Pete Stark: “I rise to support important progress toward reforming our troubled child welfare system. Today, we can come one step…”

“I rise to support important progress toward reforming our troubled child welfare system. Today, we can come one step closer to fulfilling our promise to abused and neglected children that we will protect them, heal their wounds, and provide them with stable and loving homes. Anyone who has paid attention to the plight of our half a million foster children and the millions of former foster children should be angry at how miserably we have failed them. Once a child enters the system, we, the government, become their parents. Just like parents, we have a moral obligation to act in their best interests. Unfortunately, many foster children are cycled from placement to placement and school to school, over-medicated with psychotropic drugs, and kept apart from their siblings and other relatives who could provide them with support. Not surprisingly, former foster youth are not doing well. They are more likely to become homeless, incarcerated, disconnected from education and the workforce, or using drugs than nearly any other group of individuals. Perhaps most shockingly, these youth suffer from post traumatic stress disorder at rates comparable to Iraq war veterans. The ``Fostering Connections to Success Act'' allows us to turn our anger into action. This legislation will create permanency for thousands of children by providing Federal assistance to grandparents and relatives who care for a foster child.”