foster care reform

Ezra Spitzer is executive director of the New Mexico Child Advocacy Network (NMCAN), which recently saw its bill offering incentives to employers to hire foster youth signed into law. Prior to joining NMCAN, Spitzer spent two years in the Peace Corps in post-Soviet Uzbekistan.

Over the past four years, California has undertaken a colossal effort to “reform” the state’s foster care system. Much has been written about this initiative, so I won’t dive into the details.

The clock was ticking long before the 2014 death of five-year-old Jeremiah Oliver from Fitchburg, Mass. It began in 2010 when a nonprofit litigation firm filed a class action lawsuit aimed at reforming the Massachusetts foster care system.

In the summer of 2012, the State Legislature enacted Senate Bill 1013 which mandated that the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) launch a broad-based, stakeholder process to determine how to reform California’s foster care system.

The hotel ballroom in downtown Sacramento was packed. Nearly two hundred youth and child welfare professionals had gathered for an evening of performances by current and former foster youth. When it was her turn at the microphone, fifteen-year-old Sade Daniels noticed that the lively tenor of the crowd, amped up from the preceding musical performance, dissipated as it was announced that Sade would be performing an original poem.

The report highlights several areas where the U.S. Congress might work to reduce the number of children living without families in the U.S. and abroad. Click here to read the report.