The Foster Care System
March 3, 2014
If the phrase “fall through the cracks” applies to anyone, it is the children of the foster care system.
In 2012, 397,122 American children lived in foster care, which represents 0.5% of the under 18 population. Due to either child abuse, neglect, or a parent's death, they became wards of the state, placed in temporary homes or institutions by a foster care agency. State investigators, assisted by police officers, took some of these children away from parents that hit or pimped them. Others they removed because a doctor reported that a child was malnourished or a parent failed to administer a baby's medication. Parents sometimes leave their children at foster agencies themselves, using them like adoption facilities.