Dear Next President,

Children all over the US are suffering from being placed in corrupt foster homes. We as kids can only do so much to fix the situation, but no one really listens to children. We need your help to end abuse and corruption in foster home facilities. I am a student at West Albany High School and we were given a task to write a letter to the future president of the United States. When I first heard of this assignment I was pretty excited because I have a lot of topics I'm truly passionate about. I chose foster care as my subject to write about because I know a lot of people who suffer from corrupt homes. Today I want to bring to your attention how troubled this system really is.

FosterCare.com reported that 415,129 children were in foster care as of 2014. That number has only increased. With this many children in foster care how do we make sure they are in safe responsible homes? Let's get real; there is no sure way to ensure a child's safety or to know what goes on behind the doors of the foster home. If you ask foster children to share their stories with you they are hesitant to say the least. Foster kids are forced to live with the harsh reality of nothing will last. They can't get their hopes up and expect to stay in a home they enjoy because the truth is at any moment they have to be ready to up and move. Huffingtonpost.com did a story on a 5 year old boy that didn't have running water or electricity before he came to their home. “The swish of the toilet flushing scared him,” says the Huffington Post's story.

There was a boy from Oregon who the state repeatedly overlooked reports of abuse by his foster care. The state only referred to him as RH. “RH was placed in the home of Alona and Roger Hartwig when he was about five,” stated OPB.org. They were certified to care for up to five children, and investigators found at least four reports of abuse in the household previously. “The reports involved very young kids who were bruised or who were losing weight” OPB.org says. As punishments RH would be forced to stand for hours and people stated that he was forced to go days without food and was being beaten down mentally and maybe physically. Eventually the state did a investigation that showed how terrible these foster parents really were. They lost their foster care license and RH was placed into another foster home.

Laws being passed that have to do with foster care need to be scanned more carefully making sure there is no loop hole making private care facilities available.. These are mainly people looking to receive money from the state and not actually care for the children in the way they need. Integrate new laws making sure that all open private foster homes are either being extinguished or carefully watched, thus insuring the safety of these young kids. Monitor all new and upcoming foster homes and do regular check ins with the foster kids outside their foster homes one on one so they can tell the whole truth. Help the children stuck in their current abusive homes and make sure they foster homes lose their license to have foster kids. Do extensive background checks and make clear rules and repercussions for anyone who wants to become a foster parent. If you start with these simple solution eventually we can change foster care in a whole.

Children all over the US are suffering from abusive foster homes. As young students, most people don't listen to what we have to say. As the president of the United States you can bring attention to this topic way faster than we can. Please help end the suffering for kids who can't help themselves.

Sincerely,

Bai