9 Famous Black Foster Kids

Actor and musician Jamie Foxx. Adopted. Getty Image

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Adoptees and former foster children have grown up to do big things

There are currently 424,000 children and young adults in the nation’s foster care system; any one of them could grow up to be the next Jamie Foxx, Alonzo Mourning or Victoria Rowell.

Quick facts about the nation’s foster youth:

-- 48 percent of them live in nonrelative family homes.

-- 26 percent lived with relatives.

-- The others live in varying arrangements, including institutions, group homes or supervised independent living.

-- 51 percent had the goal of reuniting with their biological parents, and were successful.

-- 25 percent had the goal of adoption, but only 21 percent actually were. Eleven percent were emancipated.

-- 41 percent of them were white, 29 percent were black, 21 percent were Hispanic and 10 percent were of other or mixed races.

-- The percentage of black children in care decreased between 2000 and 2010, while the percentages increased for white and Hispanic children. Black children are still in care at a rate disproportionate to their total population.

SOURCE: Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services