Why does it take so long for some states to find safe, permanent homes for foster children?

In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Sarah Font, Associate Professor of Sociology at Penn State University. Sarah recently published a report card for AEI, ranking states based on how long children wait in the foster care system to find a permanent home. The measures from the report card are taken from the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), which says that states should petition for a termination of parental rights if a child has been in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months.

Sarah explains that states regularly disregard these guidelines, in part out of sympathy for biological parents who lose custody of their children. But decades of research show that 20-40% of children who are reunified end up re-entering foster care due to repeated instances of abuse or neglect.

Utah is the top-ranked state in the report because its policies clearly indicate how caseworkers and courts are supposed to implement ASFA. In contrast, child welfare administrators in Illinois, which ranks last, admit that they do not consider ASFA as part of their decision-making when evaluating child protection cases.

States should look toward Utah as a model to make sure they are following federal guidelines and work to recruit more foster families to ensure children do not languish for years in foster care.

Resources:

• Timely Permanency Report Cards | Sarah Font | American Enterprise Institute

• Foster Kids Need Permanent Homes | Sarah Font and Naomi Schaefer Riley | Wall Street Journal

• The Government Is Uprooting Children From Loving Homes Because of Woke Views on Race | Sarah Font and Naomi Schaefer Riley | Newsweek

• How Long Do Children in Foster Care Wait for Permanent Families? | AEI Website

Show Notes:

• 01:00 | What does it mean for children in the foster care system to achieve permanency?

• 03:40 | What are the guidelines for the Adoption and Safe Families Act?

• 07:30 | Why are child welfare agencies and family courts reluctant to sever parental rights?

• 10:15 | What states are doing well and what are the patterns with racial disparities?