Fifty percent of the nation’s more than 400,000 foster kids won’t graduate from high school under the current system and nearly 94 percent of thos...
If signed by the president, Uninterrupted Scholars will amend the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to allow child welfare agencies access to foster student records.
The Heart Gallery is an exhibit of photos featuring LA foster youth that highlights the need to find adoptive families for waiting children. As someone who spent more than a year in foster care, at first I felt conflicted about the concept of taking pictures of foster kids for public display.
When government spending for education is heading down, what are people who care about children's success supposed to do?
Adopt US Kids provides interstate adoption trainings for social workers and department staff across the nation in an effort to help them better serve families.
Data doesn't have to lie to ignore the truth. In the case of the annual adoption and foster care report issued by the federal government, ignoring the full truth is unfair to foster youth.
Since the recession began, our advocates have been concerned that, as in past recessions, the number of children coming into care would initially decrease, but for the wrong reasons.
Of the 400,000 youth in the foster system nationally, 19,000 are in Los Angeles County. Our county has more foster kids than any other county and more than some states. What better place to create a new model than right here?
College is not always the best option for every child, but each should be given the opportunity to consider going to college as part of their reality and not have the path automatically closed off to them, just because they are part of the foster system.
Every year, some 26,000 young people who live in foster homes or group homes turn 18 (or in some states, 21) and "age out" of the system. Gone is any consistent, responsible adult presence or guidance. Gone is their health care coverage.
About 4,000 foster youth emancipate each year in California. Many of them have no place to go. A new law that went into effect this year aims to help ...
Looming changes to the Federal Pell Grant Program will jeopardize the college prospects of former foster youth, who often start toward higher education with no academic credentials and high financial needs.
This is a teen-written article from our friends at L.A. Youth, a nonprofit organization that helps teens advocate for themselves through journalism, l...
Surely, our country's leaders did not intentionally pull the rug out from under hundreds of thousands of children. I have to believe the elimination of funding for the Victims of Child Abuse Act was an error.
California's much-maligned community college system stands an important but tenuous bulwark against homelessness for former foster youth.
College students excitedly anticipate opening their mailboxes to find care packages filled with food, school supplies, and other college essentials sent from mom and dad. But for students who grew up in foster care, the care packages don't often come.
Over the span of the past two weeks, from my unique vantage point, I have seen two telling signs that the national movement to improve foster care is growing and, more importantly, developing the infrastructure for a sustained, youth-driven political movement.
How is it that so many of us understand the level of financial support most grown children require to gain a foothold on the economic ladder these days -- yet states like Florida find new ways to deprive those who don't even have parents to provide such support?
Current and former foster youth will converge on the Capitol building in Sacramento, CA, to advocate for their rights, an example of a broadening foster youth-led political movement laying roots across the nation.
My heart goes out to the more than 400,000 children who have no permanent family to call their own this Thanksgiving. Because of discriminatory state laws, many who want to be parents and also happen to be LGBT cannot open up their homes to these kids.
As our federal lawmakers debate sweeping education reform, I would like to take a moment to highlight the importance of educational continuity for students in foster care, by offering my story as a youth who made it out in one piece.
Should we be hopeful? Or should we despair? I have been moving between these two emotions as I read the flurry of new research released in the past few weeks.
Under current California law, students who have served in the armed forces or are disabled are allowed to enroll early in classes at the California State Universities, UCs and Community Colleges. A current bill in Sacramento would extend this privilege to foster youth.
Melissa was abandoned by her family at 12 years old, addicted to meth before entering 6th grade, and deemed "defiant" by every adult who has ever worked with her. When I first met Melissa, she was sitting at the kitchen table glaring at me.
Often referred to as "aging out," the harsh reality is that in many instances when foster youth turn 18, they are on their own.
