"Yes there may have been 200 deaths, but they didnt die of abuse or neglect. A lot of our kids are medically fragile," said Kathy Spears over at the Childrens Administration. "Whats included in that number is all the kids who have died of natural causes, all the kids who died in accidents, like car accidents."
That's certainly true. Foster children often have extreme medical needs and even for nonfoster children, homicide and accidents are leading causes of death. (See OFMs 2007 data book).
But the number is still striking. Spears pointed me to this report on child safety, which has numbers going up to 2006. Check out page No. 18 (page 13 in the Adobe document), and youll see a chart of deaths meeting the agencies criteria for review.
The totals for the most recent four years show 296 children under supervision died, with natural and accidental death the leading causes, at 42 and 28 percent respectively. Homicide by caregiver or third party makes up 14 percent, with suicide adding another 7 percent. Unknown, is 6 percent (rounding on all figures).
