Latest UC Data – FY2018

The Unaccompanied Children (UC) Program is managed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Administration for Children and Families, an operational division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

UC are defined as a child who has no lawful immigration status in the United States; has not attained 18 years of age; and, with respect to whom, there is no parent or legal guardian in the United States, or no parent or legal guardian in the United States available to provide care and physical custody.

UC are referred to ORR by another federal agency, usually the Department of Homeland Security. Most children are placed into ORR care because they were apprehended by immigration authorities while trying to cross the border; others are referred after coming to the attention of immigration authorities at some point after crossing the border. HHS plays no role in the apprehension or initial detention of UC prior to their referral to HHS custody and HHS is not a party to the child's immigration proceedings.

Since 2003, ORR has provided care for and found suitable sponsors for over 340,000 UC.  For its first nine years at ORR, fewer than 8000 children were served annually in this program.  Since Fiscal Year 2012 (October 1, 2011 – September 30, 2012), this number has jumped dramatically, with a total of 13,625 children referred to ORR by the end of FY 2012. The program received 24,668 UC referrals from DHS in FY 2013, 57,496 referrals in FY 2014, 33,726 referrals in FY 2015, 59,170 in FY 2016, and 40,810 in FY 2017. In FY 2018 49,100 UC were referred.

The latest data available on UC demographics and program operations for fiscal year 2018 is provided on this page.

Overall Data | Gender | Age | Tender Age (0-12) UC By Shelter Type | Total Monthly Discharges to Individual Sponsors Only (By Category)

Overall Data

In Care Statistics Calculated on the Last Day of the Month: 10/31/2017 11/30/2017 12/31/2017 1/31/2018 2/28/2018 3/31/2018 4/30/2018 5/31/2018 6/30/2018 7/31/2018 8/31/2018 9/30/2018
Average Number of Children in Care: 5,074 5,939 7,417 7,591 7,644 7,727 8,647 9,823 11,531 11,785 11,751 13,034
Maximum Number of Operations Beds*: 6,871 7,681 8,793 9,861 10,323 10,454 10,353 11,476 12,756 12,848 13,436 15,371
Average Occupancy Rate: 83% 83% 89% 81% 76% 75% 85% 91% 94% 92% 90% 91%
Average Length of Care (for those discharged)**: 52 51 50 55 61 64 61 58 61 72 87 90
Average Length of Care (for those in care)***: 76 68 66 74 79 74 72 65 66 74 78 80
30-Day Average Number of UC Referrals: 96 129 143 100 107 136 146 198 177 125 122 135
30-Day Average UC Discharge Rate: 1.6 1.4 1.5 1.3 1.5 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.2 1.2 0.7 0.8

*includes Influx shelters
**includes all discharge types & all program types
***Length of Care calculated as of the last day of the corresponding month showing above

Gender

In Care Statistics Calculated on the Last Day of the Month: 10/31/2017 11/30/2017 12/31/2017 1/31/2018 2/28/2018 3/31/2018 4/30/2018 5/31/2018 6/30/2018 7/31/2018 8/31/2018 9/30/2018
Male 3,878 4,861 5,593 5,748 5,620 6,195 6,633 7,830 8,433 8,260 8,871 9,475
Female 1,510 1,874 2,105 2,085 1,990 2,234 2,334 2,970 3,433 3,092 3,484 3,745

 

Age

In Care Statistics Calculated on the Last Day of the Month: 10/31/2017 11/30/2017 12/31/2017 1/31/2018 2/28/2018 3/31/2018 4/30/2018 5/31/2018 6/30/2018 7/31/2018 8/31/2018 9/30/2018
0-5 193 253 260 245 237 260 286 401 456 280 264 288
6-12 439 611 613 612 549 718 763 1,615 1,967 1,203 1,213 1,319
13-14 543 702 776 719 719 841 847 1,105 1,307 1,164 1,308 1,415
15-16 2,015 2,536 3,015 3,108 3,039 3,293 3,517 3,855 4,095 4,277 4,621 4,869
17 2,198 2,633 3,034 3,149 3,066 3,317 3,554 3,824 4,041 4,428 4,949 5,329

 

Tender Age (0-12) UC By Shelter Type

In Care Statistics Calculated on the Last Day of the Month: 10/31/2017 11/30/2017 12/31/2017 1/31/2018 2/28/2018 3/31/2018 4/30/2018 5/31/2018 6/30/2018 7/31/2018 8/31/2018 9/30/2018
Standard Shelter 218 324 345 329 265 404 432 1115 1494 766 736 772
Transitional Foster Care 383 511 496 498 491 542 586 869 894 680 710 807
Residential Treatment 3 2 3 3 3 2 1 1 5 8 6 5
Staff Secure 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1
Secure 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Therapeutic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Long Term Foster Care 27 26 27 27 27 29 30 30 29 28 24 22

 

Total Monthly Discharges to Individual Sponsors Only (By Category)

In Care Statistics Calculated on the Last Day of the Month: 10/31/2017 11/30/2017 12/31/2017 1/31/2018 2/28/2018 3/31/2018 4/30/2018 5/31/2018 6/30/2018 7/31/2018 8/31/2018 9/30/2018
Category 1 909 963 1,466 1,167 1,120 1,131 1,513 1,627 1,610 1,012 856 1,251
Category 2 1,065 1,014 1,369 1,268 1,443 1,567 1,595 1,891 1,817 1,221 1,076 1,186
Category 3 251 259 337 267 347 367 362 390 422 296 249 269
Total 2,225 2,236 3,172 2,702 2,910 3,065 3,470 3,908 3,849 2,529 2,181 2,706

 

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