Dusty Johnson: “As we approach this holiday season of Thanksgiving, I want to draw attention to National Adoption Month as we celebrate…”

“As we approach this holiday season of Thanksgiving, I want to draw attention to National Adoption Month as we celebrate it this month. I am joining my colleagues on the Congressional Coalition for Adoption this month to increase awareness and knowledge of the obstacles that children in foster care face while waiting to be adopted and to encourage more families to consider adopting. Currently, there are 580,000 children in the foster care system in America, 126,000 of whom are waiting to be adopted. Yet, only 20 to 25 percent of foster children waiting for adoption will ever find an adoptive family before aging out of government care. The foster care system has been extremely important in rescuing abused and neglected children. However, the foster care system was designed to be a temporary situation, but it is increasingly becoming a permanent guardian for many children. This is particularly true for children who are not adopted in their early years or who find themselves in foster care at an older age. Of the 126,000 children waiting to be adopted approximately half are 9 years of age or older. Every year an average of 100 children in South Dakota, and 25,000 children nationally, age out of the foster care system at the age of 18, often with very little if any support system in pace. These children often face the challenges of homelessness, college noncompletion, unemployment, and a lack of health care.”