8 in 10 Washington newborns taken into care had a parent's drug abuse on record

What this chart asks

How does the share of removals with parental drug abuse differ by the child's age?

Why it is shown this way

• One line per age group shows the gap between babies and older children, and that it held steady from 2017 to 2024.
• The callout marks the 2-to-17 figure DCYF's dashboard shows first, the source of the often-quoted 27%.

Chart annotations

These markers provide relevant context for interpreting the chart. Their timing or position does not, by itself, establish causation.

27.5%: dashboard default

2024

Data and accessibility

The chart's data and images are in the strip under it.

Dataset washington-foster-care-parental-drug-abuse, analysis dcyf-by-age-statewide

Sources

This chart draws on the sources of the dataset versions it visualizes.

Parental drug or alcohol abuse in Washington foster care removals

1. National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (NCSACW), Parental Alcohol or Drug Abuse as a Circumstance Reported at Removal by State, 2025 Share and number of children in foster care with parental alcohol or drug abuse recorded at removal, by state, federal fiscal year 2025

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. A center funded by the federal Children's Bureau and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Figures are the Center for Children and Family Futures' analysis of the federal foster care data (AFCARS) that every state reports, as archived by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect.

2. NCSACW, Prevalence of Parental Alcohol or Drug Abuse as a Circumstance Reported at Removal in the United States, 2000 to 2025 National share by year, 2000 to 2025

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. Same center and method as the 2025 state table.

3. NCSACW, Parental Alcohol or Drug Abuse as an Identified Condition of Removal by State, 2021 (archived copy) Washington and national shares in the 2021 edition of the state table

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. An earlier edition of the same center's state table, no longer posted on its site; read from the Internet Archive copy. Its footnote cites 'AFCARS Data, 2020 v1' while its title says 2021.

4. NCSACW, Parental Alcohol or Other Drug Abuse as an Identified Condition or Removal by State, 2019 (archived copy) Washington and national shares in the 2019 edition of the state table

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. An earlier edition of the same center's state table, read from the Internet Archive copy.

5. U.S. Children's Bureau, AFCARS state data reports for Washington, fiscal years 2021 and 2022 Circumstances recorded for children entering foster care in Washington (FY2021 report: https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cb/afcars-tar-wa-2021.pdf)

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. The federal agency's own summary of the foster care data Washington reports to it. Preliminary estimates as of June 28, 2022 (FY2021) and May 9, 2023 (FY2022). Reports for other years were not posted at the same address.

6. Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), Prevention Dashboard V1.16, Factors tab Contributing factors for children entering out-of-home care, statewide and King County, by age group, 2017 to 2024

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public record (Washington state government). Public record; figures restated, dashboard linked

   Reliability: Government. The state agency that removes children reports on its own cases from its case management system (FamLink), using the federal AFCARS definitions. Read from the dashboard's hover values on November 12, 2026 (dashboard updated September 2025).

7. Washington DSHS Research and Data Analysis Division, Report 7.121: Substance Use Disorder Treatment Penetration among Child Welfare-Involved Caregivers (December 2020) Share of caregivers with a substance use disorder and share treated, state fiscal years 2015 to 2018

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public record (Washington state government). Public record; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. The state's own research office, writing for DCYF. It links child welfare records to Medicaid diagnoses, prescriptions and treatment and to drug-related arrests; treatment counts cover Medicaid-paid care only.

8. National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, AFCARS Foster Care File Codebook Definitions of the removal-reason fields (elements #37 and #38)

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. The federal data archive's codebook for the AFCARS file; definitions come from federal regulation 45 CFR 1355, Appendix A.

Limitations

• Parent drug abuse only; parental alcohol abuse is a separate, overlapping factor. Children entering care in each calendar year; a child can have several factors.
• Read from the dashboard's hover values; it gives no all-ages figure for this measure, and it doesn't say whether its infant group includes newborns.