Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Children and Youth Services Review
Publication Date
2026
Abstract
Children with disabilities are overrepresented in the United States (U.S.) foster care system, yet their experiences and outcomes remain underexamined within the child welfare literature, particularly for children whose disabilities affect communication. Understanding foster care outcomes for children with disabilities − particularly those with communication disorders − is essential because communication differences may limit children’s ability to report harm, participate in case planning, and access services within complex child welfare systems. This scoping review synthesized existing U.S.-based research to examine the intersections between disability, safety, permanency, and well-being among children and adolescents in foster care from birth through age 23. Guided by the federally defined child welfare outcomes framework, comprehensive searches were conducted across seven interdisciplinary databases for studies published between January 2004 and April 2025. Thirteen studies met inclusion criteria. Most relied on administrative datasets or proxy reports and focused on disability broadly, with no studies focusing specifically on children with communication disorders. Well-being and permanency outcomes were examined more frequently than safety; notably, no studies directly assessed safety outcomes for children with disabilities in foster care. Across domains, findings revealed inconsistent disability identification, limited cross-system data integration, and reliance on caregiver or professional perspectives. Results underscore critical gaps in the evidence base and highlight the need for more precise measurement, inclusion of children’s perspectives, and improved coordination across child welfare, health, and education systems to better support foster-involved children with disabilities.
Funding Source
This article was published open access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Elsevier.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
DOI
10.1016/j.childyouth.2026.109302
Recommended Citation
Therrien, M., Lorio, C., Anderson, K. A., Dolce, E., & Kim, K. (2026). The experiences of children with disabilities in foster care: A scoping review. Children and Youth Services Review, 191, 109302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2026.109302
Comments
First published in Children and Youth Services Review (2026): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2026.109302. Supplemental data available on the publisher's site.