Characteristics, experiences, and mental health of children who re-enter foster care

Permanent placements that are safe and stable promote well-being of children leaving foster care; however, placement disruptions and reentry into the welfare system following placements that were intended to be permanent are common (Konijn et al., 2019). What is not known is whether disruptions during foster care stays are particularly risky for children's emotional health if they occur in the context of more than one removal of the child from their parents or guardians (i.e., from home). Using the most current data available through the nationally mandated Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS), we explored characteristics and removal reasons of children who re-enter foster care and used hierarchical, binomial logistic regression to analyze the moderating effect of multiple removals from home on the link between placement disruptions during stays in foster care and emotional disturbance (ED). The sample consisted of 659,105 children served by the U.S. foster care system during Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. Findings suggest that children who re-enter foster care are more likely to be older, and disproportionately more were children of color. Children who re-enter foster care tend to experience more placement disruptions in subsequent removal episodes than children who have been removed from their home only once. Finally, we identified an interaction effect for placement disruptions and multiple removals on the likelihood of a child in foster care having ED. This study discusses implications for targeted permanency and post-permanency services.