Josh Gupta-Kagan, a professor of law at the University of South Carolina School of Law, has just published a new report on “America’s Hidden Foster Care System.”

Professor Gupta-Kagan states that there are about as many children in this “hidden” foster care system as there are in the “formal” foster care system.

The “formal” U.S. foster care system currently has over 400,000 children in foster care, which means that in total there are potentially well over 800,000 children in the U.S. who have been removed from their parents.