The Root Foundation: Case Statement

The Problem:A 13-year-old boy in the American foster care system has a less than 50% chance of graduating high school. His chance of earning a college degree is less than 3%. Between 31% and 46% of foster youth experience homelessness by age 26. One in five will be incarcerated. These are not projections. These are the measured outcomes of a system that was built to protect him.The boys who fare worst are those who age out entirely: no family, no permanent placement, no one coming for them. They leave state custody at 18 with whatever the system gave them, which in most cases is a history of instability, a fragmented education, and no adult who knows their name. Every child who ages out costs society $1,309,418. That figure includes six years of foster care at $30,000 per year, incarceration at $60,989 per year for those who enter the criminal justice system, $500,000 in lost lifetime earnings, $216,000 in family destabilization costs, and $180,000 when the cycle repeats and their children entercare. These are sourced figures from AFCARS, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, BLS, and Duke/NORC research. 390,000 children are in foster care right now. The annual government cost exceeds $11.7 billion. The system is not improving. It is compounding.The Root Foundation exists because those boys deserve something built specifically for them. Not adapted from something that was built for someone else