Foster care admissions and state-level criminal justice-focused prenatal substance use policies

• Published in: Children and youth services review 2019-07, Vol.102, p.102-107
• Main Authors: Sanmartin, Maria X., Ali, Mir M., Lynch, Sean
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adopted children; Alcohol related crime; Alcohol use; Black people; Black youth; Children; Criminal justice; Drug abuse; Drug use; Foster care; Foster children; Help seeking behavior; Hispanic Americans; Infants; Medical treatment; Mothers; Opioids; Policy implementation; Pregnancy; Prenatal care; States; Substance abuse; Substance use disorder
• ISSN: 0190-7409; 1873-7765
• DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.03.050

To assess the impact of criminal justice-focused state-level prenatal substance use policies on foster care admissions and child removal. Using data from the 2005–2016 Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System covering all US states, we utilized state-level variation in the implementation of these policies to assess their impact on substance and alcohol use-related foster care admissions under a difference-in-difference framework. The study found that these policies were associated with an increase in the proportion of drug and alcohol use-related foster care admissions. These results were consistent for both non-Hispanic White and Black children. The findings imply that states with these policies are more likely to see an increase in admissions to their foster care system as mothers may be discouraged to seek treatment for their substance use disorder during pregnancy and may lack access to appropriate resources to take care of their children. The large impact of these policies on non-Hispanic White infants implies that the current opioid crisis might possibly be driving the documented increase in foster care admissions. •Criminal justice-focused prenatal substance use policies were associated with an increase in the proportion of substance use-related foster care admissions.•These results hold not only for infants but also for children of all age groups.•The impact of these policies is particularly large for non-Hispanic White infants.•The current opioid crisis might be driving the documented increase in foster care admissions.