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Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care
Told through the stories of six former foster youth, a jolting exploration of a broken system from an award-winning journalist
By the time Maryanne was 16 years old, she had been arrested for murder. In and out of foster and adoptive homes since age 10, she'd run away, been trafficked and assaulted, and finally pointed a gun at the latest man to take her into his car. She pulled the trigger and fled. But with no family to turn to and few reliable friends, it didn't take long for the police to catch up with her.
In court, the defense blamed neither traffickers, nor Maryanne, but Washington state itself—or rather, its foster care system, which parents thousands of children every year. The courts didn't listen to that argument, but award-winning journalist Claudia Rowe did. Washington state isn't alone, of course. Each year, hundreds of thousands of children grow up in America's $30 billion foster care system, only to leave and enter its prisons, where a quarter of all inmates are former foster youth.
Weaving Maryanne's story with those of five other foster kids across the country—including an 18-year-old sleeping on the New York City subways; a gangbanger-turned-graduate-student; and a foster child who is now a policy advisor to the White House—Rowe paints a visceral survival narrative showing exactly where, when, and how the system channels children into locked cells. Balanced with accounts from psychologists, advocates, judges, and foster parents, Wards of the State paves a road to reform by pulling back the curtain on our country's longstanding foster careto- prison pipeline and the searing realities faced by kids who may be sitting in classrooms next to your own children.
By the time Maryanne was 16 years old, she had been arrested for murder. In and out of foster and adoptive homes since age 10, she'd run away, been trafficked and assaulted, and finally pointed a gun at the latest man to take her into his car. She pulled the trigger and fled. But with no family to turn to and few reliable friends, it didn't take long for the police to catch up with her.
In court, the defense blamed neither traffickers, nor Maryanne, but Washington state itself—or rather, its foster care system, which parents thousands of children every year. The courts didn't listen to that argument, but award-winning journalist Claudia Rowe did. Washington state isn't alone, of course. Each year, hundreds of thousands of children grow up in America's $30 billion foster care system, only to leave and enter its prisons, where a quarter of all inmates are former foster youth.
Weaving Maryanne's story with those of five other foster kids across the country—including an 18-year-old sleeping on the New York City subways; a gangbanger-turned-graduate-student; and a foster child who is now a policy advisor to the White House—Rowe paints a visceral survival narrative showing exactly where, when, and how the system channels children into locked cells. Balanced with accounts from psychologists, advocates, judges, and foster parents, Wards of the State paves a road to reform by pulling back the curtain on our country's longstanding foster careto- prison pipeline and the searing realities faced by kids who may be sitting in classrooms next to your own children.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published May 20, 2025
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3516 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
October 22, 2025
This book is the perfect book for anyone living with an inkling of the idea of, “I bet the foster care system is bad, but I don’t know exactly how.” But fair warning, you’ll read this and now knowing more, you’ll understand that this is only touching the surface- only focusing on an aspect of how fucked up this all is.
May 13, 2025
By the time Maryanne was sixteen, she'd been arrested for murder. Rowe met her in the context of that trial: she was used to writing about murder and didn't think there would be anything special here—but then she started to hear the arguments about foster care.
In Wards of the State, Rowe dives deep into what happens when a child is removed from their family and placed in foster care. The statistics are dire:
A study of nearly one thousand foster youth in the Midwest found that half left the system with criminal records, and more than 30 percent were imprisoned for violent crime within a year of leaving state care. At least 20 percent of prison inmates nationally are believed to be former foster children. (loc. 70*)
Conventional wisdom holds that these kids are more likely to end up in prison (or without a diploma, or homeless, or otherwise just struggling) because of troubled family backgrounds—they struggle because of the reasons for which they were placed in foster care. But the more Rowe dug into it, the more she questioned that assumption, and the more the research seemed to support the opposite: foster care wasn't reducing trauma but rather compounding it. When a child is moved from placement to placement to placement—I'm not sure if an average number of moves was mentioned, but Rowe does cite cases of children who were moved fifty or more (sometimes many more) times in a year—how is that child expected to develop healthy attachments and relationships, to keep up in school, and to learn the basic life skills that aren't really taught but learned through observation and repetition?
