The Social Services Administration (SSA) of the Maryland Department of Human Services envisions a state where every child is protected from abuse and neglect, every child has a stable and permanent home, and every family has the resources to thrive and meet their needs. Building on past successes, SSA aims to develop a statewide family-centered, community based, and trauma-responsive child welfare and adult services system that utilizes trauma-informed assessments and evidence-based interventions to promote an integrated approach to safety, permanency and well-being. SSA’s success lies in connecting our work across the continuum of care, supporting communities and the well-being of the populations we serve, effectively partnering with local departments and community partners, building a comprehensive and accessible service array, enhancing the utilization of data driven decision making, and strengthening our infrastructure.
In this dashboard, you will see SSA data on the following:
This page provides an overview of the placement categories and primary permanency plans for current youth in foster care in Maryland. It includes visualizations that show the distribution of youth across different placement types, such as family homes, group homes, and independent living, Residential Treatment Center as well as their primary permanency plans, like reunification, adoption, and guardianship. Family Homes is the largest category, with six subcategories: Treatment Foster Care (TFC), Regular Foster Care, Formal Kinship Care, Kinship, Non_paid Kinship, Relative/fictive kin home, Restricted (Relative) Foster Care, Trial Home Visits, and Adoptive/Pre-Finalized Adoptive Care.
If you need more information about each subcategory, please refer to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS) file.
This page provides a visual representation of the placement types for current youth in foster care in Maryland, showing the total number of current youth in foster care and percentage of current youth in Kinship Care. The page also includes a breakdown of kinship subcategories. Users can filter the data by jurisdiction, child gender, race, age, and removal start date on this page, making the dashboard a comprehensive tool for understanding the distribution and demographics of youth in foster care across various placement types.
This page is a dashboard displaying Kinship Care Placements by Maryland Jurisdictions, offering insights into the counts and percentages of youth in foster care versus those placed in kinship care across various jurisdictions. The data is presented using a combined bar and line chart: the bars represent the count of youth in foster care and kinship care for each jurisdiction, while the line indicates the percentage of youth placed in kinship care. Filters on this page allow users to customize the data by jurisdiction, gender, race, age, and removal start date, with the total count of youth across all selected jurisdictions displayed prominently at the top.
Placements that Preserve and Strengthen Families category includes the following subcategories: Kinship, Non-paid Kinship, Trial Home Visits, Relative/Fictive Kin Home, Formal Kinship Care, and Adoptive/Pre-Finalized Adoptive.
The Kinship Care category includes the following subcategories: Kinship, Non-paid Kinship, Relative/Fictive Kin Home, and Formal Kinship Care.
This page provides an overview of foster youth placements across different age groups, illustrating how placement types change over time. The stacked bar chart displays the count and proportion of each placement category across various age groups, offering insights into which placement types are more common at different stages of childhood and adolescence.
Users can filter the data by jurisdiction, gender, race, placement type, and other criteria to examine specific subsets of the population, making this dashboard a versatile tool for analyzing foster care trends across different demographics.
This page provides an overview of the percentage of current youth placed in kinship care within Maryland. It displays key statistics such as the total number of youth in foster care, the number of those in kinship care, and the corresponding percentage. Users can compare the total number and percentage of kinship care with the state of Maryland by selecting their desired jurisdiction.
The stacked bar chart shows the race distribution of youth placed in kinship care across various jurisdictions, highlighting the diversity within each county. Jurisdictions with zero kinship care placements are excluded from this visualization, making it easier to focus on areas with active kinship placements. The filters on this page allow users to explore the data by jurisdiction, gender, age, and removal start date, offering a detailed look at the demographics and distribution of youth in kinship care across the state.
This page provides a detailed breakdown of the demographics of current youth in foster care. It includes various visualizations that represent data on age, gender, and race.
The treemap and bar chart on the top display the distribution of youth across different age groups, highlighting the number of children in each age range.
The donut chart shows the gender distribution, including male, female, and transgender categories.
The bar chart on the bottom right presents the racial composition of the youth in foster care, covering multiple racial categories.
Filters on this page allow users to explore the data by jurisdiction, removal start date, and age, enabling a more focused analysis of the demographics within the foster care system.
This page provides a detailed breakdown of the gender and race of current youth in foster care for each county on the map. Filters on this page allow users to explore the data by jurisdiction, removal start date, and age, enabling a more focused analysis of the demographics within the foster care system.
Data timeframe:
All the pages listed above refers to active cases in foster care, meaning all youth currently in foster care.
Data refresh rate:
Daily
Data details:
APPLA = Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement
RTC = Residential Treatment Center
TFC = Treatment Foster Care
Removal start date = This date marks the official start of the child’s transition into foster care after being removed from their initial home, whether due to safety concerns, neglect, or other reasons.
Data exclusion criteria:
We excluded any missing, null, or blank values.
Created and Managed By
Tahereh Hematian
DHS Data Office
Maryland Department of Human Services (DHS)
For any data inquiries related to the dashboard, please contact
Disclaimer: Information presented in this dashboard comes from a live data environment, refreshed every 24 hours, and is subject to change.
Note: It is important to keep in mind that the dashboard statistics do NOT include missing/blank/null values for fields where applicable. For example, if we have 310 kids total in Child Welfare and only 256 of them have “complete” race data, you will see 256 as your total count for all race categories, not 310. Including missing data inflates any estimate, and decreases its real impact on decision making.
Data Suppression:
All counts below 10 for any given measure are being suppressed using data use restriction guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (https://wonder.cdc.gov/datause.html). That is, if a category has a count below 10, you will not see any visuals for that category.
**Please note that the totals will not add up on any given graph or visual if data suppression rules are applied.**
For any data inquiries related to the dashboard, please contact
Disclaimer: Information presented in this dashboard comes from a live data environment, refreshed every 24 hours, and is subject to change.
Note: It is important to keep in mind that the dashboard statistics do NOT include missing/blank/null values for fields where applicable. For example, if we have 310 kids total in Child Welfare and only 256 of them have “complete” race data, you will see 256 as your total count for all race categories, not 310. Including missing data inflates any estimate, and decreases its real impact on decision making.
Data Suppression:
All counts below 10 for any given measure are being suppressed using data use restriction guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (https://wonder.cdc.gov/datause.html). That is, if a category has a count below 10, you will not see any visuals for that category.
**Please note that the totals will not add up on any given graph or visual if data suppression rules are applied.**
