What We Do
Permanence for Every Child. We will defend the basic right of a child to have a permanent family.
Specific Legal Services. The Children's Law Center of Washington, PS (CLCW) will provide free and low-cost legal services that achieve permanence for Washington’s orphaned or vulnerable children. These legal services will include adoptions, non-parental custodies, guardianships, and general at-risk youth advocacy. Fees will be set on a sliding-fee scale based on the client's income as compared to the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).
Whom Do We Serve? Over half of the CLCW's clients are at or below 200% of the FPL. Typical clients will be lower income couples or individuals who require legal assistance in order to provide permanence for the children in their care. Although the majority of our clients will be care providers, the primary beneficiary of CLCW services will be the orphaned or vulnerable child. When more children have permanent homes, fewer children are in foster care, and fewer “age out” when they turn 18. As a result of CLCW’s efforts, Washington’s next generation of children will have a real hope, and a future.
Why We Do It
While meeting its paramount goal of keeping kids alive, foster care struggles to do anything more. By all accounts foster care should be a last-ditch, ultra temporary solution. Stats on foster care in general:
- Nationwide, there are approximately 400,000 kids in foster care.
- Of this number, more than 100,000 are legally “orphans;” their parents’ parental rights having been terminated. There is zero chance of reunification, and so these kids simply wait in foster care for someone to adopt them.
- When a child turns 18 without any permanent family, this child “ages out” of foster care, and is ejected from the system, forced to fend for themselves for food, housing and employment. The stats on children who “age out” are overwhelmingly dire and described below.
According to recent national study:
- Individuals who grew up in foster care are 30% more likely to be substance abusers and 50% more likely to have a history of domestic violence than the overall homeless population.
- More than 33% of the nation’s homeless youth had been in foster care the year immediate preceding them taking to the streets.
- More than 20% of those youth arriving at a homeless shelter were coming directly from foster care.
In Washington State:
- Over 22% of Washington foster youth are homeless after age 18, with 33% of their incomes below the federal poverty level.
- 65% of kids who aged out of foster care in Washington State have experienced seven or more school changes from elementary through high school.
- While foster kids graduate high school at rates similar to the community at large, they used GED programs to obtain their diplomas 600% more than the general population.
- Only 1.8% of Washington foster youth obtain a bachelor’s degree by the age 25.
And across the US as well as in Canada:
- A study of the long-term homeless in Minneapolis found 39% had experienced foster care as children.
- A New York City study found almost 50% of the young men in homeless shelters were former foster youth.
- In a Calgary, Canada study of the “street kids” it was found an astounding 90% had been in foster care prior to winding up living on the streets.
Stats like these are plentiful as the problem. However, there is hope. The CLCW will not rest until every child has a permanent family. If you’d like to find out how your organization, affinity group or faith community can get involved, please contact us.