The nation’s foster care system has been especially overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic, with experts and state agencies saying more children are entering the system, and fewer families are willing to take them in for fear of spreading Covid-19.
Chicago has seen a 33 percent increase in the number of children in foster care. In Texas, children in foster care have reportedly contracted Covid-19 at nearly double the rate of the general population. And, in Los Angeles, kids in foster care are severely affected by learning loss.
“We’ve had kids that, during the pandemic, have been shuttled from foster placement to foster placement. Not for the child’s fault, but because the caregivers are concerned about Covid,” Lyndsey C. Wilson, CEO of First Star, a national nonprofit that supports children in foster care, tells NBC.
“Young people in the foster system aren’t there because they did something wrong,” Wilson added. “They’re there because of poverty sometimes. Because of their circumstances, young people can be put into the s
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