Ohio’s Foster Care Crisis: Fewer Children in Care, but Not Enough Homes for Those Who Need Them
The foster care system in Ohio is a complex issue: While the number of children in care has dropped to its lowest point in nearly 10 years, many children in care still have trouble finding a family or residential placement that is right for them.
The Ohio Department of Children and Youth reported that there were approximately 14,223 children in foster care in Ohio in December 2025. It had fallen to its lowest level since July 2016 when it reached 16,867, but had risen to 17,823 in May 2020.
However, the overall reduction in children has not taken the strain off the system.
The number of foster parents in Ohio has also declined. Ohio Department of Children and Youth officials said in a presentation to a state House committee in 2025 that the number of foster parents has dropped 4% since 2019.
This creates a system in which fewer children might be entering or staying in care, but the children who need to be placed, particularly those with complex behavioural, emotional and mental-health needs, can be the most difficult to place.
A shortage that is not simply about numbers
The foster care crisis in Ohio is not evenly distributed.
While statewide numbers have declined, some communities are experiencing the opposite trend.
In Richland County, for example, the monthly number of children in care rose from an average of about 129 in 2024 to between 145 and 175 over the following year, according to local children’s services officials. The increase came as the statewide number remained near a nine-year low.
Rural communities face additional challenges because specialised mental-health and social-service resources can be difficult to access.
A Health Policy Institute of Ohio analysis cited by Ideastream found that 75 of Ohio’s 88 counties did not have enough mental-health professionals. Service providers say this shortage can leave the foster care system filling gaps that would ideally be addressed through community-based mental-health services.
For some children, therefore, entering foster care is not simply about finding a bed. It may involve finding a placement capable of supporting trauma, behavioural challenges, mental-health needs, disability or other circumstances requiring specialised care.
The children who are hardest to place
One of the primary issues is the availability of placements for children whose needs are greater than what a traditional foster family can handle without extra support.
A study revealed that approximately 24% of children in custody were placed there for reasons other than abuse or neglect, and that these children may be challenging to place in traditional foster families due to their behaviors, Scott Britton of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio told the Statehouse News Bureau. Some consequently end up in congregate care.
Group homes and children’s residential centres are part of congregate care.
The officials and child-welfare advocates in Ohio have said they would prefer that children spend as little time as possible in institutional or group care settings when it is not necessary. However, children with special needs who cannot be safely cared for in regular foster homes continue to receive specialised residential care.
This presents a challenge for Ohio: more family placements, but more foster families prepared and supported to care for children with greater needs.
When there is nowhere appropriate to go
The consequences of placement shortages have been especially visible in Cuyahoga County.
News 5 Cleveland previously reported cases in which children in county custody spent extended periods at the Jane Edna Hunter Social Services Center while officials searched for placements capable of meeting their needs.
In one case, a 17-year-old spent more than a month living inside the county’s Department of Children and Family Services headquarters because social workers had been unable to find an appropriate placement. The county said children with higher levels of need were among those experiencing the problem.
Cuyahoga County has also faced a major loss of residential treatment capacity. News 5 reported that the county had lost 300 residential treatment beds over a decade, contributing to a shortage for children requiring more specialised services.
The county subsequently developed additional emergency and specialised capacity, including T-Suites, a short-term placement option for young people aged 12 to 18 awaiting longer-term care.
These measures provide additional options, but they also demonstrate how a shortage of suitable placements can turn into a safeguarding and wellbeing issue for children already experiencing separation from their families.
Foster families are carrying their own pressures
Recruiting foster parents is not simply a matter of asking more people to volunteer.
Foster families take on financial, emotional and practical responsibilities when a child enters their home, often with little notice.
In 2025, a group of Cleveland-area foster parents described the immediate expenses associated with clothing, food and other necessities before county reimbursement arrived. Their experience led them to establish a resource initiative aimed at helping foster families meet those early costs.
Childcare is another concern.
Ohio lawmakers introduced House Bill 7, which would make foster and kinship caregivers eligible for publicly funded childcare. The legislation has moved through the House Children and Human Services Committee but, as of September 2026, had not passed the full legislature.
