Over the past few years, a growing number of America’s parentless children have found homes. In 2008 there were 463,000 children in foster care, a system where the government places orphans and children with parents who are abusive or unable to take care of them, in the care of guardians. That is 11 percent down since 2002, and great news. But experts worry the trend might now go into reverse.

Some welfare advocates fear that the bad economy may cause parents with frayed nerves to abuse and neglect their children, and even prompt some to abandon them. Already, several hospitals across the country have reported an increase in the frequency and severity of injuries from child abuse.     The most recent national data on child welfare available dates from September 2008, before the recession was in full throttle; data from 2009 won’t be reported until later this year.

But there is some question about whether the data, when reported, will be accurate. Many states and counties, in an attempt to cope with their fiscal straits, are considering cutting down on child-welfare services, such as benefits for foster parents and the number of social workers they employ. The average workload of caseworkers had already increased by 7 percent between 2006 and 2007, says Mary Hansen of the American University, Washington, DC. With more budget cuts, there will be fewer caseworkers to take notice of abuse and neglect, she says, and it will be more difficult to find someone to report problems to, potentially skewing the collection data.

In the meantime, more parents are trying to keep their families intact. New York Foundling, an agency in New York, runs a crisis centre where parents can leave their children for up to three weeks. Requests for beds increased 20 percent in the past year. Safe Families, a non-profit outfit that places children in temporary homes with volunteer families until jobless parents can get back on their feet, saw the number of children it serviced triple in 2009, and it expects that number to double again in 2010.

Most people are asking for help from Safe Families, says the organisation’s founder, David Anderson, because they don’t want to risk losing custody, as they would if they put their kids into foster care. Thankfully, the recession has actually spurred more volunteers to come forward, he adds.

(Excerpted and adapted from The Economist)