Kids Are Waiting E-Update - March 2007

Kids Are Waiting - New Campaign and Report

Welcome to the Kids Are Waiting e-update. Kids Are Waiting: Fix Foster Care Now is a national, nonpartisan campaign dedicated to ensuring that all children in foster care have the safe, permanent families they deserve by reforming the federal financing structure that governs our nation's foster care program. Led by The Pew Charitable Trusts, Kids Are Waiting is a collaboration of leading advocacy, child welfare and other organizations promoting federal foster care financing reform.

The campaign launched on February 6, 2007, and released a report entitled, "Time for Reform: Fix the Foster Care Lookback," which highlights one particularly nonsensical and counterproductive federal provision to illustrate the urgent need for broader federal financing reform. The report documents how the outdated "lookback" policy is contributing to a national decline in the number of children eligible for federal foster care support– an estimated 35,000 fewer in 2005 alone.

Kids Are Waiting has also produced state fact sheets highlighting information about the more than 500,000 children waiting in foster care.

Messages regarding the release of upcoming reports and events will be sent out as e-updates.

Please visit www.kidsarewaiting.org for information about the campaign, its partners and how to get involved.