Summary of a new national funding initiative to move children in foster care more quickly into safe permanent families and prevent the placement of children in foster care when possible.

According to the report, there are have a million children in foster care in the United States. Children stay in foster care for an average of three years and are placed with an average of three different foster families. The emotional and financial costs of foster care are steep. Annual federal spending on foster care exceeds $10,000 per child. Federal, state and local governments together spent more than $12 billion for foster care in 2000.