60% of children rescued from sex trafficking were reportedly in the foster care system
How the Foster Care system is failing our children
Most of us are aware of the maladies racking government entitlement programs like SNAP and Medicaid. But there’s another government run program whose implications are arguably the worst of all — foster care.
The statistics are horrifying. According to the Foundation for Government Accountability:
- 60% of children rescued from sex trafficking report being part of the foster care system
- 14 out of 21 men who age out of the foster care system (meaning they turn 18 and are no longer eligible for the system) end up incarcerated by the time they’re 20-years-old
- 71% of girls who’ve been run through the foster care wringer are pregnant by the time they’re 21-years-old
There are plenty of stats on the matter — none of them good. Thankfully, there is an extra-governmental alternative. SAFE FAMILIES FOR CHILDREN or SAFE FAMILIES provides temporary assistance through private charity. Unlike the foster care system, SAFE FAMILIES takes a holistic approach to assist all members of the family in need. SAFE FAMILIES has three main objectives:
- Protect: A safe option that greatly reduces the number of kids entering the child welfare system
- Prevent: A safe, temporary home for a child while a parent in crisis gets help and support, preventing abuse and neglect without the threat of losing custody
- Nurture: An extended volunteer family to offer help, advice and support to parents who never had a social safety net to rely on
SAFE FAMILIES relies upon early intervention to ensure the best outcome. Volunteer families go through extensive screening and work with parents to ensure their child’s needs are being met. Parents maintain full custody of their children while volunteer families have temporary power of attorney. Additionally, biological parents are still able to see and talk to their children and the results speak for themselves.
Economically speaking, SAFE FAMILIES is a significantly better social investment. In terms of the cost of care, taxpayers spend anywhere from $25k – 30k per child with mostly unfortunate results. SAFE FAMILIES on the other hand, requires about $1,500 per child and is privately funded.
In 2010, Katie Couric interviewed families who’d participated in the SAFE FAMILIES program. Their stories, while heartbreaking, are stories of hope and promise. WARNING: You’ll need the kleenex for this one:
I learned about SAFE FAMILIES last week from the good folks at the Foundation for Government Accountability. Conservatives spend much time imagining private charity solutions to government welfare. SAFE FAMILIES is one of the best, if not the best examples of private charity stepping in where government failed.
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Comments
I’m sure I won’t be the only reader stunned by those figures. Appalling, and unexpected. I didn’t expect the numbers to be good, but I had no idea the situation for those that age out of foster care was so bad. Thanks for this information.
What entitlement program is not broken or corrupted?
These numbers do not surprise me in the slightest.
But, perhaps I’m jaded because I do so much representation OF children in the Child Protective Services system.
The usual course of events is that if a child is not adopted, and they “age out” of foster care (aka turn 18), the foster parents pretty much pin a $20 to their shirt collar and wish them “best of luck.”
Texas has attempted to mitigate this somewhat be offering certain services and benefits to individuals that age out of the foster system. Unfortunately most don’t (or can’t) take advantage of the benefits. One of the best is that they can attend any University of Texas program for free tuition. Forever. If they can make the grades, they can get a PhD for free. The problem arises that they have to cover room, board and books.
Shocking, but unsurprising.
And the girls were “run through the wringer,” NOT the “ringer,” which makes no sense whatever. I suppose it is a sign of progress that generations no longer know of what was once a key part of a washing machine: the close-set roller bars through which wet clothes were passed to “wring” out the excess water so they would dry – on the clothesline, of course – more quickly. In the rural South in the ’50s and ’60s, having even one of those old style machines was an indication you had made it into the “middle class,” such as it was at the time.
If one really wants to find corruption, start researching the state government departments that feed the foster care system, usually known by names like “Children and Family Services”. Find out the horror stories of how those departments take children out of decent family homes with the flimsiest of reasons. Certainly there are children who need protection through the state’s action, but the number that are taken with the flimsiest of reasons is appalling. In North Carolina, a Charlotte, NC, newspaper investigation found that the state was taking every kid they could as the
But – but – but foster care is SOOO much better than orphanages! Haven’t you ever read Oliver Twist? Foster care is government run, for goodness’ sake – it HAS to be the best for the children!
/s
It is necessary to understand what ugly situations get kids into foster care in the first place. Histories of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse abound, while others are simply abandoned. Many/most of these kids have profound psych issues and resultant negative behaviors.
I don’t care what system you put them into, they will have problems because of the history of abuses- and it isn’t just the kids. Here in NC we had a lady, now awaiting trial, arrested for chaining her foster child to the porch. The lady worked for local Social Services. Poorly vetted foster parents is a system-wide problem.
And MANY times it is nothing but child abduction and tyranny that gets these kids into the system.
http://www.truthandaction.org/7-children-taken-parents-father-unapproved-mineral-supplement/
I have said for years the US government is the biggest child sex trafficking gang in the world.