Children in limbo. Newspaper stories about child abuse usually end at the moment when a child is taken from her dangerous or neglectful parents. Most of us don’t pay much attention to what happens to those half a million children in foster care after they leave their homes. We don’t understand who decides when, and if, a child can ever return to her family again.
Six years ago, Congress passed a law designed to help kids move quickly out of foster care. It created a deadline for parents: clean up your act or lose your parental rights so your children can be adopted by someone else. Some say the law has helped to speed up adoptions, but critics claim that it is creating a whole new class of orphans, orphans whose parents are still alive.
Guests:
Shay Bilchik, CEO of Child Welfare League of America
Megan Waelvert, former foster child