As noted earlier, we use the SPM as a framework for understanding foster children’s poverty rate. Total number of reports to child protective agencies in 2000: 2.8 million, Percentage of those reports that met the standards for 3. (AFCARS) 13. First, for years prior to 2001, we imputed WIC incidence at the household level. We find that this share amounts to 2.8 percent among children living with their grandparents and 2.5 percent among children living with other relatives, indicating that this type of reporting error is not too extensive. This could be tested by seeing if there are systematic differences among families that predict the amount of foster care, severance, or other income reported. We use the SPM framework to define these resources. Notably, grandchildren are 74 percent more likely than children living with parents to be in SPM poverty absent resources from government policies and programs, reflecting the important role of government policies and programs for that group. Several subsequent studies echo these findings using data from the National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF), which includes small samples of children in nonrelative foster care and children living with relative caregivers. of adults0.5. The distributions of other income among children in the three other living arrangements, however, have higher means and standard deviations and lower variance, with the exception of children living with their grandparents, whose variance is similar to that of the pooled sample. First, as indicated in its name, this variable could include the value of severance payments, although we think these are rare as these are a temporary form of payment that, if followed by a period of unemployment, are likely to be terminated and be replaced by either Unemployment Insurance payments or new employment. For clarity, we refer to this as “foster care, severance, or other income.”, Descriptive data suggest that this foster care, severance, or other income variable is indeed capturing foster care payments. THE U.S. FOSTER CARE SYSTEM EVERY YEAR. SPM poverty rates for foster children, children living with grandparents, children living with other relatives, and children living with parents. Indeed, after accounting for these demographic characteristics, we find that foster children actually have lower odds of poverty than children living with their parents, in large part due to the other income (which we argue is likely to primarily consist of foster care payments) that their foster families receive. Several studies suggest that compared to the general population, former foster children have poorer physical health. This difference could be due to subsidized guardianship or pre-adoption placements, both of which may be considered foster care by the reporting parent but categorized otherwise by the state. From 1976 to 2008, the CPS asks respondents whether they owned or rented their dwelling, but not about their mortgage status; since 2009, a question on this item has been included. We first use the CEX to predict the likelihood of using paid child care using the following covariates: number of children (1, 2, 3+), number of adults in household (1, 2, 3+), poverty dummies (<100 percent, 100–200 percent, and >200 percent of federal poverty level), head of family age (<25, 26–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, 65+), race (white, black, other), education of head (less than high school, high school, some college, college graduate or higher), family size, married, race and education interactions, race and age interaction, and a region indicator (Northeast, Midwest, South, West). We follow the US Census Bureau in using a three-parameter equivalence scale to adjust poverty thresholds for poverty-unit size and composition. Finally, our data are limited in that we cannot separate the informal and formal arrangements for children living with their grandparents or with other relatives, nor can we specifically identify children living in subsidized guardianship or adoption arrangements. 11. An ongoing study by the Institute for Children and Poverty reveals that homeless families whose heads of households grew up in foster care are at greatest risk of dissolution. Note. To test whether our results are driven by those with extreme values, we remove those with other incomes above the 99th percentile (around $50,000) from the pooled sample; this group consists of 212 children, 77 percent of whom do not live in homes with foster children or are not foster children themselves. Percentages of caregivers reporting nonmissing values greater than $0. We use a historical version of the SPM constructed in a consistent manner over time using the CPS (see Fox et al. But even with taxes and transfers, these children are at elevated risk of poverty, and of deep poverty. Resources and Receipt of Government Programs by Living Arrangement. First, the SPM treats cohabiting families in an equivalent way to married families, reflecting the increase in cohabitation in the United States in recent decades. Programs, 13 percent reported being homeless at least once since being 8. So if, for example, a child is living with her or his grandparent in kinship foster care, the grandparent might select “grandchild” or might select “foster child”; we think the former might be more commonly selected since it is offered first and since it might be considered the primary relationship, though this is ultimately unknown. Estimates are from March 1991 to March 2012 Current Population Surveys. Jane Waldfogel is the Compton Foundation Centennial Professor for the Prevention of Children and Youth Problems at the Columbia University School of Social Work and codirector of the Columbia Population Research Center. Many of the demographic factors are significant in this regression, as we would expect, given the heterogeneity of this much larger sample. Wimer focuses on the measurement of poverty and disadvantage and the ways in which low-income families cope with scarcity of resources. 