CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) —

Since 2013, the number of children technically counted in Iowa’s foster system has been decreasing; however, there’s still a constant need for new foster families, KCRG reports .

In 2013, the Iowa Data Center reported 10,400 children in the system — in 2022 that number dropped to 6,586.

Kai McGee with Four Oaks Family and Children Services credits The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 . That law gave family members of foster care candidates money to support taking the child in.

McGee says there are advantages to keeping those children with their families.

“That trauma then can be either exponentially multiplied by having that child go live with strangers that they’ve never met, maybe in a community completely outside their own,” McGee said.

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