Alexandria Davis transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University after completing her associate's degree with help from Great Expectations. She says she's used to working her way through school. After transferring to VCU, she got a work study job with the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond. Shaban Athuman/VPM News hide caption
Justin Kasieta, who is 22 now, was just 13 when his father died and he was thrust into a role looking after his four younger siblings. In college, he interned in the state legislature and the U.S. Congress. Benjamin Levitt hide caption
More than half of U.S. states saw a decline in licensed foster homes from 2021 to 2022. In Nevada, the decline was nearly 18%. In South Carolina, it was a 61% decline, the largest of any state. Getty Images hide caption
"No one understands it," says Sylvia Cunningham of how she and her husband, Brandon, holding Braxton, 2, got three of their children returned from foster care, including daughter Jordan, 17 (at left), but a court allowed one son to be placed for adoption because the Cunninghams had failed to pay part of the bill for foster care. Phyllis B. Dooney for NPR hide caption
Kathy Stolz-Silvis was nine years old when her father died, making her and her siblings eligible for Social Security survivor benefits. But she didn't become aware of those benefits until decades later. Libby March for The Marshall Project hide caption
Daisy Hohman was separated from her three children for 20 months when they were placed in foster care. When Hohman was reunited with her children, she received a bill of nearly $20,000 for foster care from her Minnesota county. Joseph Shapiro/NPR hide caption
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion to make sure foster youth who receive Social Security benefits have access to those checks. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, co-sponsor of the motion, said the new directive is a "game changer." Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group via Getty Images hide caption
An autopsy report released Wednesday by the medical examiner's office in Kalamazoo, Mich., ruled the suffocation death of Cornelius Fredericks a homicide. Fieger, Fieger, Kenney and Harrington PC hide caption
Before Guy Bryant (right) took Romario Vassell (left) into foster care, Vassell had been living in a homeless shelter. Jey Born for StoryCorps hide caption
Berkshire, the camp director, and other mentors spend one-on-one time with campers. One child said they feel like this is their "real" home and the other home they live in full time is a "backup." Kavitha Cardoza for NPR hide caption
Christi holds a migrant child's hand as they walk to the swimming pool. Shuran Huang/NPR hide caption
Empty baby beds stand in the maternity ward of a hospital (a spokesperson for the hospital asked that the hospital not be named). Six days after Farai Chideya took her adopted newborn child home from a hospital, she was forced to give him back to his birth mother. Sean Gallup/Getty Images hide caption
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, pictured earlier this month, has settled a lawsuit by same-sex couples who argued their rights were violated by faith-based adoption agencies that don't want to work with gays and lesbians. Paul Sancya/AP hide caption
"We would not be able to foster without Medicaid," says Sherri Croom of Tallahassee, Fla. Croom and her husband, Thomas, have fostered 27 children in the past decade. They're pictured here with four adopted children, two 18-year-old former foster daughters and those daughters' sons. Courtesy of the Croom family hide caption
Kelly Zimmerman holds her son Jaxton Wright at a parenting session at the Children's Health Center in Reading, Pa. The free program provides resources and social support to new parents in recovery from addiction, or who are otherwise vulnerable. Natalie Piserchio for NPR hide caption
Amanda Williammee and her daughter Taycee. Now a happy preschooler, the little girl was born with neonatal abstinence syndrome — a condition that includes opioid withdrawal symptoms like tremors, irritability, sleep problems and high-pitched crying. Sarah Jane Tribble/KHN hide caption
Maria Luis (center) with her children Angie and Daniel on the day they were reunited in 2011. The children spent five years in the foster system after federal immigration officials sent Luis back to her native Guatemala. Courtesy of Omar Riojas hide caption
Whitney Duncan was given the choice of sending her daughter, Deklyn, 3, to stay with her grandmother in Jasper, Ga., while she entered rehab or lose her to foster care. David Goldman/AP hide caption
Darrow Brown, 52, and Juan Calvo, 55, live in Baltimore. The men started fostering children after volunteering to take care of drug-addicted infants in 2007. Courtesy of StoryCorps hide caption
In one of the few photos Anaya has from his time in foster care, he's pictured at age 4 in the backyard of one of his many foster homes. Courtesy of Noel Anaya hide caption
Hearing Officer Jim Teal presides over a session of Early Intervention Family Drug Court in Sacramento, Calif., in March. The county program helps keep families together — and saves taxpayers $7 million annually, Sacramento County officials say. Robert Durell for Kaiser Health News hide caption
Juana Zacharias, 18, lives in a group home for foster children in Oxnard, Calif. She came out as transgender when she was 10; she entered the foster care system when she was 11, after her father was killed. Leo Duran/KPCC hide caption