MIAMI — The goal for the thousands of children in Florida's foster care program is to find forever homes. But a new tracking system developed at the University of Miami shows the dream for many children is short-lived.

Many kids don't even unpack because of the uncertainty over how long they will stay in a foster home - which sometimes can be as little as a few hours. After combing through thousands of youth records at the Florida Department of Children and Families, Robert Latham, associate director of the university’s Youth Law Clinic, mapped the placement path of every child in foster care since 2002.

He found 80 percent of kids met national placement standards for being moved around. But he noticed troubling outcomes for the remaining 20 percent.

"That captured the kind of absurdity of a kid having 35 houses over the course of two years,” Latham said. “Right? I mean, who lives in 35 houses in two years? That's just not OK. "

State officials point out the the tremendous trauma experienced by some children that makes it difficult for them to trust an adult. According to state data, Florida's rate of 4.8 placements per thousand days in foster care comes in just over the national standard of 4.2.

Chris Card is chief of community-based care at Eckerd Connects, which manages child-welfare cases for Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties. He said thanks to federal funding, the state developed a data-tracking system to track touchpoints such as a child's performance in school, problems with parents and other factors to identify red flags.

He said that system has been in place for about twenty years, and Latham's program is just another step forward.

"Kids with some problems are starting to pop up a little bit earlier than the older systems that we’ve had developed, but it's been an ongoing process,” Card said. “I think we've just gotten more sophisticated, a little bit better. And this last rendition is something even better. "

Both Latham and Card agree Florida's foster-care system is overwhelmed and operating on very few resources. Latham said he'd like to see the state dig deeper to track the number of times a child is arrested, involuntarily committed or returns to foster care after adoption.

He said he'd like to see a review panel formed to examine why a child is left bouncing around from home-to-home similar to those formed when a child dies in the system.

"I think if we put that kind of focus and intent on this problem, I think it could really be reduced,” he said. “Again, it's certainly not OK that 19,000 kids have had 10 or more placements. That's not OK. "

Card said the state needs to provide foster families and nonprofits with greater resources and support. And Latham added it also comes down to having more foster families in the system, which he said gives a child better options for making their first placement the last.


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Advocates for foster children in Massachusetts are encouraging people to open their homes and hearts to adoption.

More than 8,000 children in the Commonwealth are currently living in foster care and seeking permanent, loving families.

Rita Soronen, president of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, said too often people believe the myth children are placed in foster care for bad behavior.

"It's important to know that there are reasons why that child is in care but there are reasons that are no fault of theirs," Soronen explained. "It's a family that has not done well by them."

Soronen pointed out foster care adoption in Massachusetts is free. Most application and legal costs are covered by the state. She noted many agencies have also improved the administrative process to ensure foster kids and their new families can get connected more quickly.

Research shows youths who age out of foster care without a family are at an increased risk of facing negative outcomes such as homelessness, unemployment or reentering into government systems.

Marisol Santana of Shrewsbury was adopted last year at age 19 after spending roughly 15 years in the foster care system. She said her new life is like a dream come true.

"I got to graduate from a better school. I got to do prom," Santana recounted. "I have love now that I'm surrounded by, and it's one of the most amazing feelings in the world."

Marisol is also now a big sister to three younger siblings and her mom said she has embraced the role.

Members of the Santana family are sharing their experience with the hope it will encourage other families considering foster care adoption to take the leap. They advised people to reach out to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, which can help answer any questions and direct them to local organizations to help begin the adoption process.

If the election season made one thing clear, it is neither side can hear what the other is saying and one expert believes it is because most of us were not taught "active listening" in school.

Christine Miles, founder of The Listening Path Classroom program, said only about 2% of schools offer formal listening skill development programs, which can handicap our success as adults. Miles believes too many of us listen half-heartedly, keen to share our thoughts or arguments the minute the other person stops talking.

"This is not new," Miles pointed out. "Since 1957, there's been talk about the fact that there's not formal education in schools on listening, and the reason I think it hasn't been solved is because listening has been notoriously hard."

Research shows students from kindergarten through 12th grade spend 50% to 75% of their classroom time listening, yet comprehend only 25% to 50% of what they hear. According to Miles, when it comes to politics, it is rarely effective to argue someone into adopting your position.

Miles believes technology is partly to blame for poor listening. Kids spend so many hours on their electronic devices, Miles explained some develop a natural form of attention deficit disorder, even if they don't have the condition biochemically.

"What the technology has done is made our brains even more impatient and more distracted than they already were," Miles contended. "If we don't help them learn how to have conversations about things they disagree about, how will they learn how to manage that?"

Miles noted becoming an adult without good listening skills can affect both academic success and social-emotional learning. To develop better skills, experts recommended being fully present in a conversation, showing interest by practicing good eye contact, asking open-ended questions, paraphrasing and reflecting back what has been said and withholding judgment and advice.


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The early childhood development initiative "Too Small to Fail" is expanding in Pennsylvania to boost children's brain and language development, preparing them for kindergarten and beyond.

Nearly 60% of children in the United States begin kindergarten unprepared, lagging behind their peers in essential language and reading skills.

Perri Chinalai, managing director of the Too Small to Fail program for the Clinton Foundation, said her organization is partnering with the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the United Way of Pennsylvania to implement 250 new early education programs over the next two years.

"We worked with laundromats and transforming laundromat spaces into literacy-rich environments, because we know that families are going to laundromats," Chinalai explained. "How can we think about really encouraging talking, reading and singing in spaces where families are?"

Chinalai added the Barbara Bush Foundation works with children in early learning all the way through school-age kids, and the Too Small to Fail focuses on children aged 0-5. The initiative has donated more than 1.4 million children's books to families in under-resourced communities.

Chinalai noted they partnered with the Department of Public Health and Office of Homeless Services to transform two health centers in Philadelphia and a homeless intake shelter. She added over the past 11 years, the program has worked with communities across the country and have launched more than 40 campaigns.

"For the first year of this project, through our partnership with the United Way location, we will be partnering with six different locations, including the Titusville region, Lycoming County, Wyoming Valley, Southern Allegheny Capital Region and Bucks County," Chinalai outlined. "To really think about how we can incorporate these strategies within the work that they're already doing for children and families."

She added they are also working with a local bookstore called Tree House Books to restock bookshelves. She emphasized the campaigns will focus on training trusted messengers, transforming learning spaces and distributing resources to families.


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