Institutional & Cultural Supports

Whether a state has enacted Family First legislation and maintains an approved Title IV-E plan under the Social Security Act. Together, these frameworks reflect a state’s commitment to family preservation, permanency planning, and structured support for vulnerable children.

States receive higher scores when their foster care systems demonstrate selective and warranted intervention, with removal patterns and stay durations indicating that placements are used appropriately and sustained when necessary. Lower scores are assigned where data suggest either excessive removals followed by rapid resolution, or patterns consistent with underintervention in cases where child safety may be at risk. In cases of severe safety failure, overall scores are capped to reflect systemic breakdown. This measure is intended to assess system-level balance: protecting children from harm while avoiding unnecessary family disruption.

The rate of finalized adoptions within a state, based on the average number of adoptions occurring in 2022 and 2023, adjusted per capita. Adoption rates serve as an indicator of permanency outcomes within a state’s child welfare system. Higher rates may reflect stronger pathways to stable family placement for children who cannot safely remain in their original homes.

The share of individuals within a state who attend religious services at least once per month. Religious participation is included as a proxy for community engagement, social cohesion, and the presence of organized support networks. Higher rates of attendance may indicate stronger informal institutions that can provide relational, material, and cultural support to families.

The share of individuals within a state who attend religious services once per year or less. Religious disengagement is included as an indicator of reduced participation in organized community institutions and may reflect weaker relational networks and fewer informal support structures available to families.

How effectively a state’s higher education environment supports student mothers, based on participation, academic performance parity, and completion outcomes. The metric is intended to assess whether motherhood and higher education attainment are structurally compatible within a given state context.

The share of children residing in households headed by a married couple. This measure includes blended families and is not a measure of divorce rates.

The share of a state’s population that consists of children. This indicator reflects the prevalence of child-rearing within a state and provides a broad demographic context for evaluating family formation patterns.

The rate of birth within a state, typically expressed relative to the total population of the state, reflecting the overall prevalence of childbearing within a state and providing demographic context for evaluating family formation patterns.

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WONDER

This component measures the rate of pregnancies among girls ages 15–19 within a state in a given year, reflecting broader patterns related to educational attainment, community environment, family structure, and access to information and services affecting adolescents.

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics