Washington — At least 9,045 children in foster care spent time in hotels, government offices, state park cabins and other unlicensed settings between January 2022 and June 2023, according to the first national audit of the practice by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. Eight states told auditors they did not even track how often it happened.
The report, issued July 28 and posted July 30, 2026, found that 34 state agencies reported 15,705 temporary emergency placements during the 18-month period. Thirty states provided enough data to count individual children.
Who slept where
According to the report, hotels accounted for 1,922 stays in 17 states, offices for 2,698 stays in 22 states, and other unlicensed facilities for 4,412 stays in 16 states. Most stays were short: 59% lasted four days or fewer, and the average was seven days. The longest was 251 days in a hotel.
The children were not only teenagers. The report counted 1,496 children age 5 or younger in these placements. The Imprint reported that more than 2,700 were ages 15 to 17.
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Arizona and Texas together accounted for nearly half of all reported stays, Stateline reported: Arizona with 3,907 placements involving 3,481 children, and Texas with 3,923 placements involving 1,977 children. Tennessee reported 1,845, Illinois 812 and Washington 612.
What states admitted
States reported harm to self or others (24 states), inadequate supervision (25), delayed access to care (18) and inappropriate environments (18). The Imprint reported that in dozens of states children lacked access to showers and healthy meals, and that in eight states children frequently missed school. A teenager died by suicide in an Oregon hotel in 2024.
Foster care itself is a dehumanizing experience, but the DCS offices were another level.
Ella Bat-Ami, who slept on a mattress in a Tennessee DCS office at 16, to The Imprint
States that did not count
Alaska, Hawaii, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania told auditors they did not track these placements, and Delaware and Montana submitted no data, according to Stateline. Seven states said they used no emergency placements at all, including Massachusetts, despite a 2023 NBC Boston investigation that found its child welfare agency rented apartments and rooms for “child sitting,” The Imprint reported.
Hawaii shows what an untracked number can hide. Honolulu Civil Beat reported in September that more than 30 children slept in Hawaii Department of Human Services offices or state-funded hotel rooms between 2023 and 2025, for stays of one night to two months. The department said no child has slept in a state office since Aug. 2, 2026.
If you don’t measure a problem, it’s much easier to avoid addressing it.
Sierra LaBate, former Indiana foster youth, to The Imprint
A soft federal response
The inspector general made a single recommendation: that the Administration for Children and Families “work with State agencies to improve data collection and reporting” on these placements. ACF concurred. The report sets no deadline and no penalty for states that keep children in offices or fail to count them.
The states’ own top reason was difficulty placing children with behavioral and mental health needs, cited by 33 states. That raises a question the audit did not ask: how many of these children were removed from parents or relatives who could have kept them, before the state had anywhere to put them. FAN’s guide to foster care system problems covers how removal decisions drive the placement shortage.
Key facts
- At least 9,045 foster children were housed in hotels, offices or other unlicensed sites from January 2022 to June 2023.
- 34 states reported 15,705 temporary emergency stays; the longest was 251 days in a hotel.
- 1,496 of the children were age 5 or younger.
- Arizona and Texas accounted for nearly half of all reported stays.
- Eight states, including Hawaii, Missouri and New York, did not track these placements.
- OIG’s only recommendation was better data collection; ACF agreed.
- Report A-07-24-06114 was issued July 28 and posted July 30, 2026.
Sources
- HHS Office of Inspector General — National Overview of State-Level Challenges and Efforts To Minimize or Eliminate Temporary Emergency Placements in Foster Care (A-07-24-06114) (2026-07-30)
- Stateline — Most states temporarily house foster children in hotels, offices (2026-07-30)
- The Imprint — ‘Dehumanizing’ placements in hotels and offices: First-ever national survey finds thousands of foster youth are sent to substandard emergency placements (2026-07-30)
- Honolulu Civil Beat — High-Need Foster Kids Now Have An Alternative To Staying In State Offices (2026-09-22)
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