How Are We Spending Child Welfare Dollars?

In FY2012, the latest year data is available, the United States spent $28.2 billion on child welfare services. Using state estimated expenditures from FY2013, $22.9 billion dollars were traceable to spending on administrative costs and direct service provisions. Of that $22.9 billion, the largest amount was spent on the administrative service related to foster care and the second largest amount was spent on family support services, and independent living services. Spending on all services was as follows:

$5.65 billion (24%) on foster care administrative services
$5.2 billion (23%) on family support services and independent living . . .