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Children in Public Foster Care Waiting to be Adopted: FY 1999 thru FY 2006

This table is also available for download in PDF format (PDF - 23 KB).

NOTE: There is no federal definition for a child waiting to be adopted. For analytical purposes, the definition used in the table above includes children who have a goal of adoption and/or whose parental rights have been terminated. It excludes children 16 years old and older, whose parental rights have been terminated and who have a goal of emancipation. The number of children waiting to be adopted reported by individual States will likely differ somewhat from those in this table because State definitions vary according to State policies and practices.

Because AFCARS data are being continuously updated and cleaned, the numbers reported here may differ from data reported elsewhere. In addition, the total numbers of waiting children reported in this table for fiscal years 2002-2006 differ notably from previously reported numbers. This change is primarily a result of revised data submitted by the State of California. California recently engaged a new contractor to develop the computer programming related to the submission of AFCARS data. As a result, the State is more comprehensively identifying children with a goal of adoption and children whose parental rights have been terminated. This has resulted in an increase in the reported size of the waiting population for fiscal years 2002-2006. This change and other minor changes made to the computer program provide a more accurate picture of the size and nature of the "waiting" population at the end of each fiscal year.

In contrast to a previous version of this table, FY 1998 data are not included because of the extensive amount of missing data for that year. However, as in the previous version of the table, jurisdictions with data that are insufficient or unusable for this purpose ("NA") are not included in the totals. Therefore, the totals in this table may differ from those reported elsewhere which include estimates for missing data.