Data tools

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Explore county and parish maps, compare trajectories across states, download clean CSVs and embed stat cards. Every number travels with its source, coverage and as-of date.

State Explorer

Choropleth maps, rankings, per-1,000 rates and region filters for every Texas county and Louisiana parish. Click any place for a shareable link.

Texas

254 counties · removals, children in care, reunifications, adoptions, aging out · counts and per-1,000 rates · FY 2025

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Louisiana

64 parishes · children in foster care, certified foster homes, homes per child · weekly snapshot, Sep 28, 2026

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Compare & Trends

Texas has roughly four times as many children in care as Louisiana, and the U.S. about twenty times Texas. Indexing each line to a base year lets you compare direction and pace, not size.

Texas
Louisiana
United States

What each line is

Texas: AFCARS count of children in foster care on Sep 30.
Louisiana: AFCARS count of children in foster care on Sep 30.
United States: AFCARS national count on Sep 30. FY 2025 adds Washington State for the first time.

What this comparison does not prove

FY 2023 and later use a new federal reporting rule. The Children’s Bureau says they are not comparable with FY 2022 and earlier.
Fewer children in care is not by itself better or worse: it can reflect prevention, policy, practice or reporting changes.
Federal counts differ from state-agency counts taken on other dates and definitions.

Downloads

Stable links you can cite. Each CSV opens with comment lines (#) naming the dataset, URL and as-of date. Most tools read them with a comment option, such aspd.read_csv(url, comment="#").

Texas by county, FY 2025
254 counties: DFPS region, child population, removals, children in substitute care (Aug 31), custody (Aug 31), adoptions, reunifications, aged out.
Texas DFPS Data Book via Texas Open Data Portal
Download CSV/data/texas-counties-fy2025.csv
Texas statewide trends, FY 2016–2025
Removals, substitute care, custody, adoptions, reunifications, aged out, exits and DFPS-approved homes by fiscal year.
Texas DFPS Data Book via Texas Open Data Portal
Download CSV/data/texas-trends-fy2016-2025.csv
Louisiana by parish, Sep 28, 2026
64 parishes: DCFS region, children in foster care, certified foster homes, published home-to-child ratio, and the Aug 2026 snapshot for comparison.
Louisiana DCFS, Foster Home to Child Ratio (weekly)
Download CSV/data/louisiana-parishes-2026-09-28.csv
Louisiana statewide trends, SFY 2020–2025
Custody, entries, exits, reunifications, adoptions, aged out, new homes and children waiting, by state fiscal year.
Louisiana DCFS, HCR 74 Foster Care and Adoption Management Reports
Download CSV/data/louisiana-trends-sfy2020-2025.csv
United States trends, FY 2015–2025
In care Sep 30, entries, exits, adoptions, emancipations and adoption-waiting measures. Series break at FY 2023.
Children’s Bureau AFCARS (Trends FY 2013–2022; Dashboard No. 33)
Download CSV/data/national-trends-fy2015-2025.csv
Texas & Louisiana in care (AFCARS), FY 2013–2025
Federal counts of children in foster care on Sep 30, for cross-state comparison.
Children’s Bureau AFCARS (state dataset; interactive dashboard)
Download CSV/data/states-in-care-afcars-fy2013-2025.csv
U.S. living arrangements & permanency plans, FY 2024
Where the 328,947 children in care on Sep 30, 2024 lived, and their permanency plans.
Children’s Bureau, AFCARS Dashboard No. 32
Download CSV/data/national-fy2024-living-arrangements.csv

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Dataset pipeline

What we read, how often it updates, and when we last pulled it. Raw extracts and the scripts that normalize them live in the site repository, so a new report is a refresh, not a rebuild.

Datasets used by FosterData
Dataset	Agency	Coverage	Cadence	Data as of	Status
AFCARS Dashboard (No. 31–33) + Trends FY 2013–2022	U.S. Children’s Bureau	National, all states · FY 2015–2025	Annual	Feb 27, 2026	Live
DFPS Data Book (Texas Open Data Portal)	Texas DFPS	Statewide, 11 regions, 254 counties · FY 2016–2025	Annual (Feb)	Feb 10–12, 2026	Live
DFPS Child Maltreatment Fatalities Report	Texas DFPS, Office of Child Safety	Statewide · FY 2016–2025	Annual	Feb 2026	Live
DFPS Monthly Data	Texas DFPS	Statewide · monthly, preliminary	Monthly	—	Next
Foster Home to Child Ratio (weekly)	Louisiana DCFS	64 parishes · point in time	Weekly	Sep 28, 2026	Live
HCR 74 Foster Care & Adoption Management Reports	Louisiana DCFS	Statewide, 9 regions · SFY 2020–2025	Annual (Oct)	Oct 6, 2025	Live
DCFS Fact Sheet	Louisiana DCFS	Statewide, 9 regions · CY 2025	Annual (Mar)	Mar 2026	Live
48 other state agencies	Various	—	—	—	Coming soon

Source, coverage, as-of

Every number, chart, CSV and embed carries the dataset it came from, what it covers, and when.

Pressure signals, not blame scores

County and parish counts show where families and services are under strain. They don’t rank anyone’s performance.

Preliminary is labeled

Monthly figures that will be revised are marked preliminary. Finalized annual data anchors comparisons.