Opinion: Aging Out of Foster Care in US
Occasionally, we will link to media opinions on aspects of adoption and child welfare that you may never have thought about. This opinion piece discusses this startling statistic that isn’t a whole lot better than aging out of foreign orphanages: “Two out of three foster children will die, go to jail or go homeless within a year of turning 18.”
See the whole opinion at Foster Care in the U.S. [The Rotunda Online 4/3/13 by Katie Holloway].
Much of the recent rise in child placement into foster care has been “due to methamphetamine use; even 80 to 90 percent of foster care placements can be traced to substance abuse. On average, children have three different foster care placements.”
A California-based nonprofit Together We Rise is discussed. Their information about aging out can be found here.
REFORM Puzzle Piece
All those adopters who are on missions from deities to “rescue” kids that are aging out of Ukrainian or Russian orphanages/institutions somehow fail to notice that the life outcomes for aged out American foster kids are very, very similar to those of aged out Ukrainian/Russian orphans.
Almost identical, sadly.