Explore the Data

Child Out-of-Home Placement Reasons

Parent substance use and neglect are the most common reasons for children to be in out-of-home placements

In 2023, there were several reasons for children to be in out-of-home placements.

• Parent substance use was the reason for out-of-home placement for the majority of children (77%).
• Neglect was a reason for over half (64%) of out-of-home placements.
• The third most common reason for out-of-home placement in 2023 was substandard housing, which accounted for 19% of child out-of-home placements
• Parent substance use and neglect have consistently been the top two reasons for child out-of-home placements since 2012.

notes

The Nebraska Foster Care Review Office, Annual Reports.

Any individual child may be removed from a home for multiple reasons; therefore, percentages add to more than 100%.

Data reporting on reasons for child out-of-home placements changed in 2017. Due to this, only data from 2019 onward is reported.

Nebraska Foster Care Review Office Annual Reports include the top 10 reasons for child out-of-home placement; these reasons can change over time. As of 2022, sexual abuse and abandonment were no longer reported in the top 10 reasons. As of 2023, abuse of sibling was no longer reported in the top 10 reasons.