© 2024 KALW 91.7 FM Bay Area
KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Your Call

Your Call: What will it take to improve the foster care system?

Photo Courtesy: fpafoundation.org

  

Half a million children live in foster care in the US. More than 100,000 are waiting to be adopted. The good news is that attitudes toward foster children are changing. Growing numbers of people who want to adopt say they’d consider adopting a foster child, according to a survey conducted for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

The bad news is that foster children in California, some as young as eight, end up in the criminal justice system for behavior that would get other kids a time out, according to a San Francisco Chronicle investigation. What will it take to change this and ensure foster kids are given real opportunities?  

Guests: 

Karen de Sa, investigative reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle 

Jennifer Rodriguez, executive director of the Youth Law Center

Rita Soronen,  president of The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

Web Resources:

San Francisco Chronicle: Dubious Arrests, Damaged Lives: How shelters criminalize hundreds of children

The Washington Post: New attitudes toward adoption from foster care offer hope

The New York Times:  Foster Care as Punishment:The New Reality of ‘Jane Crow’

Rose Aguilar has been the host of Your Call since 2006. She became a regular media roundtable guest in 2001. In 2019, the San Francisco Press Club named Your Call the best public affairs program. In 2017, The Nation named it the most valuable local radio show.