Tommy DobczykOpportunity Zone Advisor, OZ Wizard · Director of Development | Certified Opportunity Zone Advisor

Foster Care Crisis: Billions Spent, Kids Left Behind? #shorts

24 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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About 100,000 kids are in U.S. foster care while 350,000 are eligible for adoption. Adopting through a specialized agency costs under $1,000, yet each child in care costs taxpayers billions. At 18, kids aging out get a black trash bag to pack their belongings and are left with no support.

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Hundred thousand children in the US foster care system, 350,000 are available for adoption today, and it costs less than $1,000 to adopt a child. And so when you work with the right adoption agency that specializes in this type of adoption, the impact is huge. So if you understand that these children in the foster care system, when they stay in the foster care system, it's literally costing taxpayers billions of dollars. At their 18th birthday, if they haven't been adopted and they age out of the foster care system, what happens is they experience black trash bag day, meaning on their 18th birthday, they are handed a black trash bag, told to put all their belongings in it, and then they're out.