help youth with trauma histories and
their families heal. 95% of respondents that engaged with Raise the Future in
this program reported positive changes in areas like youth and family wellbeing
and youth mental/behavioral health.
• 100% of adoptive families served by Raise the Future’s trauma-healing family
services in the past year maintained permanency in their homes

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CO Data about Foster Care and Adoption

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