Foster Care Population Drops Sharply in California  Chart showing the decline in foster care populations in California. Via Kids Data From the San Francisco Chronicle (MCT)  -- California has seen drastic decreases in the number of children in foster care in the past decade, but child advocates say the need for high-quality foster parents remains high. Since 2000, California has reduced the number of kids in foster care from 103,501 to 55,218, a 47 percent drop driven by policies that emphasize keeping families together when possible and, when not, increasing permanent placements. Four Bay Area counties were among the state's leaders in slashing the number of foster kids, with Alameda dropping 66 percent, Santa Clara 61 percent, San Francisco 59 percent and Contra Costa 54 percent. That's 7,300 fewer kids in foster care in those four counties compared with 12 years ago. California - which has the country's largest foster-care population - far outpaced the 27 percent decline seen nationally. What about the rest of the world? The demands of this world are great and even greater with children to raise. Foster parents are available but finding and retaining dedicated loving caregivers is a problem. Perhaps we take advantage of available free parenting classes at our local recreation centers. Maybe join the PTA or start community youth events catered towards foster child and future foster care parents. These are just a few actions to help keep current foster parents from being complacent and also prepare future foster care parents for their new additions. All these things collectively could help lower the number of children in foster on a global level. "It takes a village to raise a child" The meaning of this proverb is simply that. It takes more than one person to teach a child the ways of life. A child comes upon many different experiences and circumstances during their life and often times, is taught by someone else the right and wrong thing to do.
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