Child Welfare Mortality

The death of a child in the care of a child welfare agency raises concern about cause. Blame is often placed on the agency and some have concuded that, in general, children are better off left with their troubled families. But do such tragedies indicate that child welfare organizations are dangerous?

To address this question, the mortality rate in a one-year cohort of children with child welfare status was compared to general population figures. Mortality was, in fact, found to be elevated among the child welfare wards. However, death rates were elevated only for the age-categories surrounding the point (18 years) at which child welfare support was precipitously withdrawn. The policy implication is that out-of-home care is not inherently dangerous, but that children in care need transitional support surrounding the age at which formal care ends.

This finding proved to have a positive effect since Alberta's Family and Social Services Deputy Minister, Don Fleming, used them as the basis for a meaningful change in the transition plans for youth in care as they approached the age of majority.
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