Hundreds of thousands of children enter the foster care system each year. Most are reunited with family members, but many children spend years in the system. Thousands of 18 year olds age out of foster care each year. A 1997 NCPA report found that many children eligible for adoption stayed in the system longer than necessary. In recent decades, the federal government has spent billions of dollars trying to improve the accuracy of foster care reporting systems and on adoption subsidies, but many adoptable children remain in foster care.