Kids do best with the support of a loving family. As our child welfare system develops strategies to help our most vulnerable children, it has a number of opportunities to provide kids with supportive families. One is to help families that are living in precarious circumstances by providing the supports they need to care for their children in a safe and stable environment.
When a child does need to be removed from her immediate family, she can be placed with a grandparent or other member of the extended family (called kinship care). Finally, the state can seek to recruit more foster parents who can provide good homes to children who would otherwise have to live in group homes or other institutional settings.
The infographic below shows that Massachusetts is below the national average in giving children who are in the child welfare system the opportunity to live with members of their extended family.
This contributes to more kids leaving the system (aging-out) without the support of a permanent family. And unfortunately, when kids age-out without this support they are less likely to finish high school and more likely to end up homeless or even in jail.
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