My wife and I have been fostering for about 6 years now, and the problems just seem to be getting worse. There are just so many kids out there that have nothing and no one to help them...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 100,000 children who have been abused or neglected by their biological parents are languishing in foster care, waiting to be adopted. The explanations are practically universal, with nearly every state facing the same problems in running its child welfare agency, a report finds.

Among the problems: Agencies and courts are reluctant to terminate the legal rights of biological parents, and states have trouble finding adoptive parents, particularly for older kids, kids with siblings, children with behavior problems and black kids.

The report was commissioned by a coalition of nonprofits groups and companies that support National Adoption Day, designated as Saturday. The research was done by the Urban Institute, a think tank that focuses on social issues.

"It is our hope that with this new research, states can learn from each other," said Rita Soronen, executive director of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, one of the sponsors.

The report uses data from the Child and Family Service Reviews -- detailed and rigorous examinations of each state's child welfare system used to evaluate each state's system for protecting children from abuse and neglect.

Overall, not one state has passed the new tests. Seven states were in compliance with two of seven main standards, and 20 states plus the District of Columbia were in compliance with one of them. Twenty-three states failed all seven.

Wednesday's report focuses on the data surrounding adoption. In this case, just six states have met standards -- making sufficient effort to finalize adoptions and moving kids quickly into new homes.

At the same time, adoption rates have gone up in recent years, noted Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families in the Department of Health and Human Services. Still, he said, more must be done.

"There continues to be unfortunate barriers to adopting kids out of foster care," he said.

The new report analyzed detailed state data for trends that might explain why so many states have problems getting foster children adopted.

It found several. Among them:


Forty-eight states said they had trouble terminating the legal rights of biological parents, which must be done before an adoption can go through. Courts must approve these requests.


Sometimes parents didn't get services they were supposed to, like substance abuse counseling, and courts are loath to cut them off legally from their children until they have a chance to put their lives together. Other times an agency doesn't want to create a "legal orphan" by removing the biological parent if an adoptive parent has not been found.


Forty-seven states said they have trouble recruiting adoptive parents. This is particularly true for children who must be placed in sibling groups, who are older or who have behavior problems. It's also tough to place black children in homes, particularly if the agency is trying to find a black home for black children.


Forty-three states report trouble with staffing. This includes high turnover of staff, which requires new workers to start from the beginning; large caseloads; insufficient training; lack of communication with courts and incomplete records.
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Awwwww.

This is why I want to adopt my kids.

It's a really sad state the system is in, and I should add a lot of parents as well.

It seem quite alarming because who are the kids look up to if they are left alone. This will create further problems in the future as an other generation of abused childs will generate from the first.

There is some answers I would like to present, they should try the concept some asian countries have used international adoption, it works well in China. More adoption privilege for homosexual couples, it should be adapted in more states. Also readaptation of the parents, if they could direct some more money to social issues, maybe it would lower the rate of brutalized kids.

It would prevent an other generation to feel as left out as the prior.

Poor kids, it really makes you sit up and realise how lucky you are when you have a loving family and great parents, but hopefully when I`m older I can help out as many kids as possible, its the right thing to do, these kids deserve to have a happy childhood just like I have and all my friends have had.
This world we live in, can really sicken you sometimes!

That sucks. Poor kids. I hope some of them find some homes

A very sad story, Fluffy. Lets hope that the kids awaiting adoption are happy in their foster homes especially as there are people like you waiting to give them love and support.
Fostering is an issue close to my heart too, we're waiting to be passed for fostering Deaf children, they can only be fostered to familys that sign. My 2 children are practising they're signing every day as we all have to prove we can comunicate adaquately with a Deaf child.

Statistics like these break my heart. Kudos to you both Fluffy and Halo. Kids need more champions like you

That ain't right.....hmm wonder why there are sooooo many though?? I thought everyone loves kids? but some cultures even forbid to adopt kids!

yes please people adopt if it werent for my mom id be stuck in some group home in china my birth mom was 16 years old when she had me and too poor to affored to take care of me and of course the father was long gone

My roomate's birth mother was a 14-year-old rape victim. He and another girl were a adopted by a single lady who did not have much money but she had alot of love to give.

My parents fostered a little black boy when I was pretty young. His mom was addicted to crack and was homeless. He was living in a group home in Grundy, Virginia where our church used to voluteer around Christmas time. Our whole family fell in love with David so we fostered him for about a year. We wanted to adopt the little bugger so bad but his mom would not give him up. At one point she completed rehab, moved into a halfway house and wanted David back. So he was taken out of our home and put in supervised custody of his mother. She fell off the wagon about 6 mos latter and David went back to the home but was not able to come back to our family. It was very hard for our family because we loved him so much. My mom decided that she could not go through that again so we did not foster anymore children.

I would like to foster in my home but it is hard for a single person working long hours to get permission in my county.

Edit: **removed horrible comment**

I'm sorry, but that was just about the most thoughtless and crass post I have read since being here, and that is saying something...

That was a pretty crass statement. I thought I was just misunderstanding it. Guess not though.

Aaaawww Fluffy and Halo, I think it's great that you're doing what you're doing. I unfortunately can't, or should I say won't, so I'm trying to save the world one animal at a time. Sorry, but I've never been a kid person. I'm so glad that the kids have found people like you. You're wisdom and kindness will be handed down to the next generation and I thank you for that.