A new study from researchers at Rutgers University and the University of California, Irvine finds there is no association between placing more children in foster care and reducing child abuse- or neglect-related deaths, calling into question a long-standing argument that removing more children from home reduces rates of fatal child abuse or neglect.

Published in JAMA Network Open, a journal of the American Medical Association, the research examines 10 years of data from all 50 states and finds that child deaths did not decrease when states placed more children into foster care, nor did they increase when fewer children entered care. The findings challenge claims that reducing foster care placements puts children at greater risk.

Led by associate professor Frank Edwards and professor Robert Apel, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, and assistant professor Kelley Fong, Department of Sociology, UC Irvine, the research provides a system-level perspective that has been largely absent from public discourse. Nearly 2,000 children die each year due to maltreatment, yet policy debates often focus narrowly on foster care involvement rather than broader prevention strategies.

Nationwide, tragic child deaths often prompt calls for child welfare agencies to remove more children from home. Research has established that foster care panics driven by extreme cases fuel social outrage that result in spikes in removals of children from their homes.

“Child abuse and neglect fatalities are devastating, but the current data show that simply removing more children into foster care is not likely the most effective lever to reduce the incidence of these tragic cases of child maltreatment,” said Edwards. “We encourage policymakers to carefully evaluate and implement interventions that have been proven to reduce risk of death.”

“This research is especially important given recent policy reforms that aim to shift resources towards preventing foster care placements,” said Fong. “It suggests that reducing foster care and preventing child maltreatment fatalities are not necessarily opposed, but can go hand-in-hand.”

The study’s conclusions align with recommendations from the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Public Health Association, all of which emphasize that reducing child fatalities requires public health approaches, anti-poverty investments, and support from medical and social service providers, rather than a singular focus on removal into foster care.

As public conversations about child safety intensify, this research notes that these findings provide an opportunity for policymakers and practitioners to move away from fear-based assumptions and toward evidence-informed strategies that strengthen support for families.

-adapted from Rutgers-Newark School of Criminal Justice news