CO Data about Foster Care and Adoption: 2023

• There are approx. 400 youth in Colorado currently waiting in foster care to be adopted
• 30% of Colorado youth in foster care experience more than 2 foster placements per
year, a disruptive, stressful, and traumatizing event
• As of 2022 (the most recent data available), 1,846 homes in CO are licensed as
foster care homes; there are roughly 4,000 youth living in foster care.
• More than 1/3 of foster youth who emancipate from the foster care system in
Colorado are homeless by age 21
• National data shows that 43% of women and 74% of men who emancipated from foster
care will have been incarcerated at least once over the course of their lives, and
Colorado state officials say the primary solution to addressing this problem is to place
foster kids into permanent homes, either through adoption or being reunited with their
birth families.

• Nearly 13% of adoptions of foster children in CO in the past decade have failed, and
those youth are returned to the foster care system. Adoptive parents cite behavioral
challenges as the reason. Financial assistance to adoptive parents to pay for therapy,
day care and other help varies widely by CO county, creating an inequitable system that
can contribute to families failing to stay together.
o Raise the Future is the only agency contracted with the state to provide trauma-
healing training to adoptive parents

National Data 2023

• There are 391,000 youth living in foster care

• Approximately 25,000 youth age out (or “emancipate”) from foster care each year –
that’s 68 per day.
o Approx 200 emancipate from Colorado’s foster care system each year
• 21% of foster youth who emancipate from foster care without a family will be
incarcerated by age 21
 • 23% of foster youth who emancipate from foster care without a family will become
parents between 19 and 21 years old.
• Because of the complex traumas faced by children and youth in foster care, foster care
alumni experience posttraumatic stress disorder at a rate nearly five times higher than
the general adult population.
• A 2018 Children’s Bureau report to Congress showed that 60% of domestic child
trafficking victims and 70% of youth in detention centers have spent time in foster care. 
• Of youth who emancipate, 20% will be homeless, half will be unemployed, and 71% of
young women will become pregnant within the first two years of emancipation
(Fryar, Jordan, DeVooght, 2017).
• Forming secure attachments to safe, caring adults is the single most important
protective factor against negative long-term health and wellbeing outcomes for youth
(Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2020)

Raise the Future Data

• A 2018 report from the Colorado Department of Human Services showed that 70% of
youth in foster care that received Raise the Future’s Youth Advocate services were
adopted, compared to 44% of youth receiving only traditional services.
• Raise the Future has placed over 10,735 youth with loving families since their founding
in 1983
• With support from Raise the Future, last year 300 youth exited foster care into the
home of a loving and stable adult
• Raise the Future provided trauma-informed training to 3,864 families and professionals
last year, equipping them with the skills and tools necessary to help youth and families
heal, connect, and thrive
• As part of Raise the Future’s statewide, comprehensive family support services, they
train families and professionals in Trust-Based Relational Intervention, an evidence-
based caregiver model proven to help youth with trauma histories and their families
heal. 95% of respondents that engaged with Raise the Future in this program reported
positive changes in areas like youth and family wellbeing and youth mental/behavioral
health.
• 100% of adoptive families served by Raise the Future’s trauma-healing family services in
the past year maintained permanency in their homes