There are a lot of questions here that just don't have good answers: at what point is it safer to leave a child in a home where neglect or abuse is suspected, and at what point is it safer to remove that child to a system that is stopgap after stopgap after stopgap? And how often does "neglect" (e.g., an empty fridge) simply mean "poverty"? And when the state-as-parent does cause harm, how much can it be held responsible? (Other questions have much clearer answers, such as those surrounding the deep racism embedded in foster care.)
This is compassionate and complex reportage. The people Rowe profiles—former foster children who have found themselves in places ranging from PhD programs to life sentences—are treated with a lot of care, withoug skating over their darker moments. (Whole people, in shades of grey.) What she describes is much in line with other things I have read about foster care and about group homes (some suggestions for further reading below), but very, very pointed.
I am a little unclear on how some of the statistics play out—for example, how often is a child who is placed in foster care returned to their family, and after an average of how long? How do the outcomes differ? What is the tipping point? And, more broadly: What are other countries doing, and does anyone seem to have figured it out? Rowe mentions a program in the New York that is based on a UK model—a program that seems brilliant until (as with so many of the possible fixes Rowe investigates) the cracks begin to show. But the biggest difference between the British version of Chelsea Foyer and New York City's showed up around education. The academic deficits among former foster youth in New York were severe [...] such that the requirement to be in school became a barrier. [...] Within a few years of opening, New York jettisoned the three-pronged European model of housing, education, and career, retooling to emphasize housing and employment only. (loc. 2670)
It's easy to look at this all and think "well, X would help"—but it becomes then a matter of "in order for X to happen, we'd need Y, for which we'd need Z, for which we'd need..." until you come back around to X. Maryanne's situation is one of the more high-profile of those Rowe includes. She was sentenced in 2019, but it seems that some parts of her case are ongoing. (Not getting more specific because how her case played out is a significant part of the book and worth reading in its entirety.) I couldn't find anything particularly recent online, but she's emblematic of a broken system that chews children up until they, too, leave broken.
Somewhere between 4 and 5 stars. Highly recommended.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
Related books that readers might find interesting:
Home Made (group home)
How the Other Half Eats (food and poverty politics)
To the End of June (foster care)
No House to Call My Home (group home)
The Turnaway Study (abortion; poverty and body politics)
In Wards of the State, Rowe dives deep into what happens when a child is removed from their family and placed in foster care. The statistics are dire:
A study of nearly one thousand foster youth in the Midwest found that half left the system with criminal records, and more than 30 percent were imprisoned for violent crime within a year of leaving state care. At least 20 percent of prison inmates nationally are believed to be former foster children. (loc. 70*)
Conventional wisdom holds that these kids are more likely to end up in prison (or without a diploma, or homeless, or otherwise just struggling) because of troubled family backgrounds—they struggle because of the reasons for which they were placed in foster care. But the more Rowe dug into it, the more she questioned that assumption, and the more the research seemed to support the opposite: foster care wasn't reducing trauma but rather compounding it. When a child is moved from placement to placement to placement—I'm not sure if an average number of moves was mentioned, but Rowe does cite cases of children who were moved fifty or more (sometimes many more) times in a year—how is that child expected to develop healthy attachments and relationships, to keep up in school, and to learn the basic life skills that aren't really taught but learned through observation and repetition?
There are a lot of questions here that just don't have good answers: at what point is it safer to leave a child in a home where neglect or abuse is suspected, and at what point is it safer to remove that child to a system that is stopgap after stopgap after stopgap? And how often does "neglect" (e.g., an empty fridge) simply mean "poverty"? And when the state-as-parent does cause harm, how much can it be held responsible? (Other questions have much clearer answers, such as those surrounding the deep racism embedded in foster care.)
This is compassionate and complex reportage. The people Rowe profiles—former foster children who have found themselves in places ranging from PhD programs to life sentences—are treated with a lot of care, withoug skating over their darker moments. (Whole people, in shades of grey.) What she describes is much in line with other things I have read about foster care and about group homes (some suggestions for further reading below), but very, very pointed.
