Foster care
From Adoption Information
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Foster care is temporary care, under state or county supervision, of children who are unable to remain in the homes of their primary caregivers. Children are removed from their homes and placed in foster care for a variety of reasons, and their stay in foster care can range from a few hours or days to years.
The main reason a child is placed in foster care is that his/her home environment presented a danger to the child – a physical danger, a health-related danger, or an emotional danger.
Today in the United States, there are over 500,000 children in foster care. They are cared for in foster homes, group homes, or facilities offering specialized levels of care, depending on their needs, and depending on space available. There is a critical shortage of foster parents in the U.S., and foster children are often housed inappropriately because of it.
Foster care programs are funded by both individual states and the federal government.
