Post by pavel on Jan 10, 2016 16:45:11 GMT -6
The teenage pregnancy rate in the United States, including Texas, continues to fall, according to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But that might not be the case for one segment of the Texas population with persistently high teen pregnancy rates: foster youth.
Until this year, Texas has not kept track of how many of the children in the state’s foster care system are pregnant or parenting. The best estimates, experts say, come from academic studies of foster youth and young adults that suggest the rate of teenage parents among fosters is far higher than among the general population.
A law passed in 2015 will require the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to collect data and publish it for the first time in an annual report in February 2017. A spokesman for the agency, which oversees foster care, could not provide an estimate of how many pregnant or parenting youth are currently in the system.
Read more: amarillo.com/news/latest-news/2016-01-08/texas-start-tracking-pregnant-foster-youths
But that might not be the case for one segment of the Texas population with persistently high teen pregnancy rates: foster youth.
Until this year, Texas has not kept track of how many of the children in the state’s foster care system are pregnant or parenting. The best estimates, experts say, come from academic studies of foster youth and young adults that suggest the rate of teenage parents among fosters is far higher than among the general population.
A law passed in 2015 will require the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to collect data and publish it for the first time in an annual report in February 2017. A spokesman for the agency, which oversees foster care, could not provide an estimate of how many pregnant or parenting youth are currently in the system.
Read more: amarillo.com/news/latest-news/2016-01-08/texas-start-tracking-pregnant-foster-youths