60 children died in government care last year: report

Alberta's Child and Youth Advocate reported that over the course of a year, 60 children died while under government care.

A report by the Alberta Office of the Child and Youth Advocate says 60 children died and nine were seriously injured while in government care between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025.

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Children and youth between the ages of 10 days to 23 years old were receiving “designated” supports at the time or had received child intervention services within two years of their death, said the report released Thursday.

Of the 69 children, 45, or 69 per cent, were Indigenous.

Mental health and substance use challenges impacted 70 per cent of affected youths.

Nearly half had repeated placement disruptions with one child having 15 placements between the 12 and 17-years-old. Another had 20 placements.

“Many of these young people faced significant adversity that profoundly impacted them,” said Child and Youth Advocate Terri Pelton in the report. “These challenges altered their development, and in their adolescence, many had difficulties with their mental health and substance use.”

More than half of the children and youth had assessments that did not fully consider caregiver capacity, the impact of identified risks, nor disruptions in relationships, added Pelton.

The report made three recommendations to the provincial government:

• The Ministry of Children and Family Services should make the Transition to Adulthood Program (TAP) policy manual publicly available
• The Ministries of Primary and Preventative Health Services, Hospital and Surgical Health Services, Education and Childcare, Assisted Living and Social Services, and Justice should have mandatory training in child-centred, trauma-informed practices for professionals who deliver services to young people and their families.
• The Ministries of Primary and Preventative Health Services, Hospital and Surgical Health Services, Children and Family Services, Education and Childcare, and Assisted Living and Social Services should each implement an approach to identify young people’s traumatic experiences that will guide the planning of services and supports that are responsive to their individual needs.

Children and Family Services Minister Searle Turton said the province has released the TAP manual to “many” stakeholders over the last year.

“We’ve already released it to public stakeholders (who) have been asking for it for many years,” said Turton. “I think that was long overdue and I’m not opposed to looking at it in the next little while to see if we need to make additional changes.”

While many provinces have increased the age for TAP benefits to 29 years old, Alberta’s limit is still at 22, which Turton said is unlikely to increase.

“We’ve been pretty clear about increasing the levels of supports for young children at younger ages because we want them to be more resilient when they become adults,” said Turton.

The Otipemisiwak Métis Government said the report is a painful reminder of what Métis families have been telling governments for generations.

“Indigenous children are over-represented in provincial care and the systems meant to protect them are not meeting their needs,” said a statement from president Andrea Sandmaier and secretary of Children & Family Services, Brooke Bramfield. “These findings only reinforce why the Otipemisiwak Métis Government is advancing our own Métis-led child and family system under C-92.”

Since 2013 the province has implemented more than 100 recommendations put forth by the advocate, said Turton.

“This is a report that I always look forward to every year, because I know that we can look at these suggestions and make improvements to the system,” said the minister. “Kids need to be looked after here in this province. This is something I take very seriously.”

NDP leader Naheed Nenshi said he hopes the province does take the report seriously.

“Year after year we have these reports that say the government is incapable of looking after the most vulnerable children in our society, and if we don’t look after the most vulnerable, what kind of community do we have?” Nenshi told reporters Thursday.

The 2023-2024 report found that 47 children died and one was seriously injured while in government care.