Fostering
Change Hope for the Foster Care System
BY HEATHER M. ROSS
new rule, proposed by the Administration for
Children and Families (ACF), aims to support keeping families
together through kinship care.

Rob Scheer remembers his
own trash bag from childhood
18 Washington FAMILY
MAY 2023
helps to build a positive self-image,”
explains Pam Hoehler, director of place-
ment services at Adoptions Together, in
Catonsville. “When children know their
roots, they feel a stronger sense of con-
nection to their culture and community
of origin and have a better sense of [self].”
The ACF rule would aff ect child wel-
fare agency licensing standards, revising
the defi nition of “foster family home” to
reduce licensing delays.

The sooner licensing can be com-
pleted, the more time children get with
people known to them or with loved ones.

The rule was proposed (on Feb. 14) to
help children stay closer with their fami-
lies and combat the risks associated with
living in the foster care system.

However, not everyone is optimis-
tic about the proposed regulation. Past
eff orts to support kinship care have had
mixed success.

“The system has never been worse,
but it’s never been better,” says Rob
Scheer, whose nonprofi t supports foster
families. “It’s the same thing they tried
to do before, but we don’t have enough
foster homes as is.”
Despite the positive change that
would come from keeping children
in homes with their kin, experts agree
that we cannot ignore the fact that the
foster care system is overburdened.

It’s important to get to the root of the
issue—the need for foster homes.

An Overburdened System
Scheer, who lives in Gaithersburg,
Maryland, is the founder of Comfort
Cases, an international nonprofi t based
in Rockville dedicated to bringing dignity
and hope to young people experiencing
foster care by providing backpacks fi lled
with personal care and comfort items for
the children.

Scheer has fi rsthand experience,
both as a child who experienced fos-
ter care and as a parent. He adopted
his children from foster care with his
husband, Reece.

“All fi ve of my children arrived carrying
the trash bag,” Scheer says, remember-
ing his own trash bag from childhood.

“It’s letting them know they don’t mat-
ter—that they’re disposable. These kids
deserve more than a trash bag.”
On a recent trip to Kansas, Scheer
says he saw three young girls sleeping
in the foster care offi ce because they
had no placements. This situation is not
All five of my children arrived carrying the
trash bag. It’s letting them know they don’t
matter — that they’re disposable. These
kids deserve more than a trash bag.

— ROB SCHEER
TRASHBAG: SMALLCHILD /ISTOCK; BACKGROUND: GOKCEMIM/DIGITALVISION VECTORS
BOY: JUANMONINO/E+//GETTY IMAGES PLUS; SCHEER COURTESY OF COMFORT CASES
ACF is a division of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS),
which reports the number of youth in
foster care has been on the rise every
year since 2012.

But the proposed rule would help
reduce the number of children in fos-
ter care by making it easier to connect
children with their “kin” — which HHS
defi nes as including people who are
related to the child by blood, marriage
or adoption, or who have an emotion-
ally signifi cant relationship to the child,
like godparents or close
family friends.

“When children are
placed with relatives/
kin, they can main-
tain a connection
to their roots,
which ulti-
mately



Foster Facts
Over half of all foster youth who aged
out of care were incarcerated within
two years (The Midwest Study)
Foster Resources
COMFORT CASES
Since Comfort Cases began its
work, the nonprofit has distributed
more than 200,000 backpacks
filled with new items like pajamas,
toothbrushes, lotions, books and
stuff ed animals.

Today, Scheer keeps a trash bag
with him to remind himself where he
came from and how far society has
to go with how children are treated.

Learn how to get involved locally at
comfortcases.org. ONE SIMPLE WISH
One Simple Wish is a national
nonprofit based in Trenton, New
Jersey, that supports children in
foster care by granting wishes,
including requests for tangible items
like bicycles, school supplies and
experiences. In 2021/2022, it helped grant 22,706
wishes, including 7,728 wishes for
essential items and 2,796 wishes
for education. Founder and foster
mother Danielle Gletow hopes to
grant 1 million wishes before 2024.

onesimplewish.org AFC KINSHIP CARE
For additional information on the
proposed change, contact Kathleen
McHugh, director of the policy
division of the Children’s Bureau, at
202-401-5789 or at cbcomments@
acf.hhs.gov. Find updates on the proposal at acf.

hhs.gov/cb/policy-guidance/im2302. WashingtonFAMILY.com
19 PHOTO COURTESY OF COMFORT CASES: GRAPHIC: POPSAARTS/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS
of work over the last 40 years mak-
ing eff orts to improve the well-being of
children. Christopher is known for her
work infusing holistic health and diver-
sity concepts into public programs and
policy discussion.

Christopher is also the executive
director of the National Collaborative
for Health Equity, a D.C.-based national
organization that promotes health equity
by using data and developing leaders.

Recently, Christopher released her
book “Rx Racial Healing,” which she
says is a guide for facilitators to teach
racial healing in colleges, groups,
institutions and communities.

As of 2019, HHS reported that of all
the children in foster care, 23% of them
were Black or African American. For
comparison, Black or African American
children make up 14% of the total child
population of the United States.

According to Christopher, this dispar-
ity exists because of the historic belief in
a false hierarchy of human value, which
has “decimated families of color.”
Christopher says this is where data
analysis comes in. By using data and
statistics, she says, we can examine the
disproportionate dissolution of fami-
lies, helping to identify unconscious or
implicit biases.

The issue of drugs like opiates being
marketed disproportionately to low-in-
come communities is one way this bias
manifests, according to Christopher.

She also stresses the need for a living
wage and aff ordable housing, because
when parents are having to work
three jobs to pay rent, there isn’t time
for much else.

In August, nearly half a million
Americans were working multiple full-
time positions according to The U.S.

Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Whether it’s changes that open
up more avenues to children—
such as the kinship rule—or
Only 3% of foster youth go on to graduate
addressing the need for foster
from college (Annie E. Casey Foundation)
care, Christopher says more
can be done.

Adults who have been in foster care suff er PTSD
“Children need and deserve
at twice the rate of combat veterans
love,” she says. “We as a
(Annie E. Casey Foundation)
society must fi nd a way to
Nearly a quarter of all foster youth who aged out
show that love. In the foster
of care were homeless after exiting the system
care system and the policies
(The Midwest Study)
we create.” 1
unique, he says. It’s actually incredibly
commonplace, and it happens all over
the country.

Data collected by the HHS in 2016
showed Washington, D.C. had nearly
1,200 children in foster care. Virginia
currently has more than 5,400 children
in its foster care system, with more than
700 awaiting foster families, according
to UMFS, a statewide nonprofi t with
a location in Alexandria. UMFS reports
a 37% decrease of approved foster
families statewide.

The Baltimore Sun reported in 2019
that nearly 1,700 children in Baltimore
were in foster care. More recent data
suggests many don’t have proper place-
ments. An update from The Baltimore
Banner last year confi rmed some fos-
ter children were living in hotels or
spending nights in a commercial offi ce
building downtown.

A sizeable portion of children in
foster care were removed from their
homes due to neglect, which Scheer says
actually comes from poverty.

Neglect is the most common reason
for children to enter the child welfare
system, being responsible for entry in
76% of cases, according to the Anne E.

Casey Foundation, a charity focused on
improving the lives of young people at
risk for poor educational, economic and
social outcomes.

“Neglect is, in many cases, a lack of
resources,” says Gail C. Christopher.

Christopher was one of 10 recip-
ients for the 2023 Casey Excellence
for Children Awards, for her lifetime