Why Children Need Us
- Every child has the right to a safe and permanent home.
- Foster care is necessary to protect vulnerable children in Virginia.
- In Virginia, there are 7,000-8,000 children in care during any given year.
- Newport News, Hampton, and Virginia Beach have more than 1,300 children in foster care.
- In Virginia, 17% are under the age of five.
- The largest group in foster care are teen ages 13-15 (24%) and teens ages 16-18 (27%).
Children entering the foster care system face serious challenges: While in foster care, children are wards of the state, waiting in limbo for a court to decide what will happen to them. Sometimes they are removed from their home only with the clothes on their back. They are often separated from brothers, sisters, moms, dads, or other caregivers are the only family they have ever known. They have not been told where they are going or why they are being taken away from their home.
Children will likely be moved from one foster placement to another - three or more times is what 40% of Virginia's foster children experience.
Their medical records are often incomplete because of the multiple moves from one placement to another.
Fewer than 60% graduate from high school and a mere 2% complete a college education. Children fall behind due to placement changes.
Foster Children Need You & Us-CHHR
Siblings are separated in approximately 67% of foster care cases. Not only have they been taken from a familiar home and parents, they now find themselves completely alone in strange surroundings.
Due to budget limits, social workers responsible for the care of foster children have large caseloads and in many cases are unable to provide adequate oversight and support to foster parents.
Foster parents can terminate a child's placement at any time and often do. They do so for varied reasons: they may find the foster child does not get along with their children or foster parents; work or family circumstances may change; they may feel inadequet to handle the challenge insecure, anxious and sometimes resentful children who may be dealing with depression, separation anxiety and other conditions that may make life difficult for a family.