The foster care system is filled with talented, committed and passionate professionals. Unfortunately, it is also a system that is overwhelmed and overburdened.

• Each juvenile court judge has a caseload of around 1,000 children. The judge has, on average, 10-15 minutes to make his or her decisions about each case.
• Every dependent child is assigned to an attorney. The attorney represents between 300-400 children.
• Every family is assigned to a social worker to manage the case. Social workers may have caseloads as large as 40-50 families.
• While children are not supposed to remain in foster care long-term, the average amount of time children spend in foster care in San Diego is 40 months - that's three birthdays spent away from home.
• Many children remain in foster care long-term - these children will never return home and will never be adopted.