Washington, D.C. More than 400,000 young Americans are in foster care today, including 124,000 who are currently awaiting adoption or some form of permanency. About 20,000 of these young people age out of the system each year without a permanent family.
These young people without “forever families” endure a range of heartbreaking outcomes.
Forty percent experience homelessness. Half are unemployed by age 24.
More than a quarter end up incarcerated, and 1 in 4 face post-traumatic stress disorder.
America cannot rely on government alone to care for our nation’s children. Improving our foster care system will take partnerships with private, faith-based, and community organizations to achieve the best outcomes for vulnerable children and families.
To achieve that, President Donald Trump just signed a historic child welfare executive order that will strengthen our foster care system in three important ways:
- Improve partnerships between state agencies and public, private, faith-based, and community groups, including by holding states accountable for recruiting an adequate number of homes for all children
- Secure resources for vulnerable families and youth, such as by expanding state access to financial help for guardianships
- Increase federal oversight of requirements that keep children safely out of foster care when possible and ensure a permanent resolution—reunification, adoption, or guardianship—whenever the system must become involved
President Donald Trump values solutions that are pro-family, pro-child, and pro-permanency. By encouraging and helping states work with more community partners, those who step up to help America’s children will have a strong system of support.
See President Trump’s historic child welfare executive order.
