Fixing Foster Care & Adoption: A National Call for Child-Centered Reform

Liberty
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No child should grow up without love, safety, or belonging. Yet over 390,000 children are in foster care in the U.S., many trapped in a broken system that too often fails them.

What’s Broken

  • Over 113,000 children are eligible for adoption but remain in foster care for years.
  • Many experience 10 or more placements before age 18, often separated from siblings.
  • Children with disabilities, teens, and sibling groups are least likely to find permanent homes.
  • 1 in 4 youth aging out of foster care become homeless shortly after leaving.
  • Around 25% of former foster youth are incarcerated within two years of aging out.
  • Up to 40% report trafficking experiences during care; 79% say trafficking occurred while in foster care placements.
  • Only 3–5% earn a college degree by age 25.
  • Many suffer long-term mental health issues, trauma, and instability.

What We Propose: The Every Child Deserves a Family Act

A bold, trauma-informed overhaul focused on permanency, safety, and support:

1. Make Adoption & Kinship Easier

  • Streamline adoption processes nationwide, digitize paperwork, and reduce bureaucratic barriers.
  • Prioritize kinship and relative placements before stranger foster care.
  • Offer grants and tax credits for adopting siblings, teens, and children with special needs.

2. Support Foster Families

  • Provide adequate monthly subsidies covering all child needs.
  • Increase mental health resources for children and foster parents.
  • Avoid removing children from stable homes due to non-safety bureaucratic issues.

3. End Sexual Abuse in Foster Care

  • Implement rigorous background checks, trauma-informed training, and abuse screenings for all caregivers.
  • Establish a 24/7 anonymous safety hotline for youth to report abuse, with mandatory independent investigations.
  • Ban group homes or facilities with substantiated abuse cases.
  • Provide specialized trauma care and housing for abuse survivors.
  • Track and publicly report abuse cases in a federal database.
  • Prosecute perpetrators and hold agencies accountable.

4. Put Youth at the Center

  • Create Youth Advisory Councils and give children 12+ input on their care and permanency plans.
  • Extend support for youth aging out until age 25, including housing, education, and job training assistance.

5. Strengthen Prevention & Family Preservation

  • Invest in services to keep families together safely, including housing, counseling, and addiction treatment.
  • Expand front-end supports to reduce unnecessary removals.

6. Increase Transparency and Accountability

  • Require national data reporting on placement stability, abuse, and permanency outcomes.
  • Conduct independent audits and publish results publicly.

7. Learn from Global Best Practices

  • Adopt kinship-first placement like New Zealand’s Whānau model.
  • Provide extended care post-18, as in Canada and Sweden.
  • Professionalize foster parenting, offering training, benefits, and career pathways.

Why This Matters

  • Nearly half of youth who age out face homelessness, and one-quarter end up incarcerated.
  • Trafficking and re-victimization within the system is rampant and unacceptable.
  • Without reform, children will continue to age out with no family, no support, and no future.

How You Can Help

:point_right: Share this post and spread awareness.
:point_right: Contact your representatives and demand action on the Every Child Deserves a Family Act.
:point_right: Support local foster and adoption advocacy groups.
:point_right: Listen to and amplify the voices of foster youth and families.

1 Like
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Is this just a list of things that you think would be a good idea or can you provide explanation of how each item actually provides a net benefit and how to avoid potential drawbacks that might occur?

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Thank you for asking this — it’s a valid and important question. This proposal is born not just from idealism, but from lived experiences, data, and deep concern about the long-term damage our current systems are doing to vulnerable children and families.

Let me break it down a bit more thoroughly.

1. Prioritizing Family Preservation Whenever Possible

Why it matters:
Most children do better in their own homes, when the root issues (poverty, lack of access to mental healthcare, addiction, etc.) are addressed. Studies show that removing children unnecessarily can cause long-term trauma — sometimes worse than the conditions they were removed from. It breaks trust, culture, and attachment. The goal should be healing families, not replacing them.

