Aging Out

[talon]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/226777

You know what? A lot of the children I fostered were older teens - 17, 18, and up - I took care of them through their college years until they were able to care for themselves and I provided a holiday home for them. Of course, I didn't go through the official foster system, I just seemed to collect children abandoned by their own parents, and given how old they were when I got them, it wasn't worth the paperwork and the long-drawn out process to make them official foster children. By the time the paperwork was done, most of them would have already aged out of the system. It was so much easier to just give these kids a safe place to sleep, food, clothes, books, papers, transportation, and help them apply for colleges and help them settle in to their dorms, and be their permanent mailing address and home away from college and emergency contact in case they got sick or hurt (my fostering days were mostly pre-internet, otherwise I would have added computer access). None of that cost very much and most of it cost nothing at all.

I can't imagine abandoning a child I cared for just because they reached a certain age and I wasn't receiving Social Security or state or federal foster money for them any more. What's the point of fostering a child if all you do is abandon it?

OK, I know some foster parents are in it just for the money, but surely not all of them are?