Out-of-Home Placement Rates

This article analyzes data from the Children and Youth Referral Survey as provided by the Office for Civil Rights. Out-of-home placement rates per 1,000 children under age nineteen were calculated for all states and classified according to racial/ethnic category. Compared with the national placement rate of four per 1,000, black children were placed out-of-home at a rate of 9.5 per 1,000, followed by American Indian children with a rate of 8.8 per 1,000. Black children comprise only 14 percent of the population under age nineteen, but accounted for 33 percent of all children in out-of-home placement.