Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf
Page Number: 28

6 

FULTON v. PHILADELPHIA 

ALITO, J., concurring in judgment
ALITO, J., concurring in judgment 

step even though it threatens the welfare of children await-
ing placement in foster homes.  There is an acute shortage
of foster parents, both in Philadelphia and in the country at 
large.18  By ousting CSS, the City eliminated one of its ma-
jor  sources  of  foster  homes.  And  that’s  not  all.  The  City 
—————— 

18 See  Brief  for  Petitioners  11–12  (citing  Wax-Thibodeaux,  “We  Are 
Just  Destroying  These  Kids”:  The  Foster  Children  Growing  Up  Inside
Detention  Centers,  Washington  Post  (Dec.  30,  2019),  https://www. 
washingtonpost.com/national/we-are-just-destroying-these-kids-the-
foster-children-growing-up-inside-detention-centers/2019/12/30/97f65f3a-
eaa2-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html  (describing  the  placement  of 
foster  children  in  emergency  shelters  and  juvenile  detention  centers)); 
Brief  in  Opposition  for  City  Respondents  4  (acknowledging  5,000  chil-
dren in need of care in Philadelphia); Terruso, Philly Puts Out “Urgent”
Call—300 Families Needed for Fostering, Philadelphia Inquirer (Mar. 8,
2018),  https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/foster-parents-dhs-philly-
child-welfare-adoptions-20180308.html; see also Haskins, Kohomban, & 
Rodriguez, Keeping Up With the Caseload: How To Recruit and Retain 
Foster  Parents,  The  Brookings  Institution  (Apr.  24,  2019),  https:
www.brookings.edu/blog/upfront/2019/04/24/keeping-up-with-the-case-
load-how-to-recruit-and-retain-foster-parents/  (explaining  that  “[t]he
number  of  children  in  foster  care  ha[d]  risen  for  the  fifth  consecutive 
year” to nearly 443,000 in 2017 and noting that “between 30 to 50 percent
of foster families step down each year”); Adams, Foster Care Crisis: More
Kids Are Entering, but Fewer Families Are Willing To Take Them In, 
NBC  News  (Dec.  30,  2020),  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/ 
foster-care-crisis-more-kids-are-entering-fewer-families-are-n1252450 
(explaining how the COVID–19 pandemic has overwhelmed the United
States’ foster care system); Satija, For Troubled Foster Kids in Houston, 
Sleeping  in  Offices  Is  “Rock  Bottom,”  Texas  Tribune  (Apr.  20,  2017), 
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/20/texas-foster-care-placement-
crisis/ (describing Texas’s shortage of placement options, which resulted
in  children  sleeping  in  office  buildings  where  “no  one  is  likely  to  stop 
them”  if  they  decide  to  run  away);  Associated  Press,  Indiana  Agencies 
Desperate To Find Foster Parents With Children Entering System at All-
Time  High,  Fox  59  (Mar.  7,  2017),  https://fox59.com/news/indiana- 
agencies-desperate-to-find-foster-parents-with-children-entering-system-at
-all-time-high/ (noting that nearly 1,000 children in Indiana are in need 
of  care  and  that,  in  the  span  of  one  month,  the  State’s  largest  not-for-
profit child services agency was able to place 3 children out of 150 to 200