12. Recently, the US Census Bureau has begun releasing additional poverty statistics using the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). Foster care arrangements include non-relative foster homes, relative foster homes (also known as “kinship care”), group homes, institutions, and pre-adoptive homes. Second, the best variable we can create to measure foster care payments in the CPS also captures severance payments and other types of income not otherwise specified, although values of this variable compare pretty well to those found in other data sets that capture foster care payments more precisely. In supplemental analyses (not shown), we compare the weighted frequency counts of nonrelative foster children in our sample to administrative data in the same years. We then apply these regression coefficients to the relevant CPS year and predict the likelihood of paid child care for each household. Critically, the SIPP tracks foster care payments separately from all other income. Any taxes paid are subtracted from resources. Previous research on the economic status of foster children has focused on two main (and related) topics—the role of foster care maintenance payments in family budgets and how incomes of foster families compare to those of relative caregiver families. For additional details on our imputation methodology, see Fox and colleagues (2015). The WIC program has provided subsidized food and formula to women, infants, and children since the mid-1970s, and since 2001, only the number of WIC recipients in the household has been collected, so our procedure for imputing WIC benefits into the CPS is a two-step procedure. These are the first large-scale, national estimates for foster children because they are not included in official poverty statistics. The percentage of children adopted in less than 12 months out of foster care in … This study also finds that, on the whole, relative caregivers were more reliant on Supplemental Security Income than on wages and investments. SPM resources include all cash income plus noncash benefits, which include the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), the National School Lunch Program, Supplementary Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC), housing subsidies, and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), as well as tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit. One clear source of error stems from differences in timing with regard to the placement of foster children. Exits. Foster care payments are monthly stipends paid to substitute caregivers of children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect, and these stipends are intended to fund the children’s food, shelter, clothing, and (some) incidentals. In Table 3, we show the results of estimating our fully controlled model (model 3 from Table 2) but using alternative definitions of resources in defining poverty status. SPM Deep Poverty: Estimates from Logistic Regression Models. For instance, Duncan and Argys (2007) estimated $394 per month ($4,728 annually) in a 1998 nationally representative sample. These findings are robust to state and year fixed effects, suggesting that, in spite of historical state-level adjustments to foster care maintenance payments, the effect of these foster care payments is substantial and significant. Understanding the poverty statistics of Foster’s population is vital for allocating resources for school, health care, and other social services. This family, then, would not report receiving foster care, severance, or other income, driving up the poverty estimates for these foster children. In Fight Against ISIS, a Lose-Lose Scenario Poses Challenge for West. Absent all taxes and transfers, we see that children living with their parents have the lowest SPM poverty rates (24.5 percent), in comparison to foster children (33.7 percent), children living with their grandparents (51.8 percent), and children living with other relatives (41.3 percent). SPM poverty rates for foster children, children living with grandparents, children living with other relatives, and children living with parents. Employment status is operationalized through a series of variables indicating the employment, frequency of employment (weeks worked per year), and part-time/full-time status (hours per week) of all adults in the household over the reporting period, resulting in a dummy variable reflecting whether all adults in the household were employed at least part-time/part-year versus the reference category of at least one adult not employed. We multiply the average food, clothing, shelter, and utilities FCSU for the 30th to 36th percentiles of FCSU (Food, clothing, shelter, and utilities) expenditures by 1.2 to account for additional basic needs, and again apply the equivalence scales to set the poverty threshold for each family type. Again, the potential for measurement error here is not completely eliminated, but these results are consistent with our primary results. We expect severance to be a very small portion of the income reported in this variable both because severance payments are not mandatory upon termination and based on the evidence we offer below. Second, unlike the official poverty thresholds, the SPM poverty thresholds more accurately reflect the composition of necessary expenditures faced by American families, as they are based off of expenditures on a core set of necessities: food, clothing, shelter, and utilities, plus a multiplier for other necessary expenditures. Our findings indicate that foster children have higher odds of living in poverty than other children but that this is entirely accounted for by their and their caregivers’ demographic characteristics. These estimates allow us to compare the living standards of foster children with those of children living with their grandparents or other relatives and children living with their parents. Two family-related covariates are included: the number of children in the household and family structure. FE = fixed effects. Since the New Deal, federal housing programs have provided either reduced-price rentals or vouchers for low-income housing assistance. For instance, two parents on public assistance voluntarily requested a dependency petition because they were unable to financially and emotionally care for their two children. 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