Foster care was intended to be a temporary bridge to safety, yet tens of thousands of children have lived in the system for years. Despite federal laws requiring timely permanency, not a single state is in full compliance with these legal timelines. Our work targets the root causes of delay to help more children get into safe and loving homes faster.
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INTRODUCTION For more than 25 years, despite countless reforms, outcomes for America’s abandoned, abused, and neglected children in the foster care system have remained unchanged. Children in foster care face a devastating reality—poor educational attainment, staggering suicide rates, and an endless cycle of re-abuse and preventable deaths. Read more here.
Problem Nationally, over 90% of children in foster care leave the child welfare system via reunification with biological parents, guardianship, kinship placements, or adoption.1 The remaining children – approximately 9% of teens and young adults – “age out” of the child welfare system without a permanent family. 5-Permanency Project - final - c
Dear Members of the Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary: As you consider improving permanency outcomes for children in foster care, the Center for the Rights of Abused Children (Center) invites you to investigate client- directed counsel for abused and neglected children. Typically, when lawmakers ask for a single reform that will do [...]
Frequent and unnecessary delays in the court cases of Arizona’s foster children add years to a child’s time in state care. Each court continuance delays permanency for a child up to four months. Timely hearings are a matter of due process for all parties and delays are costly to families, children, and taxpayers alike. Senate [...]