Foster Care Continuing Opportunities Act

Mr. President, today I wish to recognize National Foster Care Month, an effort to raise awareness about our responsibility to support the more than half a million children across the Nation who are living in foster care. I would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the dedicated adoptive parents who provide these vulnerable youth with the permanent families they deserve.

Having a family is vitally important to foster youth like JoJo Carbonell, from my home State of California. When she was in school, JoJo had to ask her teacher to excuse her from the assignment to make a family tree because she didn't know any of her relatives except her birth mother and her sisters. For JoJo, one of the most important reasons that she is now successful and stable is her foster parent, Sue Crowley. From Sue, JoJo learned the importance of family and began to develop heartfelt traditions she will carry with her forever. As JoJo grew older, she and Sue decided to become a permanent family through adoption.

I am proud of California's success in finalizing more than 66,500 adoptions of children from foster care between 2000 and 2006, but sadly many foster youth are never united with a permanent, stable family.

For Priscilla Davis, who ``aged out'' after spending 3 years at nine different placements in California's foster care system, having a family would mean having someone she could call if she is having a problem; having a family would mean there is someone to catch her if she makes a mistake; having a family would mean someone to call if something wonderful happens.

Unfortunately, Priscilla is one of about 4,000 foster youth in California, and more than 20,000 youth nationwide who emancipate, or ``age out'' of foster care every year without ever finding a permanent family or establishing a relationship with an adult who will love, support, and guide them.

A recent report by Kids Are Waiting and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative found that while the total number of children in foster care has declined, the number of young people aging out of foster care has increased 41 percent since 1998.

Last year, I introduced the Foster Care Continuing Opportunities Act, S. 1512, which would extend Federal funding to those States that try to provide services that help foster youth transition to adulthood. Right now, the future for foster youth when they are emancipated is often bleak. In California, about 65 percent of emancipated youth face homelessness, less than 3 percent go to college, and 51 percent are unemployed.

While extending support for these services at a Federal level could make

an extraordinary difference in the success of these youth in transitioning to adulthood, the best way for us to ensure these youth find the families they deserve is to reauthorize the Federal Adoption Incentive Program.

The Adoption Incentive Program encourages States to find foster children like JoJo and Priscilla permanent homes through adoption, with an emphasis on finding adoptive homes for special needs children and foster children over the age of 9. This important program must be renewed before it expires on September 30 this year.

I urge my colleagues to celebrate National Foster Care Month by supporting these important efforts to ensure that the Federal Government meets its responsibility to care for these youth--not just their future, but the future of our Nation depends on it.

Mr. President, in recognition of May as National Foster Care Month, I want to extend my personal thanks to all of the families in Washington State and throughout our country who have adopted children from the Nation's foster care system. Foster children, through no fault of their own, face unique challenges in attaining permanent, loving homes. We can all agree that, regardless of background, all children in our country deserve to have a safe, loving home and the opportunity to pursue their dreams.

In 2005, almost 1,200 of Washington's children left foster care to join adoptive families--but that same year more than 2000 foster children in Washington were still waiting to be adopted. They had to wait an average of over 3 years to find adoptive families. Vulnerable children should not have to wait so long for the safe, permanent families that all children need.

The Federal Adoption Incentive Program, a program first enacted by Congress in 1997, plays an important role in encouraging adoption. The program provides States like Washington with incentive payments for adoptions that exceed an established baseline and includes additional incentives for adoptions of older foster children and children with special needs. Between 2000 and 2006, the Adoption Incentive Program helped 5,700 children in Washington's foster care system join adoptive families.

I am also pleased to support the Kinship Caregiver Act, introduced by Senator Clinton in February 2007. The Kinship Caregiver Support Act is intended to assist the millions of children who are being raised by their grandparents and other relatives because their parents are not able to care for them. Among other things, this important legislation would establish a Kinship Navigator Program to help link relative caregivers to a broad range of services and supports that they need for their children and themselves.

I join my colleagues in the Senate in paying tribute to the many prospective and veteran adoptive families, and I look forward to pursuing reforms that support children in foster care.