Child Welfare and Alcohol & Drug Use Statistics
In the past three decades, the United States has experienced at least three major shifts in substances of abuse that have had dramatic effects on children and families. However, the increase of opioid misuse has been described by long-time child welfare professionals as having the worst effects on child welfare systems that they have seen. Studies indicate that there is substantial overlap between parents involved in the child welfare and substance use treatment systems. However, identifying these families is difficult, as neither child welfare or substance use treatment are required to capture the data elements necessary to identify families in both systems. The following graphs present current statistics on this issue.
Prevalence of Parental Alcohol or Other Drug Use as a Contributing Factor for Reason for Removal in the United States, 2000 to 2016
- Child welfare workers report that most children in child welfare, and the overwhelming majority of children placed in out-of-home care, have a parent with an alcohol or other substance use disorder.
- Parental alcohol or other drug use as a contributing factor for reason for removal increased from 18% to over 35% in the last 16 years.
Parental Alcohol or Other Drug Use as a Contributing Factor for Reason for Removal by State, 2016
- Efforts in data collection have improved in recent years, but significant undercount remains in some states.
Percent Change in Contributing Factor for Reason for Removal in the United States 2012-2016
- Despite the undercount by states, the percentage of children entering foster care that had parent drug abuse reported as a reason for removal increased from 30.7% in 2012 to 35.3% in 2016. This is the largest increase of any reason for removal.
Number of Children Who Entered Foster Care, by Age at Removal in the United States, 2016
- Younger children make up a larger percentage of children in out-of-home care, with children under five representing over 41% of children in care. This alarming rate of young children coming into care is especially troubling, as children ages 0–3 are especially vulnerable.
Estimated Number of Infants* Affected by Prenatal Exposure, by Type of Substance and Infant Disorder, 2016
- The prevalence rates of infants with prenatal substance exposure in the child welfare caseload is currently unknown due to states' variation in identification and reporting practices.
*Approximately 4 million (3,945,875) live births in 2016; National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 66, No. 1 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr66/nvsr66_01_tables.pdf Estimates based on rates of past month drug use: National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2016; https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-DetTabs-2016/NSDUH-DetTabs-2016.pdf
** Includes nine categories of illicit drug use: use of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens and inhalants, as well as the non-medical use of prescription-type pain relievers, tran quilizers, stimulants, and sedatives
Patrick, et al., (2015). Increasing incidence and geographic distribution of neonatal abstinence syndrome: United States 2009 to 2012. Journal of Perinatology, 35 (8), 667 May, P.A., and Gossage, J.P.(2001).Estimating the prevalence of fetal alcohol syndrome: A summary. Alcohol Research & Health 25(3):159-167. Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh25-3/159-167.htm
Sources
The data used in this publication were made available by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and have been used with permission. Data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) were originally collected by the Children’s Bureau. Funding for the project was provided by the Children’s Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The collector of the original data, the funder, NDACAN, Cornell University and their agents or employees bear no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.