May is National Foster Care Month. Did you know that? Has it gotten any publicity in your area? I sure haven’t seen much around here.

Foster Care Month originated in 1988 when the National Foster Parent Association persuaded then Senator Strom Thurmond to introduce a resolution to proclaim May as National Foster Care Month. The first President George Bush issued an annual proclamation during each year of his presidency which paved the way for state and local government to stand up and take notice. In the 1990’s, Foster Care Month focused more on the needs of older youth, particularly those about to age out of the system.

If you go onto the National Foster Care Month website you will find information on events in your state, a “tool kit” to help promotion foster care awareness, success stories and much more.

Here are some interesting facts about foster care.

• The average of a child in foster care is 10 years old.

• There were 513,000 children in foster care on September 30, 2005.

• The gender split is fairly equal. 52% of children in care are male and 48% female.

• African American children make up the highest percentage of children in care at 32%.

• The average stay of a child in foster care is 28.6 months.

• In 2005, 60% of foster children were adopted by their foster parents.

• 24% of children living in care are living with a relative (kinship care).

• Here’s the scariest one. In 2004 there were 153,000 foster homes. This includes kinship homes. That’s an average of 3.3 children per foster home.

With that kind of statistic, is it any wonder that foster parents are stressed out and over worked? If the average is 3.3 children per home, you know that there are homes with 5, 6, 7, or more children.

According to the National Foster Care Month website, there are several core messages to the campaign.

• The Magnitude

• The Need

• The Faces of Foster Care

• The Consequences

• The Priority

• The Future

• The Solution

• The Call to Action

Boy, those are some pretty big issues. They sum each message up in a few sentences, but I’m not sure I could sum each one up in a couple of pages.

The magnitude and need alone are worthy of a book each. Then there’s the faces of foster care. There are so many different children with so many different stories, and such varied backgrounds, how do you begin to sum that up?

According to the 2000 census the cities of Portland, Oregon and Fort Worth, Texas have a population similar to the amount of children in foster care. Imagine trying to convey the stories of the people in those cities.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the quick and easy solutions for any of these issues, but I do advocate for children. Anyone out there have the answers?


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