The foster care system is broken. For foster youth across California, the coronavirus pandemic has only made their situations worse. 75% of young women in foster care report at least one pregnancy by age 21, compared to 33% in the general population. Take this recent Midwest Study, a collaborative effort among the public child welfare agencies in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, as well as researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin. Trochtenberg said one way to improve the lives of foster youth would be removing them from housing that could increase their exposure to the virus. Debbie Raucher, director of education at John Burton Advocates for Youth, said her organization also advocates extending foster care during emergencies, dedicating a minimum 10% of what the state allots to homeless services reserved for foster. Trudy Festinger, head of the Department of Research at the New York University School of Social Work, determined that over 28 per cent of the children in state care had been abused while in the system. According to the University of Illinois, in cases of abuse or neglect in non-related foster f amily homes, the perpetrators were most often the foster parents. According to California child welfare officials, the state’s foster care system will take a big hit if federal Title IV-E waivers are allowed to expire at the end of September. During this step of the foster care adoption process in California, an additional disclosure meeting will be scheduled to learn more facts about the child. Rodriguez said some issues don’t require youth alerting adults to what they need, but just “common sense.” For example, foster children in group homes could see a higher risk of contracting the virus because of their exposure to staff and other adults who come and go every day from those facilities. They experience the initial trauma of abuse or chaos in their biological families, which is then compounded by the trauma of being placed in foster care, she explained. 75% of young women in foster care report at least one pregnancy by age 21, compared to 33% in the general population. Foster care refers to the system within a state that cares for minor children when it has been deemed by the court and a child protection agency that the minor's parents are unable to properly care for them. Many of those kids have no permanent placements lined up when they turn 18 and become homeless. “We’re currently working on ensuring every foster youth in high school has a Chromebook and a smartphone with unlimited data and hotspot capability.’. Foster youth in the state are encouraged to stay in care until age 21, rather than leave at 18, which helps give them greater stability and a chance to mature, Kniffen said. How Families Are Fighting Racism and Disability Discrimination. The foster care system, built on frequent movements of children from one home to another and regular in-person supervision, has been especially wracked with confusion and dread by the coronavirus crisis.. “Every family has different needs right now, and we don’t know what those needs are,” she said. As of the week of April 26, the office received an additional 45 such cases. And despite a push to house more children with relatives or foster families – which experts agree is  most optimal for these children – about a third of youth hadmost recently been in a group home or institutional setting. The foster care system problems, which have always existed, have become more apparent in an overcrowded system. “We’re not seeing that far too often,” Abrams said. Fostering the most vital safety net: The problems of, and potential fixes for, L.A.’s foster care system Too many children too easily fall through the cracks of society. Over 25% of Foster Care Teens will age out and become Homeless. 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