Save a child in State Care

Our goal is to change the law that would let Grandparents have the some right to there grandchildren as the parent if a child in placed in the care of the state. We have found that 30% of grandparents are caring for there grandchild of helping care for there grandchild . If a child is put in the care of the state then the grandparent has no right to care for the child without the state approval. This becomes if I like you game there no guide line that are in place to stop this from happen.

Changing this law would help the state and the family . The state would not have so many children in the system and the child would be a able to have it family network to help them. Children get lost in the system there to many kids and the state pay millions of dollars to care for them , and let the grandparents care for the child would save the state money and save the child . Remember when you were 17 years old and full of rebellious teenage energy? Now imagine that when you woke up on your 18th birthday, you were all alone.

Imagine having to navigate the “real world” all by yourself at that tender age. Sure, at 18 you might have felt like an adult, but as you got older and gained perspective, you realized you still had a lot to learn and needed a lot of support and guidance. What if you had no one--no family, no support system at all? That is the predicament nearly 25,000 18-year-olds face each year when they “age out” of the U.S. foster care system.

McOmber states when children are in foster care for a long time and age out of the system, they are confronted with a number of very difficult challenges. He says about 25 percent of children will experience homelessness within 18 months of aging out of the system.

In addition to the chilling homelessness rate, there are some other statistics that McOmber cites (more statistics can be found at raisemeup.org), including the fact that 270,000 inmates in the American prison system today were once children in foster care. He also notes children in foster care and alumni suffer post-traumatic stress disorder at a rate twice that of veterans of the first gulf war in the early ‘90s. Teenagers who age out also have a higher unemployment rate than their peers who were not in foster care.

There are obviously some fundamental and systemic issues facing youth who grow up in foster care.

“A social worker here, a judge there, hundreds of different people over the years, and yet somehow even with all those people looking out for the child, taking care of the child in the end there on there own, we can stop this by letting grandparents care for the grandchild.

Once you hit that magic birthday, foster care is done with you.” No wonder so many of these kids, yes kids, flounder. When I was 18, I still relied on my parents and grandparents and siblings for so many things—from phone calls of support to requests for small loans. Who do these kids call? The government isn’t answering the phone.

There are so many things young adults with families can take for granted. What happens when you are in college or in your first apartment and you don’t have enough money to do laundry? Most kids can call Mom or Dad or Grandma or Grandpa and hit them up for a few packs of quarters.

There are life skills teenagers need to learn to make a smooth transition to adulthood—things like finding a job and an apartment, learning how to drive, balancing a checkbook, etc.—but according to Celeste Bodner, Executive Director of FosterClub (a national peer support network for young people in and from foster care), the most critical issue is “permanence and having the safety net of people to connect to as you age out.” Bodner says this is the make-or-break factor for young people, often determining whether or not they will succeed in life or become another statistic.

“A lot of our young people, including our young leaders, are college students, they’re smart, they’re capable, they’re prepared, a lot of them save money, they’re very responsible,” Bodner said. “And the one thing that can even derail those young people is not having people to call family.”

All children want the same thing—a safe, loving, and permanent family. Kids need someone to turn to and be able to say “How do I do this?” or “I have a question” or “I need support.” These are things that most of us take for granted. If you age out of the system without that permanent family, those kinds of challenges can be overwhelming.

What Is the Government Doing About This Issue?

Many children’s rights advocates would argue the government isn’t doing enough to address the issues of aging out in the foster care system.

Take why where asking the state to change and give grandparents the some rights as a parent when a child in placed in the care of the state , If grandparents didn't have to spend every dime they have to trying and I say trying to save there grandchild they may have the money to care for a child . There 1000 of story of grandparents fight to get the grandchild and spend 1000 of dollar too and end up not getting the child, do we love our grandkids and if the mother and father can't care for them then we will if we are given the children.

This is very real to me , my grandson was place in foster care and when I try to get him placed in my home the wall went up. CPS and the sate didn't like that I called them on everything . I feel if you say your going to do it then do it. I heard this from more then one person in the state and foster parents it the state job to do what ever it can to make a parents brake if they brake them then there not ready to be a parents. If that was the truth we all have our kids take , come on . If the state feels a parents is not caring for a child then the child should move to the grandparents . Following the same law as a parent . If grandparent can't care for the child then other family member can move to get child under state law. A grandparent's love for a grandchild is not conditioned on whether the child was born out of wedlock and does not end with a divorce or death of a parent.