Reducing the Number of Children Entering Foster Care: Effects of State Earned Income Tax Credits

Details

• Journal Article:
  Child Maltreat
• Personal Author:
  Rostad, Whitney L. ; Ports, Katie A. ; Tang, Shichao ; Klevens, Joanne
• Description:
  Foster care caseloads, an indicator of child maltreatment, are increasing. Children living in poverty are significantly more likely to be reported to the child welfare system and are overrepresented in foster care. Thus, it is critical to identify prevention strategies that can stem the flow of foster care entries, particularly among populations at higher risk. We used variations in the adoption and refund status of state-level Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a socioeconomic policy intended to reduce poverty, to examine their effect on foster care entry rates. Fixed-effects models, accounting for year- and state-fixed effects, demonstrated that a refundable EITC was associated with an 11% decrease in foster care entries compared to states without a state-level EITC after controlling for child poverty rate, racial/ethnic composition, education, and unemployment. Policies that strengthen economic supports for families may prevent child maltreatment and reduce foster care entries and associated costs.
• Subjects:
  • Child
  • Child Abuse
  • Child Health
  • Child, Foster
  • Family Characteristics
  • Humans
  • Income
  • Income Tax
  • Poverty
  • Socioeconomic Factors
• Keywords:
  • foster care
  • policy
  • child welfare
  • economics
• Source:
  Child Maltreat. 25(4):393-397
• DOI:
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077559519900922
• Pubmed ID:
  31973550
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC7377953
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Volume:
  25
• Issue:
  4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/91166/cdc_91166_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 68.73 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:82e862f57fea4a06b906062686e4e6d6dcf2ecc2efe4782e339d261946e6b079d4280a078033820ba09aa1c3a6876cf6787bdcaea7ebcebbc16fffff0b7499b9