The issue matters because a foster placement can alter a family’s childcare needs immediately, particularly when a child arrives with little preparation time.
The cost of caring for children is rising
Ohio’s foster care challenge is also becoming more expensive.
Although the number of children in custody and paid placements fell by about 9% from the 2020 peak period, the cost of those placements increased by 68%, according to figures reported by the Statehouse News Bureau. The largest cost pressures have been in foster homes, group homes and children’s residential centres, with congregate care among the most expensive settings.
The pressure has continued into 2026.
In August, Ohio lawmakers introduced House Bill 984, which would require the Department of Children and Youth to establish maximum reimbursement rates for foster-care placements. The bill had been introduced but had not yet passed the legislature.
The debate reflects a difficult question for Ohio: how can the state control rapidly increasing placement costs without making it harder to provide appropriate care for children whose needs are more complex?
Ohio is also trying to prevent unnecessary separation
The state’s response is not focused only on finding more foster homes.
Ohio has invested in efforts designed to support families before children enter foster care. State officials have pointed to programmes such as Ohio START, which provides intensive support to families affected by substance-use disorders and aims to reduce the need for prolonged separation.
The Department of Children and Youth’s 2025 annual report also highlighted efforts to strengthen kinship care and keep children connected to relatives or close family friends when they cannot safely remain with their parents.
The department reported that more than $35 million was provided through about 2,300 adoption grants during State Fiscal Year 2025, while kinship resources and grants were used to help relatives and close family friends manage the additional costs of unexpectedly caring for a child.
Ohio also launched a telehealth mental-health initiative intended to provide faster support to children and families in areas where services are difficult to access.
The logic is straightforward: when families receive appropriate support early, some children may be able to remain safely with their families rather than entering care.
Children in foster care have rights too
The quality of foster care cannot be measured only by whether a bed has been found.
Children in care have rights relating to safety, education, healthcare, family relationships, privacy, participation in decisions and other aspects of daily life.
Ohio’s Foster Youth Bill of Rights establishes protections for children in out-of-home care, including the right to a safe living environment, food, clothing, privacy, family contact, education and participation in decisions affecting their lives.
A new statutory framework taking effect in September 2025 requires Ohio’s Department of Children and Youth to establish and enforce a Foster Youth Bill of Rights.
The state has also established a Resource Family Bill of Rights for foster and kinship caregivers, recognising that supporting the adults responsible for children’s day-to-day care is part of strengthening the wider system.
Residential care is receiving greater scrutiny
Ohio has also introduced measures aimed at improving safety and accountability in residential settings.
The Department of Children and Youth reported that it had strengthened oversight of residential care through additional reporting requirements and data-driven quality reviews based on more than 12,000 critical incident reports.
The department also pointed to House Bill 315 and House Bill 96, which introduced additional safeguards involving emergency-service notifications, placement reviews, background checks, staff training and staffing ratios in group homes.
These measures are important because children with the greatest placement difficulties can spend longer periods in residential settings, making the quality and safety of those environments a central child-welfare concern.
The crisis has two sides
Ohio’s foster care situation cannot be captured by one statistic.
The state has fewer children in care than it did several years ago, which can indicate progress in preventing unnecessary family separation and helping children return home or move into permanent families. At the same time, the decline has occurred alongside fewer foster parents, regional increases in demand, shortages of specialised placements and rapidly rising costs.
For children entering care, the question is not simply whether Ohio has enough placements on paper.
It is whether there is the right placement, in the right community, with caregivers who have the support and training to meet that child’s needs.
That distinction matters.
A child separated from their family is already experiencing a major disruption. Moving repeatedly, waiting for an appropriate placement or living somewhere that cannot meet their needs can add further instability.
Ohio’s challenge, therefore, extends beyond recruiting more foster parents. It involves strengthening families before separation becomes necessary, expanding kinship care, supporting foster caregivers, rebuilding specialised services, improving mental-health access and ensuring that every child in state care has a safe and appropriate place to live.
For the children at the centre of the system, the measure of success is ultimately not how many beds Ohio can fill. It is whether children can grow up safely, maintain important family relationships and move towards stable, permanent and supportive homes.
