Removal circumstances for children entering care in Washington, FY2021-FY2022

What this dataset measures

The federal foster care data (AFCARS) is the only source that records removal reasons the same way in every state. The state's own dashboard and research office add age groups, King County and treatment.

Geography

Washington, United States, United States

Unit of observation

Varies by table: state, year, circumstance, age group or figure

Update cadence

Yearly, when NCSACW posts the next state table (about May) and DCYF updates its dashboard

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

Removal circumstances for children entering care in Washington, FY2021-FY2022

Every circumstance the federal reports list for children who entered foster care during the year. A child can have several.

Unit of observation: One circumstance in one fiscal year

washington-entries-fy2021-2022.csv text/csv · 1.1 KB (1,098 bytes)

All 30 rows 5 columns Download the file

All 30 rows

fiscal_year	circumstance	children children	entries children	pct percent
2021	Neglect	2350	3849	61.1
2021	Drug abuse (parent)	1511	3849	39.3
2021	Physical abuse	618	3849	16.1
2021	Housing	459	3849	11.9
2021	Caretaker inability to cope	376	3849	9.8
2021	Sexual abuse	243	3849	6.3
2021	Parent incarceration	196	3849	5.1
2021	Abandonment	181	3849	4.7
2021	Alcohol abuse (parent)	166	3849	4.3
2021	Child behavior problem	104	3849	2.7
2021	Parent death	38	3849	1.0
2021	Child disability	23	3849	0.6
2021	Drug abuse (child)	20	3849	0.5
2021	Alcohol abuse (child)	13	3849	0.3
2021	Relinquishment	3	3849	0.1
2022	Neglect	2138	3518	60.8
2022	Drug abuse (parent)	1467	3518	41.7
2022	Physical abuse	574	3518	16.3
2022	Housing	433	3518	12.3
2022	Caretaker inability to cope	331	3518	9.4
2022	Sexual abuse	254	3518	7.2
2022	Parent incarceration	178	3518	5.1
2022	Abandonment	171	3518	4.9
2022	Alcohol abuse (parent)	144	3518	4.1
2022	Child behavior problem	76	3518	2.2
2022	Parent death	62	3518	1.8
2022	Child disability	25	3518	0.7
2022	Drug abuse (child)	18	3518	0.5
2022	Alcohol abuse (child)	9	3518	0.3
2022	Relinquishment	3	3518	0.1

5 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
fiscal_year	integer	Federal fiscal year	—	observed
circumstance	string	Circumstance associated with the child's removal	—	observed
children	integer	Children entering care with this circumstance	children	observed
entries	integer	All children entering care that year	children	observed
pct	number	children / entries, to one decimal (the report prints whole percents)	percent	derived

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• dataset-metadata.json Documentation · application/json · 44.3 KB (45,399 bytes)

  The dataset's sources, table definitions and saved analyses (with every result row), as JSON.

Sources

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.

License: FactHub's selection, cleaning and combined tables are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source data keeps the terms listed above (terms).

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Every figure is printed in the cited PDF, except the DCYF figures, which are the dashboard's hover values (Factors tab, Bar Chart age filter, Statewide or County - King).

• Removal reasons are yes/no fields, so a child can have several; parental drug abuse usually appears with neglect.
• States record these fields differently and some send only the primary reason, so comparisons between states partly reflect recording practice (NCSACW's caveat).
• The NCSACW figures count every child in care during the year, including those removed in earlier years; the share among new removals is lower (42% for parental drug abuse alone in FY2022).
• The treatment figures are from 2015-2018 and count only Medicaid-paid care.
• We could not read the July 2025 DCYF slide deck that reportedly gave a 27% figure; it has been taken down.