Bravo to Melanias push for brighter futures for foster kids

Three cheers for First Lady Melania Trump for drawing attention to the plight of America’s too-often-overlooked foster kids.On Friday, she co-signed an executive order with the president that instructs Health and Human Services to improve child-welfare data collection and transparency; it also establishes a “Fostering the Future” program to create opportunities for both current and aging-out foster kids to connect with support.It’s a worthy cause for the famously private first lady to undertake: Foster kids are especially vulnerable; for example, she pointed out, “Too many people from the foster care community end up homeless, in danger on America’s streets.”Or worse: Recall last month’s stomach-churning New York Times exposé of how girls as young as 11 get forced into prostitution in the LA red-light district known as “Kiddie Stroll”; more than half of these trafficked minors turn out to be foster kids when cops pull them off the streets.It’s no mystery why; good homes are few and far between, which hasn’t been helped by child-welfare agencies denying families the ability to foster because of their religious views.

Plus, overworked case workers are often stretched thin, so kids who run away from the homes they’ve been placed can easily disappear off the state’s radar entirely.And kids who age out without being adopted or rejoining their birth family are left without any support system, which helps explain why former foster kids turn to lives of crime at much higher rates.One recent study found that more than 40% of aged-out foster kids will end up incarcerated by age 20.Government at all levels is utterly failing these kids, but we don’t have to accept such bleak outcomes as unavoidable.The changes that the first lady is spearheading — better maintenance of child-welfare data, more accountability for state-level agencies, more resources and increased support — could save countless kids from falling through the cracks.Bravo to Me...