Kids Count Alaska 2005

Abstract

Over the past 15 years, Alaska’s children as a group have gotten older, more racially diverse, and more international. The total number of children in Alaska increased about 11% between 1990 and 2004, but the number of children ages 9 and younger dropped 8% and the number ages 10 to 18 rose 40%. During the same period, the number of children from minorities—the largest minority being Alaska Native—increased 75%, while the number from immigrant families was up nearly half. This year we show a snapshot of Alaska children in foster care. These are mostly children the state Office of Children’s Services (OCS) has taken, either temporarily or permanently, out of their parents’ homes—because the children were judged to be in “immediate” danger or their parents couldn’t be located. In some cases, parents voluntarily put their children into foster care, and in rare cases parents abandon children. The number of children in foster care varies throughout the year, as some children are returned to their parents’ custody and others come into the foster care system. Some are adopted and others age out of the system.