The Statistics…

Life for a foster child is difficult. Through no fault of their own, many foster teens suffer behavioral problems due to family drug abuse, violence, and divided families. Too often they experience abandonment and must change schools and attachments with each move.  Adoption is an unlikely option for teens; the older a child gets and the longer they stay in foster care the less likely they are to be adopted. National statistics which also reflect New Mexico indicate:

• Twenty seven percent (27%) of the homeless population spent time in foster care.

• Fifty-eight percent (58%) of all young adults accessing federally funded youth shelters in 1997 had previously been in foster care.

• Less than half of former foster youth are employed 2.5-4 years after leaving foster care, and only 38% have maintained employment for at least one year.

• Youth in foster care are 44% less likely to graduate from high school and after emancipation, 40 – 50 percent never complete high school.

• Girls in foster care are six times more likely to give birth before the age of 21 than the general population.

• Sixty percent (60%) of women who emancipate from foster care become parents within 2.5-4 years after exiting care.

• Parents with a history of foster care are almost twice as likely as parents with no such history to see their own children placed in foster care or become homeless.

• By age 19, nearly half of young women in foster care have been pregnant, compared to a fifth of their peers not in foster care.
  
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