Put Your Advocacy Into Action

Thank you for supporting a family's right to stay together. Please sign and share this petition everywhere, call or write to your US Representatives, and call or write the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Please see sample talking points below.

Let us join together to stop the travesty once and for all!

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{Dear ________________}?

I have an urgent matter I would like to spotlight involving proven measures to reduce child neglect, child abuse, and child trafficking in America.? Every 10 minutes in the US, a child is forcibly separated from their loving, nonabusive family and placed into foster care. The reason? The family lacked access to food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or childcare.?

Did you know that over 70% of the youth in foster care could have safely remained with their biological family had the biological family received basic support services? [AFCARS Report FY 2022] -The #1 reason a child or young adult is placed into state care is because of Neglect (poverty) without abuse -Neglect (poverty) is “defined as the failure of a parent or other person with responsibility for the child to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision to the degree that the child's health, safety, and well-being are threatened with harm” [childwelfare.gov] -Current US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) protocols are to remove children from their biological homes and place them in state care should the biological home lack access to food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or affordable childcare -The US Department of Health and Human Services offers programs to help homes that lack access to food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or childcare, yet these programs are often not offered to biological families in need -In addition to governmental social services programs, nonprofits receive federal grants to help provide social services in their communities -Despite knowledge of existing support systems for families who need support, HHS protocols are to remove children/youth from their homes and place them into state care

You may already know the heartbreaking statistics regarding the 400,000 you in foster care in the US.?The list is long.

• A child enters into foster care every 2 minutes in the US
• Currently, there are ~400,000 youth in the US foster care system?
• The number of licensed foster homes has dropped every year since 2019, when it was just over 220,000, and now stands at 195,404 (as of 12/4/23)
• 1 in 3 foster youth experience abuse in out-of-home placements
• 60% of child sex trafficking victims are or have been in foster care
• Over 10% of children who go missing from foster care or group homes aren't reported to law enforcement with the average age of unreported children being 15 years old
• Foster youth suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at a rate twice that of a war veteran
• Adolescents who have been in foster care are nearly four times more likely to have attempted suicide
• On average, children in foster care move every five months?
• Only 50% of foster youth complete a ?high school degree or GED, 2 to 6 percent earn a two-year degree, and 3 to 4 percent earn a four-year degree
• 50% of girls in foster care become pregnant by the age of 19, with roughly a third of 17-year-old girls in the system currently pregnant
• Teen mothers in foster care are more than eleven times more likely to lose custody than other teen mothers within one week of giving birth, over the rest of the baby’s first year of life, teen foster mothers are more than three times more likely to lose custody, and between children's first and second birthdays, they still had more than twice the odds of losing custody
• 50% of teen moms in foster care lose custody of babies before their second birthday
• 7 out of 10 girls who age out of the foster care system will become pregnant before the age of 21
• Children in foster care are far more likely to change schools during the school year, to be in special education classes, and to fail to receive passing grades than their general population counterparts
• Over 40% of school-aged children in foster care have educational difficulties
• ~25,000 youth age out of the foster care system each year
• After reaching the age of 18, 20% of the children who were in foster care will become instantly homeless
• 25% of former foster youth experience homelessness within 4 years of aging out
• 50% of the unhoused population in the US are former foster youth
• 70% of former foster care youth are arrested at least once before age 26
• 1 of every 5 prison inmates experienced foster care
• ~80% of death row inmates spent time in foster care
• Only 1 out of every 2 foster youth who age out of the system will have some form of gainful employment by the age of 24And on and on

The consequences of forced family separation are far-reaching; not just for the families involved, but for the generational trauma that is passed down as well. This practice also causes undue strain on an underfunded, understaffed child welfare system and utilizes resources needed for youth who do need state care.

Study after study shows that the #1 way to prevent child neglect and child abuse is to provide families with social support services. Not necessarily direct cash payments, but healthy food, seasonal clothing, help with housing, medical and behavioral healthcare, and quality affordable childcare. Here are just a few examples from one such study, Chapin Hall's?Economic and Concrete Supports An Evidence-based Service for Child Welfare Prevention: -Every $1 increase in minimum wage is associated with a 9.6% drop in Child Protective Services (CPS) reports -If non-expansion states had expanded Medicaid, there would have been almost 125,000 fewer screened-in neglect referrals -Childcare subsidies could lead to a 16% drop in neglect reports -Providing housing vouchers and case management could lead to 31% fewer removals of children from their homes -By increasing state public benefit levels for a family of 4 by 10%, it's predicted that foster care placements could be reduced by 8% -Federal expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), is associated with a 7.3% decrease in foster care entries per year -Every 5% increase in the number of families receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits was associated with an 8% to 14% reduction in ---Child Protective Services (CPS) and foster care caseloads

As a children and families and foster youth advocate for over 3 decades, I am advocating for the immediate passage of H.R.5028 - Family Poverty is Not Child Neglect Act. It is a bill that will not only greatly help to keep America's children safe and at home with their biological families but will cut the number of youth entering foster care each year by 70% (yes, 70%!), keep vulnerable children out of the grip of predators, improve mental, emotional and physical health outcomes, raise high school and secondary education graduation rates, diversify the educated workforce, reduce crime and prison populations, reduce unwanted pregnancy and abortion, stem the tide of those finding themselves unhoused, greatly reduce poverty rates if followed with the proper supports to biological families, and more. Yet, it has languished in the Committee on Education and the Workforce since it was referred on 1/28/21 and then reintroduced on 7/27/23.

A loving family is forcibly separated every 10 minutes in the US. HR5028 will stop this practice.

I would love to hear your thoughts and perspective on forcible child separation and HR5028. I look forward to your direct response.

Read HR5028 Here

Sources: AFCARS, Child Welfare Information Gateway, US Department of Health and Human Services, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Bureau of Justice Statistics, Chapin Hall, Imprint News, Reuters

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Regards,

{Your Name}