Children’s Administration Operations Manual Chapter 4000-Non Discrimination-Minority Affairs (http://www.dshs.wa.gov/CA/pubs/mnl_ops/chapter4.asp)

4100 DSHS NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICY Children’s Administration (CA) shall comply with the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) non-discrimination policy and plan. ……

A. No person shall be subject to discrimination because of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, creed, martial status, disability veteran or Vietnam era veteran status, disability, or sexual orientation. This policy applies to every aspect of CA programs, practices, policies, and activities, as well as to those of its contractors and licensees.

Families Like Ours, Inc. interprets this policy to cover protection from discrimination towards foster youth besides foster and adoptive families, and all adults in the areas stated in the policy. Families Like Ours, Inc. considers this policy to cover (but not limited to) the following:

At any given moment there are as many as 600,000 children nationally in the U.S. foster care, approximately 130,000 of them will not be returning to their families of origin. The number of children that are available for adoption range widely depending upon the state, time of year, and the year in question. It is safe to say that up to 20 percent of the kids in care are not returning to their biologic parent(s). These children may be available for adoption, guardianship and/or long-term foster care. In some states, children over the age of 13 can have a say in their permanency planning.

Through no fault of their own, children end up in the foster care system for a wide range of reasons. The more common reasons include neglect, abandonment, exposure to drugs and alcohol, physical abuse and sexual abuse. But sometimes it can be a case of a parent(s) dying and there is no one left to care for the child, cases of medical need, or that the family is simply not equipped to parent the child.

Foster kids range in age between newborn to 18 years of age, single children, sibling groups of two or more, boys, girls, and teen parents. Typically there tends to be more boys in foster care than girls but that depends upon a wide range of factors. It is estimated that up to 18% of children in foster care are GLBT&Q youth (gay, lesbian, bi, trans and questioning). For many of these kids foster care is not a safe place and they often hide how they are even more. If you would like to know more about these kids, check out our GLBT&Q Youth in Foster Care section or contact us; we are always looking for SAFE families for GLBT&Q youth in care.

Are you thinking about adoption or foster care? Are you unclear if this is right for you? Do you have questions or need to verify answers you have gotten and are not sure what the real answer is? Families Like Ours is your independent advocate regardless of which placement agency, or state program you're working through. We're here to help. We are families-helping-families. We provide a full range of pre and post adoptive and foster care family planning counseling* to help guide you through the process, answer your questions, and provide you with resources and support.