America’s Foster Care Crisis Demands a Return to Faith, Family, and Community |
Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Mike Watkins.
The National Council for Adoption's latest report reveals a disappointing reality—our foster care and adoption system is collapsing, failing the children most in need of our help. The U.S. foster care population is declining, not for lack of need, but for lack of capability. Adoptions from foster care have plunged to a two-decade low, with more than 15,000 teenagers aging out of the system with no permanent family ties, thrust into society alone and unprepared. The system is shrinking, but not succeeding in caring for our children.
Clearly, we need a new model to care for America's vulnerable foster children. And our greatest chance at success is to root it in faith, community, and enduring human connection rather than bureaucratic social intervention.
The vast majority of children who enter foster care come from single-parent households facing poverty, housing instability, parental stressors, or lack of support, rather than intentional harm. For children raised in homes without two parents, extended family involvement, or a church community, the likelihood of foster care increases dramatically. And for more than 50 years, our nation has........