We can count them when they enter. We are not allowed to know what happens after.
Approximately 3.6 million children are born in the United States each year. Births are tracked through the CDC's vital statistics system — a public record.
CDC National Vital Statistics System, 2024Child Protective Services receives over 4 million reports of suspected child maltreatment annually. The majority are screened out or found unsubstantiated.
HHS Child Maltreatment Report, 2024Roughly 200,000 children are removed from their parents each year and placed in foster care, kinship care, or group homes.
AFCARS Report #30, 2025About 22,000 children under age 1 are in foster care at any given time — most removed shortly after birth, often placed in emergency or stranger foster homes with accelerated approvals.
AFCARS FY2024 — 7% of all children in careThe system places them in foster homes, relative care, or group facilities. Then the public record ends. No database tracks individual outcomes. AFCARS only publishes aggregate numbers.
See: What They HideNo public database exists to follow these children from this point forward.