Welcome back to the show.
There's nothing more important than family.
Families provide us with love, joy, and a chance to go viral
when your kid does something stupid.
"Don't you use these for your butt?"
"Ya do use this. Sometimes. The other days. So you still want a pack of em?"
"Put it back."
I'm a mom and even I got scared when she said, "put it back."
Sadly, not every child is lucky enough to have a stable home,
which is why we have foster care.
It's to protect children from real harm,
not "fun" harm like making them pose for
themed Christmas cards.
But the system is in serious trouble due to overcrowding.
The number of children living in foster care increased by
at least twelve percent between and ,
due in part to nationwide problems like the opioid crisis.
It's hard on kids and a burden for an overwhelmed system.
Even the most generous foster parents can't meet the need.
For Olivia Schwarzott and her husband."
"Since they've opened their Blasdell home to children.
“ of them now have a permanent place to call home with them.
Running out of space, the family is no longer accepting placements.
Olivia says it's been a tough decision”.
“There were days we would get multiple calls throughout the day.”
“There is a foster placement crisis all over the country.”
Even the most generous foster parents can't meet the need.
That's how caring most foster parents are
they took in over a dozen kids and only stopped
when they ran out of space.
By comparison, I had three kids and then I paid to have my vagina paved over.
It's so mannequin smooth down there, you could play street ball on it.
But the overcrowding doesn't just come from children facing real neglect.
Plenty of kids placed in foster care don't actually belong there.
"On any given day in New York State,
a black child is five times more likely
than a white child to be in foster care."
"When a call comes in for a white community,
they go out and investigate.
If a call comes in, and it's from a community of color,
they'll put the infant car seat in the car."
That fact is so racist it briefly got hired at SNL.
Racism in the foster care system is a huge problem,
and not just in New York.
In New Jersey, black children make up %
of kids entering foster care, despite being only %
of the population. In some parts of Texas,
black children were times more likely
to be removed from their homes than white kids.
times more likely!
That stat is so racist, it did Gold Digger at karaoke
and just sang the N-word.
Across the board,
poor and non-white families are far more likely
to have their children taken away.
Like Laura Browder, who was arrested for child abandonment.
Laura says she just moved to Houston
and had lined up an interview for a job.
Unfortunately, she says she didn't have time
to arrange childcare for six-year-old Laylani and two-year-old Jeremiah.
Her interview was at the Memorial City Mall, so she
decided to leave her kids at the food court
while she says she walked feet to the job interview
taking place at a Starbucks."
It's not abusive to make your kids go to the mall.
It's only abusive to make your kids watch Minutes,
or at least that's what my kids tell me. Every week.
It's good for you!
Browder wasn't neglecting her kids.
She was trying to get a job to help her family
while her kids were nearby.
Finding a job is already super stressful,
especially when the interviewer
asks you where you see yourself in years
and you accidentally say,
"Dancing with the Stars, I guess?"
Statistically, it's the truth, but you shouldn't say it out loud.
Taking away kids from black parents trying to find work
doesn't help families,
it just leaves them feeling like there's no way to win.
"My daughter would fall and maybe twist her arm or something,
and I'd take her to the Emergency,
and a call would be placed asking questions of me
as to how this truly happened."
"At Joyce's weekly support group meeting,
we met other parents who felt the same way."
"How many of you think you were judged
more harshly than white parents
when the decision was made to put your children in foster care?"
Okay, now raise your other hand if you think
that's the dumbest question you've ever heard.
Placing kids in foster care for the crime
of their parents being black doesn't just hurt those parents.
Believe it or not, it’s also very traumatic for their kids.
"When kids are removed from the home,
it's a traumatic situation. We oftentimes
have kids that are sitting here at our office building
for hours at a time, while we search for a foster parent
who is willing to take them."
The act of placing children in foster care
can cause lasting pain, so we should limit it only to cases
where it's absolutely necessary,
like we would with getting surgery
or listening to a friend's podcast.
that you don't dismiss it out of hand.
The good news is that, thanks to a new bipartisan law
passed last year, we're taking steps to improve the foster care system.
“The bill includes the Family First Prevention Services Act,
another bill originally introduced by Senator Wyden
and myself to strengthen families
and reduce inappropriate foster care placements."
Okay, I know watching Orrin Hatch speak is mind-numbingly boring.
But what he's saying is incredible, so to help you pay attention,
we've added something to spice it up.
“This legislation will help keep more children
safely with their families instead of placing them with foster care.
Under this bill, states will be able to fund
effective services that have been shown to prevent children
from entering foster care. it will also encourage states
to place children with foster families instead of in group homes.
And it will reduce the bureaucracy faced by relatives
who seek to take in children rather than have them end up in foster care.”
How cool is that?
Not just the skateboarding bulldog, which is obviously rad as balls.
But Democrats and Republicans actually cooperated
to pass a law that helps protect children and keep families together.
This law is a great start.
But no law can fix racism,
and no law can fix overcrowding.
We can do better.
Across the country,
there's a shortage of foster parents.
We need more people who are willing to provide safe,
caring homes for children who need one.
CPS workers and others who work with kids
need better training to avoid racial biases.
And most importantly, we should provide families
with resources they need from the very beginning.
Things like universal childcare, and
employment and housing services, and
parental leave.
Right DJ Barky Bark?
You guys can see him, right?
We'll be right back.