Over the course of their childhood, a staggering 53% of Black children will be investigated by CPS. Once in foster care, some research indicates Black children are less likely than white children to be placed with their kin or ever returned to their families.

Foster children have enormous challenges even in the best of times. The coronavirus pandemic threatens them with even greater turmoil, isolating them from adult supervisors and friends and making it harder to move on to new lives — either with biological or adoptive families, or as newly independent adults.