WRITTEN BY JESSICA PARADYSZ
Children in foster care are often products of parent’s difficult economic situations. For example, class mobility has not improved for the lower class since the 1970s. Yet the cost of living, even for basic needs is increasing. Trying to raise a family on low wages is proving to be a difficult task. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, children born into low incomes can have a difficult time trying to mobilize. Parents who cannot provide for their own children because they do not have the economic resources, are sick, abusing substances or homeless, for example, may need to terminate the rights to their children and send them to foster care. According to the Covenant House, when 20,000 children age out of foster care each year, the children are at higher risk for mental health issues, unemployment, poverty and homelessness. Yet taxpayers are spending billions of dollars to fund a broken system in which many of the children do not have the support and resources for a better life.
