National Foster Care Month, 2021

Proclamation 10192 of April 30, 2021

National Foster Care Month, 2021

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Every child deserves to grow up in a supportive, loving
home where they can thrive and prosper. During those
unfortunate times when children cannot remain safely in
their own homes, the individuals and families who open
their hearts and homes to foster children provide a
vital service to their communities. During this
National Foster Care Month, we share our gratitude for
those who support youth and families by being a
resource to children in need and supporting birth
parents so that they may safely reunite with their
families whenever possible. We also recognize that it
takes collaboration and community effort--from local
organizations to Federal agencies--to support children,
birth parents, and resource and kin families during
challenging times.

Young people in foster care have been particularly
impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are navigating
circumstances that are already tough, and those
challenges are compounded by a public health crisis
that made housing, employment and educational
opportunities even harder to access.

To support the immediate needs of youth in foster care,
my Administration is implementing Federal programs
authorized by the Supporting Foster Youth and Families
through the Pandemic Act. This law provides additional
flexibility and support for youth aging out of foster
care, and allows them to access critical services to
help them stay in school or participate in a job
training program, pay the bills, and better make the
difficult transition to adulthood. We have an
expression in the Biden family, ``If you have to ask
for help, it's too late.'' As a Nation, we can
proactively help children by advancing a holistic
approach to child and family well-being across the
country--before it's too late.

As we work to address immediate needs, we must be clear
about long-standing challenges in child welfare and
commit to advancing child and family well-being in
every way we can. Our children, birth parents, and
resource and kin families deserve nothing less. So this
National Foster Care Month, we also recognize the
histories of injustice in our Nation's foster care
system. Throughout our history and persisting today,
too many communities of color, especially Black and
Native American communities, have been treated
unequally and often unfairly by the child welfare
system. Black and Native American children are far more
likely than white children to be removed from their
homes, even when the circumstances surrounding the
removal are similar. Once removed, Black and Native
American children stay in care longer and are less
likely to either reunite with their birth parents or be
adopted. Too many children are removed from loving
homes because poverty is often conflated with neglect,
and the enduring effects of systemic racism and
economic barriers mean that families of color are
disproportionately affected by this as well. Children
with disabilities are over-represented among youth in
care and may be inappropriately placed in group
settings instead of provided the individualized support
they need. Children in foster care--particularly youth
of color and LGBTQ+ children who are already subject to
disproportionate rates of school discipline and
criminalization--are also at an increased risk of
becoming involved in the

juvenile justice system. And for LGBTQ+ foster youth,
foster care systems are not always equipped to safely
meet their needs.

My Administration is committed to addressing these
entrenched problems in our Nation's child welfare
system, advancing equity and racial justice for every
child and family who is touched by the foster care and
child welfare system, and focusing on policies that
improve child and family well-being. This is why my
Administration's discretionary funding request for 2022
includes $100 million in competitive grants for State
and local child welfare systems to advance racial
equity and prevent unnecessary child removals.

National Foster Care Month is an opportunity for us to
celebrate the resource and kin families who are
supporting children by opening their homes and sharing
their love. Crucially, it is also an opportunity to
celebrate foster youth and all of their
accomplishments, and to celebrate and encourage the
many biological parents who are working hard to safely
reunite with their children. And it provides an
opportunity for us to fulfill our responsibility as a
Nation to take care of each other and provide our
vulnerable youth and families with the support they
need.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2021 as
National Foster Care Month. I call upon all Americans
to observe this month by reaching out in their
neighborhoods and communities to the children and youth
in foster care and their families, those at risk of
entering foster care, and resource and kin families and
other caregivers.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
fifth.