Foster Childen - Foster Child Education Statistics Will Make You Sad or Mad

Yesterday we posted these foster kid statistics about foster children in Georgia. Education is vital to the welfare of all children, especially foster kids because many will age out of foster care with no one to care or support them other than themselves. Foster home instability has a negative impact on these children's education as well as a financial cost to schools. We realized we had hit...

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Foster Children - Sibling Foster Kids Now Have Chance at a Permanent Home with Relatives

The foster care statistics above say it all. One of the worst things that could ever happen to a foster child is for him/her to age out of foster care with no family connections. And yet 24,000 foster children in 2014 will be forced out of their foster home environment and into the street. Many will have absolutely no family support because no relatives were found by foster care agencies. Now...

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Foster Children - Foster Care Statistics Show the Deck Is Stacked Against Them

Many people have asked us over the past month how is it that foster children are not receiving the services they so desperately need. Two such services are family finding and relative placement. Family finding is a social service's and governmental term for the activity of identifying, locating and notifying adult family members that one of their related children is in foster care....

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Foster Child - Reconnecting Foster Kid with Relatives

Once a child enters foster care, agencies begin searching for adult family members and can have a success rate as high as 80%. However, there are cases where no relatives of a foster child are found in the U.S., usually meaning that the foster kid will probably leave the system by either being adopted or aging out. Fortunately, for many foster youth there is a third, important alternative that...

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Foster Child - Neglected Foster Kid Found Wandering Streets in Riverside, Ohio

  Once again there's a story about a foster child gone missing. This time a 7-year-old hungry and barefoot girl was found by a neighbor. The neighbor, a mother of a 4-year-old daughter, first tried to reach Child Services to report the incident. After half an hour with no response, the mom called the police. The mom told police that the foster child: "said she’d been out walking...

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Foster Children - Dismal Foster Kid Statistics

Based on the statistics above, clearly foster youth need more help than they are presently receiving. It's estimated that 24,000 foster teens will age out of foster care in 2014. What the statistics above don't show is the incredible cost both in services for children while in foster care and the billions of dollars that will be spent to help them once they age out. One way to help foster...

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Foster Child - Left in Foster Care, Finally Reunited with Mother

When you mention foster children, people's thoughts may go to a small child who is alone in a government institution. Although this is often the case, there is another group of foster youth who are often overlooked, that of children who have aged out of foster care. These adults often carry a lot of hurt and as they got older, they become desperate to find and reunite with their family. Help...

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Foster Children - At-Risk of Abuse by Foster Parents

There are many heart-warming stories about foster parents who selflessly open their homes to foster children. Unfortunately, one foster mom was jailed for abusing her foster child. Lynn Smith, foster mother to five youths, was arrested because of a video that shows her pushing the head of one of her foster kids into the toilet. Police had been alerted to this and other alleged abuses...

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Foster Kids - Shocking Facts About Hispanics in U.S. Foster Care

With the heavy news coverage about the children crossing into the U.S., many may be (mis)led to believe that certain pieces of information are fact. Publicity experts will tell you that everyone (yes, even us) has an agenda so before you jump on a band wagon, it's always good to have some clarity about what is fact and what is hyped to look like fact. Case in point - all the children who are...

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Foster Child - Reunited with Only Living Relatives

When a child enters the foster care system, the goal of the agency is to get that foster child into a permanent home as soon as possible. The first step is to locate as many adult relatives as possible. Unfortunately, there are foster youth cases when no other relatives can be located in the U.S. That is when agencies and their non-profit partners have to look elsewhere such as in Mexico. By...

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Foster Children: Getting a New Ride

Many foster children have a lot to deal with: moving from home to home, struggling with school work and not having much in the way of clothes. Fortunately, there are many wonderful organizations that provide support to these children and give them a chance to feel like any other kid. Linking Handlebars is an organization in White Plains, NY that collects bicycles and donates them to Bikes4Kids,...

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Foster Kids - Finding Family Key to Happiness

  One of the best, proven ways to help foster kids is by finding their adult family members. Several studies reveal that these children are happier and healthier. They do much better in school and have a higher rate of graduating high school than foster teens who are placed with non-family members. By achieving a higher educational level, these children do better getting and keeping a job....

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