SACRAMENTO - California has more children in foster care than any state in the country. These children are the responsibility of the State of California and by most accounts the state is doing a poor job taking care of its most vulnerable citizens. Less than 50% of foster youth finish high school and more than 51% will be unemployed. As a result, Assembly Member Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) requested the State Assembly conduct special hearings to determine how to exact better outcomes for the nearly 100,000 children in California’s Foster Care system.

Bass said, “I am pleased that Assembly Speaker Nunez agreed to provide resources and assign members of the legislature to sit on this committee. My goal for these hearings is to determine the specific problems in foster care and formulate policy to make significant changes.”

The Select Committee will focus on the children that emancipate out of the system when they turn 18 years old and the relatives who often take care of family members without adequate resources.

“What many people do not realize is that once a foster youth emancipates or ages out of the system, 25-40% of them become homeless. These are tragic outcomes that must be stopped now,” Bass explained.

The first hearing will take place November 21st at 1:00 p.m. in Los Angeles at the Junipero Building, 320 W. 4th Street and Broadway.

For more information contact Jessica Gunderson at (916) 319-2047 or Sylvia Castillo at (323) 937-4747.