Click here for the original audio and to read a book excerpt.
More than 350,000 American kids are now wards of the state, meaning the government has assumed the parental role for these foster children. Some will end up with foster families, some in group homes, and thousands will be runaways. When it comes to foster care family placements, some kids will end up with a dozen or more.
When they turn 18, they’re turned out of the system, sometimes literally onto the streets. None of that came as a surprise to Seattle journalist and author Claudia Rowe, who covered child welfare for decades at the Seattle Times.
But she was shocked when she heard a defense lawyer blame the foster care system for the actions of a 19-year-old former foster care child on trial for murder. Could there be something about the system that actually fosters violent behavior?
That question and others launched Rowe’s deep dive into the country’s child welfare system. We revisit our July 2025 conversation with Rowe about her new book “Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2025 WBUR