ARW has facilitated more than 1,500 adoptions of children from the foster care system in its nearly 25-year history. Because these children are no longer in “the system,” Wisconsin taxpayers have saved more than $88 million. This number is based on a very conservative estimate of $5,000 savings each year in court and administrative costs for each child who is adopted – many states estimate the costs closer to $20,000 per year per child.

Today in Wisconsin, there are more than 6,500 children in Wisconsin in foster care.

Children leave the foster care system in one of four ways:

• They return to the care of their parents;
• They are placed with a family through guardianship, often with relatives;
• They are adopted;
• Or they “age out” of the system when they turn 18.

Children who leave the foster care system without ever finding a permanent family – 8% annually – face many struggles. Within 18 months of leaving the system:

• 37% had not finished high school;
• 50% are unemployed;
• 27% of young men and 10% of young women were incarcerated.*

More than half of the 22,000+ prisoners in the Wisconsin correctional system have spent
time in foster care – at a cost of $50,000 per year per inmate.+

* Source: Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago, Multi State Foster Care Data Archive
+Source: U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Jail Statistics