Responding to objections from child welfare advocates and lawmakers, the U.S. Census Bureau has reversed course and decided to keep the category of “foster child” in its annual American Community Survey.The bureau’s plan to eliminate that category starting in 2008 prompted objections from such groups as the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes, and from Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Information, Policy, Census and National Archives subcommittee. The groups said that without access to information about foster caregivers’ socioeconomic situations and the number of children in their homes, flaws in the system would become harder to address.
