On April 14 and 15, 2003, Peter D. Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies conducted a survey among registered voters nationwide on behalf of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care. The research's purpose was to gauge voters' opinions of and attitudes toward the foster care system, and to determine what, if any, changes voters believe must be made to the foster care system. The sample comprises 812 randomly selected voters and carries a margin of error of +/- 3.44%.

Complete survey results

Five key findings emerge from this survey:

Familiarity with the Issue of Foster Care

1. Despite recent high-profile failures of several states' child welfare systems, voters are not fully engaged when it comes to the issue of foster care. While most voters are at least somewhat familiar with the issue, only one-third of Americans are highly familiar with it. Three in four (73%) voters say that they are at least somewhat familiar with foster care, with just 33% saying that they are very or fairly familiar with it. Generally speaking, women, African Americans, and college-educated voters are more likely to be familiar with the issue. While a majority (57%) of voters say that their primary source of information about foster care is the news and other media, a significant proportion (37%) say that most of their foster care information comes from personal experience with the system or the experience of friends or family. In fact, voters who are very or fairly familiar with foster care are more likely to get their information from their direct or indirect experience with foster care rather than from the media.

Opinion of Foster Care in Your Community

2. A majority of voters feel favorable toward the foster care system in their community, but this favorability does not run deep. Indeed, most Americans desire to see major changes made in the foster care system. Fifty-six percent of voters say that they have a favorable opinion of foster care in their community, but only one in five (21%) characterize their feelings as very favorable. More importantly, a majority (53%) of voters believe that the foster care system needs a complete overhaul (15%) or quite a few changes and improvements (38%). This view is expressed most vehemently by those most familiar with foster care (63% complete overhaul or quite a few changes). It is also interesting that the desire for major changes in the foster care system crosses party lines, with nearly equal proportions of Republicans (51%) and Democrats (54%)—and slightly more independents (59%)—saying that this is the case.

Opinion of Why Most Children are Placed in Foster Care

3. Even though most children who enter foster care do so because of parental neglect, Americans are as likely to attribute children entering foster care to abuse as neglect. Although most children enter the foster system because they are neglected, only 36% of respondents correctly recognize the fact that the vast majority of children are taken away from their parents because their health and safety needs are neglected. Just as many voters (37%) say that most children enter foster care because of abuse by a parent. Voters who are most familiar with the foster care system or who have direct or indirect experience with it are only slightly more likely than are voters overall to correctly identify parental neglect as the main reason for children entering the system.

4. Judges and caseworkers—whose job it is to protect and help children in foster care—receive lukewarm reviews from the voting public. Only about one in ten voters say that they have a lot of confidence that the judges (8%) and caseworkers (10%) who place and oversee children in foster care have the resources, skills, and time needed to make the right decisions for these children. An additional 35% and 32%, respectively, say that they have a fair amount of confidence that this is the case. Slim majorities of voters say that they have only a little or no confidence that judges (53%) and caseworkers (52%) have what they need to make the right decisions for the foster children they oversee. Voters who are most familiar with foster care are slightly more confident in judges than are voters overall, but their confidence in caseworkers is about the same.

Opinion of Why People Become Foster Parents

5. Voters have a mixed view of foster parents' motivations. While a plurality (42%) of voters say that most people who become foster parents do so out of concern for children, a substantial proportion (29%) believe that foster parents are mostly interested in financial gain. This latter group is among the most likely to feel unfavorable toward foster care in their community and to see the need for major changes in the foster care system, suggesting that many voters' perceptions of foster parents color their attitudes toward the foster care system.

In short, while many voters seem to feel favorable toward foster care in their communities, they do not fully believe that the system can help and protect the children in its care. From lukewarm ratings of caseworkers, judges, and foster parents, to disagreement with federal financing guidelines related to family care, to a stated desire for major changes to the foster care system in general, American voters clearly do not have much confidence in the foster care system.