Pam Stokes runs her own company and Barry is an investment advisor, but they regularly spend hours advocating for particular foster children in danger of being lost in the system. They often speak out against caseworkers in the agency now deciding the fate of their children. Two years ago they testified in front of the state legislature on the problems facing Tennessee's foster-care system. The Stokeses are not alone in criticizing Tennessee's foster-care system. More than twenty states and the District of Columbia have faced lawsuits similar to the one brought against Tennessee by Children's Rights and were operating under court orders, according to an Urban Institute study.
Problems are pervasive, because the system is a labyrinth of local, state, and federal agencies.
Even though more than 50,000 children are legally free for adoption nationwide, they languish as social workers, psychologists, and caseworkers dawdle. The children hit hardest are those who enter the system at a very early age. The younger a child is upon entering foster care, the longer he will likely stay there, according to a multi-year study by the University of Chicago Chapin Hall Center. In some states, children bounce from one unstable situation to the next for more than five years. In many ways, foster care is a bureaucratic village that has no soul.