Nearly one in four children in the U.S. live in immigrant families. Currently, limited data exists about the number of immigrant children and families under the care and custody of state or local child welfare agencies.
According to recent research from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), children of immigrants represent 8.6 percent of all children who come to the attention of the child welfare system. It is important to note that among children of immigrants, more than 4 out of 5 are U.S.-born citizens. Foreign-born immigrant children represent less than 3 percent of all children who come to the attention of the child welfare system.