Everyday, there are countless children who end up on the streets of America. Many are considered runaways, while others simply suffer from very unfortunate circumstances. Half of these children are by themselves, and the others with parents or a guardian of some kind.

Those without adults are runaways or orphans, but in either case, they are in the foster system, meaning the state government has a say in their lives. Foster care is a system that places a minor into a ward, group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver referred to as a foster parent. The placement of the child is normally arranged through the government or a social-service agency.

As of September 2014, there have been approximately 415,129 children in the system.The numbers have increased by 4 percent since 2012. The goal is to provide a safe environment and care for the children, until they can be reunited with their birth family. The problem is that the foster care system is suppose to be a temporary living solution.

Unfortunately, children enter the system more than they leave. Instead, children stay in these agencies until they age out.  More than 20,000 kids will age out of the system, meaning they will be kicked out when they are 18, with no means of supporting themselves, and no life skills to function as an adult. Only an average 101,840 children are actually adopted.

This is only 1 in 184 children. Most people don’t want to foster or adopt because there is extensive paperwork and training involved; they don’t know how to interact with the children in foster care; they’re afraid the caseworker will judge them harshly; the children will go back to the parents, or it’s too expensive. More than 25 percent of children have faced abuse in this system, which undermines the government’s assertion that they can raise the children better than the parents.

I believe that the first principle of the child welfare system should be to do no harm.  The lives of children and families should be enhanced, not diminished, by the foster care experience.

Children are often placed without much thought given to the mental state of the child. Yes, a quick questionnaire is used to see if the child is injured, but unfortunately that is an unreliable system, because children experiencing abuse do not often reveal what is being done to them. They feel guilty and believe it’s their fault.

Children should receive a health evaluation shortly after, if not before, entering foster care to identify any immediate medical needs. Children should receive a thorough pediatric assessment within one month of entry. Children should also be assigned a consistent source of medical care to ensure that the care continues for them, and they  should receive ongoing developmental, educational, and emotional assessments.

Some children grow up in the system, so age appropriate care should be provided. Agencies should note that children after the age of 12 have completely different needs than younger children, so they face different challenges. Finally, foster parents should be trained on how to deal with the development of mentally scarred or abused children.

I believe there should be  transitional services and educational services that help foster children develop the skills needed to become adults, interact with their peers, and to make sure they can get as much education as possible.

States should provide adequate investments that fully implement their improvement plans. They should extend the flexibility of federal foster care funds by expanding and reauthorizing the number of waivers available to the system and revising outdated eligibility requirements.

More often than not, adoption courts have too many cases they take on, so they can’t truly hear everyone involved and make a decision in a timely fashion. I believe there should be a one-judge one-family approach: the judges only get a small number of foster or adoption cases and follow those cases thoroughly in order to make a good decision.

For children, the foster care experience is eminently painful. Not only are they dealing with the emotional and physical wounds inflicted by abuse and neglect, foster children must also contend with the emotionally wrenching experience of being removed from their homes and placed in foster care.

Far too often, foster care is not a time of healing for them. Rather, despite the best intentions of those who work within the system, many children experience foster care as damaging, confusing, and destabilizing.

In order to fix these problems, it’s going to take more than the state government. It will take the community, caseworkers, policy makers, and anyone who can provide a family, or emotional support for these children.