Net benefit:

  • Reduces trauma-related mental health costs later in life.
  • Keeps children connected to their roots, culture, and support systems.
  • Decreases dependency on state resources for foster care placements.

How to mitigate drawbacks:

  • Only apply preservation when safety can be ensured.
  • Offer intensive family monitoring, in-home services, and community-based interventions.

2. Implementing Trauma-Informed Training for All System Workers

Why it matters:
Caseworkers, police, teachers, judges, and foster parents are often the first contact for vulnerable children — yet many are not trained in trauma responses. This leads to misjudging behaviors (e.g., seeing a traumatized child as “defiant” rather than hurt).

Net benefit:

  • Reduces mislabeling of children as “problematic.”
  • Improves placement success.
  • Builds trust and better communication.

Drawbacks to consider:

  • Requires funding and time for ongoing education.
    Mitigation:
  • Use a phased rollout with online training options and incentivize completion. Long-term, this investment saves money through better outcomes and reduced staff turnover.

3. Greater Accountability in the Foster and Adoption System

Why it matters:
Too many foster homes go unchecked. Children have been trafficked, abused, or killed in placements that were not properly vetted or monitored. Oversight is not consistent across states.

Net benefit:

  • Protects children from further trauma or harm.
  • Increases public trust in the system.
  • Helps root out unfit foster/adoptive parents.

Drawbacks:

  • May increase the load on already-stretched caseworkers.
    Mitigation:
  • Improve caseload ratios.
  • Use technology to automate background checks, visitation reminders, and reporting.

4. Post-Adoption Support & Mental Health Resources

Why it matters:
Adoption is not a “happily ever after” — it often carries trauma, identity confusion, and attachment struggles. Adoptive families need resources, and adoptees need lifelong mental health access, especially those adopted from foster care.

Net benefit:

  • Reduces adoption dissolution rates.
  • Helps adoptees thrive emotionally and socially.
  • Makes adoption a more sustainable option for families.

Potential challenges:

  • Ongoing support has a cost.
    Mitigation:
  • Use sliding scale support and partner with non-profits and community providers.

5. Addressing Long-Term Outcomes (Prison, Homelessness, Trafficking)

Why it matters:
60% of child trafficking victims have been in foster care. 1 in 4 foster alumni will experience homelessness. Many enter the criminal justice system after aging out. We are creating survivors, not thrivers.

Net benefit:

  • Better economic and social outcomes.
  • Reduces taxpayer costs for incarceration, emergency shelters, etc.
  • Increases likelihood of foster youth becoming productive, healthy adults.

Drawbacks:

  • Requires a complete shift in the “age-out and you’re on your own” model.
    Mitigation:
  • Implement transitional housing, mentorship, job placement, and trauma recovery programs up to age 25.

6. Improved Domestic Violence Protections (Interconnected Issue)

Why it’s related:
Many children enter foster care because of domestic violence at home. Survivors — like my sister — often return to their abusers due to shame, fear, financial dependence, and lack of support. We need both stronger punishment for abusers and better aftercare for survivors and their children.

Net benefit:

  • Prevents children from being pulled into the system unnecessarily.
  • Empowers survivors to leave and rebuild safely.
  • Reduces intergenerational trauma and cycles of abuse.

Challenges:

  • Fear of overreach or mislabeling conflicts.
    Mitigation:
  • Require clear evidence, but fast-track emergency aid, relocation assistance, and trauma recovery for verified cases.

Final Thoughts

This is more than just a list of nice-sounding ideas. It’s a roadmap based on existing failures, documented trauma outcomes, and the heartbreaking stories of countless families. We need a system built not on fear and removal, but on healing, safety, accountability, and hope.

I’d be more than happy to work with others to refine each point, explore cost-effective strategies, or examine state-by-state examples of what’s working and what’s not.

Let’s build something better — together.