Post-Permanency Continuity: What Happens After Adoption and Guardianship From Foster Care?

Abstract

A new dynamic faces the U.S. child welfare system. Since 1998 there has been a simultaneous decrease in children in state custody and increase in children in subsidized adoptive and guardianship homes. In 2013 there were 2.8 children in federally assisted adoptive or guardianship homes for every child in a federally assisted foster home. While generally lauded as positive, little empirical research chronicles the post-adoption or post-guardianship outcomes of these children, and there is no agreed-upon terminology for children who leave their legally permanent homes prior to becoming adults. This study examined outcomes for 21,629 children adopted or taken into guardianship, and tracked for at least 10 years, or until age 18. Most (87%) did not reenter foster care or experienced another type of temporary or long-term interruption in care. Based on the experiences of the 13%, this study suggests new terminology, post-permanency discontinuity, to describe these experiences.