Q&A on National Foster Care Month

Statement

Q: What is National Foster Care Month?
A: For more than 20 years, Presidential proclamations have declared National Foster Care Month in May. It's an opportunity to raise awareness about the challenges facing the 408,000 children in the foster care system, commend the foster care parents who take in these children who are without permanent, loving homes, and focus on necessary improvements to the foster care system. In the United States Senate, I've sponsored a bipartisan Senate resolution with Senator Mary Landrieu to recognize National Foster Care Month. Earlier this month, I joined others to welcome the National Heart Gallery Exhibit to Valley West Mall in West Des Moines. This exhibit is a traveling photography exhibit featuring portraits of children waiting to be adopted from foster care in nearly every state. There are so many issues that need attention, including the widespread misperception that children in foster care are disruptive, unruly and dangerous, even though placement in foster care is based on the actions of a parent or guardian, not the child.

Q: What is happening in Congress on foster care issues?
A: Presently, the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth is providing a voice for foster youth in shaping the policies that affect their quality of life. The caucus has a special focus on older youth who need continued support as they age out of the system. Among other activities, it sponsors a speakers' series to bring the best ideas from the field to policymakers in Washington, D.C. Senator Landrieu and I founded this caucus in 2009 to raise awareness of issues challenging foster youth including educational stability, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and the over-prescription of psychotropic drugs. One study found that 25 percent of foster care alumni who aged out did not have a high school diploma or GED. Less than two percent finished college, compared with 23 percent of youth in the general population. Over half of the youth who aged out of the foster care system experienced some homelessness, and nearly 30 percent were incarcerated.

Q: What can Congress do to help move children from the foster care system into permanent, loving homes?
A: I've met with children in the foster care system and their advocates for many, many years and consistently hear that what these children want most is a mom and dad and the stability and safety of a permanent home. In 2008, I introduced the bill that became the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act. This bipartisan bill was the most significant child welfare bill to be enacted in over a decade. It made it easier for children to stay in their home communities and be adopted by their own relatives, including grandparents and aunts and uncles. It provided incentives for states to move children from foster care to permanent adoptive homes, and it made all children with special needs eligible for federal adoption assistance. The law also broke new ground by establishing opportunities to help kids who age out of the foster care system at age 18 by giving states the option to extend their care and helping them pursue educational and vocational training. I've also worked for a federal tax credit for adoption. These policies have helped to dramatically increase adoptions from foster care.

Q: What about those left in the foster care system?
A: I co-authored legislation that was enacted in 2006 which included funding grants to train judges, attorneys and legal personnel in child welfare cases, as well as grants to strengthen and improve collaboration between the courts and child welfare agencies. That same year, the Senate Finance Committee held the first hearings on child welfare in more than a decade. The hearings led to passage of the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, which improved programs designed to help troubled families, provided grants for states and community organizations to combat methamphetamine addiction and other substance abuse, and increased case worker visits for children in foster care. Last year, to try to prevent children from having to enter the foster care system in the first place, I worked to reauthorize grants that support families who struggle with substance abuse and that improve the safety, permanency and well-being of children who are not in their homes or are likely to be removed from their homes because of substance abuse by their parents. Again, children in the foster care system yearn for permanency, and these grants help to keep families together, when possible, so that children are not subjected to the many difficulties that they face in the foster care system.

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