Children who have been in foster care are a special group of children to be adopted. Currently more than 110,000 children are waiting in this category for adoptive parents. However, more than 20,000 will leave foster care without ever being adopted increasing their risks for anti-social behaviors as adults. These figures are the result of a recent national survey conducted by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national nonprofit public charity. One of its main purposes is to find adoptive parents for these foster care children. Rita Soronen, the President and CEO of the foundation talked with SPECTRUM about this issue. She says that 80 percent of Americans who consider adoption now consider adopting a foster child. This is a significant increase over the past five years. Foster children are often children taken away from birth parents by court orders for their safety. Instead, they are put in foster homes for their care. The study shows that four out of five children in foster care are there through no fault or actions of their own. “These children are just like any other child. They’ve simply had a rough start in life,” Soronen says. “But they are available for adoption and they deserve to find a permanent family and a safe home.” The Foundation works to find adoptive families that meet each child’s individual needs especially for children with special needs or siblings that need to stay together, according to Soronen. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption was started by the founder of Wendy’s restaurants in 2001. It has multiple initiatives and grant programs that promote adoption. In 2015, the Foundation spent more than $17 million in grants and awareness initiatives for adoption related activities in the United States and Canada.