A research review by the Centers for Disease Control Task Force on Community Preventive Services finds that therapeutic foster care for chronically delinquent adolescents reduced violent crime by approximately 70 percent compared with standard group residential treatment. Estimates are that every dollar spent on therapeutic foster care—which averages six to seven months in duration—saves $14 in later costs.

Therapeutic foster care can dramatically reduce juvenile violent crime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Troubled youth placed with trained foster families, separated from their delinquent peers, and closely supervised at school and at home committed 70 percent fewer violent crimes than peers in standard group residential treatment.

Children in foster care face long educational odds: Only about 50 percent graduate from high school, only 11 percent of those high school graduates pursue post-secondary education and only 4 to 7 percent finish college or vocational school nationally.

The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care calls for restructuring child welfare and boosting federal financing so states have greater flexibility -- and greater accountability -- to tailor their programs for specific families and children. The Commission recommends keeping the guaranteed federal funding for child welfare and expanding foster care and adoption assistance to all children, not just limited to those from impoverished families. It also calls for making sure that courts have the tools, information, and training necessary to fulfill their responsibilities to children in public care.

The federal government says every state in the nation falls short of meeting the standards to protect children in state care from abuse and neglect. A report from the Department of Health and Human Services says no state has received a passing grade from the Bush administration in reviews over the past three years. The report says 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, and 1,400 of them died. Specific state-by-state information is available online.