The Cost of Delayed Neurodisability Support in America’s Child Welfare and Justice Systems

Take Home Points:
• Early diagnosis of neurodiversity can prevent long-term behavioral, educational, and justice-system challenges.
• The foster care-to-prison pipeline is worsened when neurodevelopmental needs are ignored in childhood.
• Supporting neurodivergent children early improves lifelong development, relationships, and social functioning.
• Investing in early diagnosis and management benefits both young people and taxpayers by reducing future societal costs. 

Introduction

Neurodiversity lurks under the surface in many dysfunctional child behaviors. Early detection and treatment can help correct these mental and psychological gaps among children. It is many times more difficult to correct an underlying neurodivergent behavior among adults.

The care system in the United States becomes overburdened by unchecked neurodiversity issues. This ranges from the child welfare system to the criminal justice system. Neurodiversity is rarely talked about in the infamous foster care to prison pipeline. This article explores the gaps and possibilities of improving outcomes in America’s child welfare and justice systems.

Extent of The Problem

Statistics indicate that 30% of foster care youth are incarcerated in young adulthood, and by age twenty, 42% of them experience incarceration[1]. This is the epitome of the infamous foster care to prison pipeline, which links the American child welfare system with the justice system in a problematic way. In 2024, the national statistics indicated that some 329,000 children were registered in the foster care system[2].

The school system, which is supposed to steer children into a safe and efficient adulthood, suspends millions of children each year. An estimated 2.6 million K-12 students receive one or more suspensions in schools throughout the United States each year[3].

Over 31,900 American youth are locked up in juvenile facilities on any given day[4]. This is a microcosm of the 1.2 million+ people incarcerated in American state and federal prisons each day[5], which costs the American taxpayer anywhere from $45,000 to $70,000 per inmate each year[6].

Undiagnosed Neurodisabilities & the Problem

The school system, child welfare system, and criminal justice system often miss one thing: Neurodisabilities.

Early signs of neurodisabilities often hint at underlying conditions like ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Emotional Regulation, and other Developmental/Coordination disorders. If managed earlier in life, many conditions that lead to dysfunctional behaviors, crime, and reoffending can be controlled.

It is worth mentioning that support for young people to overcome these neurodisabilities helps condition their minds to successfully navigate relationships with school authority, risk assessment, and manage essential social connections.  

That is because behavioral issues are often interconnected and tend to affect and influence young people’s development and evolution through the stages of life.

Typically, the gaps in diagnosis and early management culminate in:

1.      Substance use problems,

2.      Unemployment, and

3.      Homelessness.

These are the fundamental indicators of offending and dependence on welfare and other forms of support. In the absence of support for inherent neurodisabilities, young Americans risk being exposed to the punitive and costly criminal justice system.

Acquired Neurodisabilities Among Young Adults

As teenagers grow through life, they routinely encounter issues they struggle to cope with. This requires support and assistance through these new phases of the developmental process. It might be daunting for busy parents to recognize the need for support or misinterpret these adjustment needs altogether.

On the harder side of the issue, issues like traumatic brain injury (TBI) affect many young, developing minds. In the past, this was glossed over, and no one cared about it. However, with new technologies, support and assistance will be incomplete if juveniles among the 214,110 Americans who encounter TBI each year[7] are not given care appropriate to their condition.

Beyond Juveniles’ Rights under the Eighth Amendment: What Does it Cost the Taxpayer?

After Roper v Simmons[8], it was widely accepted that imposing serious punishments like the death penalty on underage persons is unconstitutional because it is “cruel and unusual”. Beyond this basic top-level legal convention, the lifetime societal costs of punishing a person who struggled with neurodisabilities as a child that were never diagnosed or treated are many times greater than the costs of treatment and support.

At Heartland Human Futures Lab, we are developing models to estimate and ascertain these costs. On the surface, this cuts across variables like homelessness, welfare costs, idle time due to unemployment, and continuous contacts with the justice system.

A preventive approach will potentially eliminate costs that cut across crisis placement, youth offending, prison, unemployment, and others. Preventive measures include early diagnosis, neurodevelopmental assessments, trauma-informed responses, stable relationship support, early developmental diagnosis, and planned adulthood.

Doing nothing is an indictment of our generation. Neuroscience has evolved significantly over the past few decades. It has transitioned from labelling and problematizing people to proactively supporting people to live the best lives they can possibly live. Hence, it is necessary to identify the patterns and proactively resolve them through preventive care for juveniles.

Conclusion

The schooling, child welfare, and criminal justice systems are bound to fail if it does not diagnose and proactively manage neurodisabilities among young adults. Without such screening and support, children who enter the schooling or care system are likely to face serious developmental challenges that inevitably lead to adverse outcomes. While this does not excuse the abuse, neglect, instability, and violence of the care system, early diagnosis and management can reduce these costs at the earliest stages of life and provide lifelong developmental management and optimization. Early response can help greatly.

[1] Colleen Janczewski, Joshua Mersky & Daniela Kaiser. “From foster care to incarceration: A prospective analysis of the National Youth in Transition Database” Child Abuse & Neglect 164, 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107469

[2] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children's Bureau. “The AFCARS Dashboard, Preliminary FFY 2024”. September 5, 2025. Retrieved: <https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cb/2024-afcars-dashboard-printable.pdf>

[3] American Bar Association. “School-to-Prison Pipeline Statistics”. July 11, 2023. Retrieved: <https://www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/racial_ethnic_justice/projects/school_to_prison/statistics/>

[4] Prison Policy Initiative. "Youth and juvenile justice". April 21, 2026. Retrieved: <https://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/youth_and_juvenile_justice/>

[5] John Gramlich. "America’s incarceration rate falls to the lowest level since 1995," Pew Research. August 16, 2021. Retrieved: <https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/08/16/americas-incarceration-rate-lowest-since-1995/>

[6] Derek Mueller & Rich Kluckow. "Prisoners in 2023 – Statistical Tables" Bureau of Justice Statistics. September, 2025. Retrieved: <https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2023-statistical-tables>

[7] CDC. “Traumatic Brain Injury & Concussion: TBI Data”. April 27, 2026. Retrieved: <httops://www.cdc.gov/traumatic-brain-inury/data-research/index.html

[8] 543 U.S. 551 (2005)