This paper describes the shifting patterns in a sample of 156 children from a high school in Kingston, Jamaica. It is the first of a series of planned reports, the second of which is intended to outline the effects of shifting on children’s well-being and academic performance. Shifting was broadly defined as any physical move away from a person perceived by the child to be a primary caregiver. Data were collected through structured interviews on shifting histories and caregivers from students in a high school in Kingston. Shifting patterns from earlier research were still observed in contemporary society, including migration and death of parent (s) as major motives for shifting. Mothers were still perceived as the main caregivers, and females were more popular caregivers than males. Children were shifted up to eight times (screening data). Shifted and unshifted children significantly varied in the number of caregivers, dwellings and time lived with mother. Children shifted three or more times were less likely to report their mothers or fathers to be employed or as their main financial providers, compared to those shifted twice or less. Children shifted four or more times tended to report disciplinary problems the most as a reason for being shifted and tended to have caregivers that were non-kin more than the other groups. An argument is made for investigating child shifting as complex and multifaceted.