New Law Will Mean More Older Foster Youth Can Have Families Like Mine
October 23, 2008
Andrew Klabo, North Dakota
In North Dakota, there are 1,331 children and young people in foster care. More than a third of them will move three or more times while in foster care – from home to home, school to school, and neighborhood to neighborhood. Some will keep moving from place to place for years, until they finally age out of foster care with no home to return to and no family to depend upon.
I know firsthand the difference that having a permanent family can make because I was adopted from foster care when I was 10. Tim and Pam Klabo, my adoptive parents, gave me the love and encouragement I needed to graduate from high school earlier this year. My dad taught me everything - how to play football, how to hunt, and how to treat others well. Because of their support, I know I can achieve anything I want to. Before them, a lot of people didn’t believe in me—they thought I would end up an alcoholic or a drug user.
A new law passed by Congress and signed by the President, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, will make it possible for more children in North Dakota and across the United States to leave the uncertainty of foster care for safe, permanent families like I did. This new bill is the most important federal foster care reform in more than 10 years.
The law will help children—especially older youth and children with special needs—leave foster care for adoptive families. It will help other children leave care to live permanently with their grandparents or other relatives.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act also requires states to do their best to keep brothers and sisters together in foster care and, when that doesn’t work, to make sure they can stay in touch with each other. I was separated from my brother and sister in foster care, and I missed them a lot. My parents made sure we stayed in touch, and all siblings should have this chance.
My parents all understand the importance of keeping brothers and sisters together. Three years ago, they adopted siblings, Scotty, now six, and Crystal, eight. Scotty and Crystal are now my brother and sister, too. They came to every one of my football and basketball games, and I like being their older brother.
I have met many other kids who aren’t as lucky as me and Scotty and Crystal. There are 127,000 children in foster care across the country who are still waiting to be adopted. Worse yet, in 2006, a record number of 26,000 youth aged out of the foster care system completely on their own, with no family to rely on. I can only imagine what my life would be like if the Klabos hadn’t adopted me and I had no one to turn to.
All children in foster care deserve a family to love, nurture, and care for them the way my parents have done for my brother and sister and me. More children in foster care need to share the love of family that I found with my parents. I am thankful to the North Dakota members of Congress for their support of this law. I know for sure it will help create more families like mine.
