After Parental Rights are Terminated: Factors Associated with Exiting Foster Care

As child welfare agencies respond to Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) timelines, more foster children are becoming eligible for adoption following termination of parental rights (TPR). Using multi-state data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), this study focuses on a cohort of foster children (n = 1,995) whose parents' rights were terminated in the same month. The majority of these children remained in foster care one year after becoming eligible for adoption. The study uses Cox regression to assess factors associated with the rate of foster care discharge within the first year of TPR. Characteristics associated with exiting care at a slower rate include: being older, being African American, being placed in kinship care, and having multiple placement settings. In addition, the rate of exiting foster care after TPR varies by state, and some state differences remain even after accounting for client demographics and other caseload differences between states. The findings raise questions about current practices to promote legal permanency, and suggest that new practices may be needed to better maintain family ties and psychological bonds.