More than 420,000 children are currently in foster care in the United States. This amount does not include the constant influx of immigrants across our southern borders. South Carolina has 3,879 children in foster care. You can check the Foster Care Dashboard for local statistics per county. It is updated daily by Michael Leach. You can find it the statistics here.
Facts
- 90% of these children will suffer trauma while in care.
- Even though Foster Care’s goal is reunification with their biological family, only 50% will go home.
- 80% of the males in foster care will become incarcerated. There is a phenomenon called the Foster Care to Prison Pipeline
- 71% of females will become teen parents and then have their children placed into foster care. It is called the Cycle of Abuse and can span many generations.
- 40% will become runaways and then homeless. One in five report experiencing homelessness between ages 17 and 19, and over one in four (29%) report being homeless from 19 to 21.
Kids Count Data
KIDS COUNT offers a vast array of state-by-state statistics on these issues, with much of it available by race and other demographic factors, including data on:
- Safety and risky behaviors, such as youth residing in juvenile detention facilities, and teens abusing alcohol or using cigarettes, marijuana and other drugs
- Mental and physical health problems, such as young adults feeling depressed or hopeless, and health conditions (e.g., obesity, asthma and special health care needs)
- Academic achievement and related issues, for example, test scores, household internet services, school discipline, students missing school, students not completing high school, teens neither working nor in school, and much more
- Youth and young adult well-being, overall, spanning 60+ measures of employment, poverty, education, health, and family and community issues
We need to do better
Human traffickers are exploiting those teens from group homes. An offer of a family often lures teenagers into trafficking. Their traffickers are often friends or even fellow group home residents. They are forced into sex trafficking or human labor without pay. These kids usually run away frequently, and no one searches for them or notices they are missing. They are just added to a statistic. The teens are possibly incarcerated due to sex crimes such as prostitution.
Often, foster teens are just thrown into group homes and forgotten, and foster homes are afraid of them, so we need to pay more attention to them. You are literally reshaping their lives by helping them stop the cycle of abuse that brought them into foster care. You are helping them, not becoming statistics. Having teens can be challenging, but in my experience, they can be the most rewarding children. Would you like more information on foster care and myths? https://bridgetoindependence24.com/common-misconceptions-about-foster-care-debunking-the-myths/ Here is another great blog post.