There is probably not a more common image associated with the downsides of foster care than a trash bag full of kids’ belongings. This is captured beautifully in the digital artwork “Moving Day,” created by artist and former foster youth Karl Wyatt (click here for The Imprint Weekly Podcast’s interview with him).
It speaks to the cold nature in which some youth have their connection to family uprooted. Or, for youth already in the system, how they are sometimes packed up and shipped off to a new placement with little notice.
Two states, Maryland and Oregon, have recently passed legislation to require the provision of luggage for youth in foster care. Texas did the same, but went a step further: it is actually making its child welfare agency, the Department of Family and Protective Services, track the provision of luggage and all instances in which trash bags are used despite this law, a rather refreshing attempt at accountability.
Among the findings from the first annual report on this law:
Nearly 12,000 pieces of luggage were acquired to provide to foster youth, the majority of them purchased by the department with just under 5,000 donated.
The department documented 62 instances in which a trash bag was used to transport a youth in foster care’s personal belongings.
For anyone interested in the full report, you can check that out here.