I am a little unclear on how some of the statistics play out—for example, how often is a child who is placed in foster care returned to their family, and after an average of how long? How do the outcomes differ? What is the tipping point? And, more broadly: What are other countries doing, and does anyone seem to have figured it out? Rowe mentions a program in the New York that is based on a UK model—a program that seems brilliant until (as with so many of the possible fixes Rowe investigates) the cracks begin to show. But the biggest difference between the British version of Chelsea Foyer and New York City's showed up around education. The academic deficits among former foster youth in New York were severe [...] such that the requirement to be in school became a barrier. [...] Within a few years of opening, New York jettisoned the three-pronged European model of housing, education, and career, retooling to emphasize housing and employment only. (loc. 2670)
It's easy to look at this all and think "well, X would help"—but it becomes then a matter of "in order for X to happen, we'd need Y, for which we'd need Z, for which we'd need..." until you come back around to X. Maryanne's situation is one of the more high-profile of those Rowe includes. She was sentenced in 2019, but it seems that some parts of her case are ongoing. (Not getting more specific because how her case played out is a significant part of the book and worth reading in its entirety.) I couldn't find anything particularly recent online, but she's emblematic of a broken system that chews children up until they, too, leave broken.
Somewhere between 4 and 5 stars. Highly recommended.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
Related books that readers might find interesting:
Home Made (group home)
How the Other Half Eats (food and poverty politics)
To the End of June (foster care)
No House to Call My Home (group home)
The Turnaway Study (abortion; poverty and body politics)
Read
August 24, 2025In the interest of full disclosure, I know the author and she has been a past reader of applications for grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation. I first met her at a group booksigning put on by a writers' association called Seattle7. There I purchased and read her first book The Spider and the Fly, a true crime memoir the subtitle of which--"A Writer, a Murderer, and a Story of Obsession'--caught my interest as soon as I saw it. The book did not disappoint. It's honest and compelling and, if you read it (which I highly recommend you do)--you will understand why it won the Washington State Book Award.
Her new book could not have a less compelling subtitle. Yet, here again, Claudia is able to make what could have been a dry polemic absolutely come alive and, in the process, become as compelling a reading experience as was her first book.
She is a writer with multiple talents, all of which are on amply display in this book. Not only does her prose shine, but the humility she possess in leaving unackknowledged her astounding ability to encourage individuals to open up to her is remarkable.
Rather than fill her narrative with general revelations about the damage inflicted upon the psyches, brains, and emotional development of the children and teenagers who are swept up by the foster care system, she instead uses the stories of specific individuals to illuminate the points she wishes to make. And her main point is the most painful one to consider: how the foster care system in the US has warehoused children for decades and, ultimately, how it has greased the skids of so many foster children's trip through the criminal justice system. She certainly gives the reader the statistics. But more than statistics, she gives the reader the foundation to undestand where the idea of foster care came from as well as how it morphed into what it is today.
But it is in the histories of the victims of foster care that her narrative grabs the reader by the throat and demands the reader's acknowledgment of how something intended to help vulnerable children actually acts in ways that can--and frequently does--destroy them. Her narrative's power comes from limning for the reader not only what sort of damage is done to children but, more important, how it is done and why the way it is done creates young men and young women who emerge from it suffering everything from uncontrollable rage to bottomless need to terror of abandonment to PTSD. The reader is left with a profound understanding of the crucial importance of family and connection in a child's development.
I highly recommend this book.
Her new book could not have a less compelling subtitle. Yet, here again, Claudia is able to make what could have been a dry polemic absolutely come alive and, in the process, become as compelling a reading experience as was her first book.
She is a writer with multiple talents, all of which are on amply display in this book. Not only does her prose shine, but the humility she possess in leaving unackknowledged her astounding ability to encourage individuals to open up to her is remarkable.
Rather than fill her narrative with general revelations about the damage inflicted upon the psyches, brains, and emotional development of the children and teenagers who are swept up by the foster care system, she instead uses the stories of specific individuals to illuminate the points she wishes to make. And her main point is the most painful one to consider: how the foster care system in the US has warehoused children for decades and, ultimately, how it has greased the skids of so many foster children's trip through the criminal justice system. She certainly gives the reader the statistics. But more than statistics, she gives the reader the foundation to undestand where the idea of foster care came from as well as how it morphed into what it is today.
But it is in the histories of the victims of foster care that her narrative grabs the reader by the throat and demands the reader's acknowledgment of how something intended to help vulnerable children actually acts in ways that can--and frequently does--destroy them. Her narrative's power comes from limning for the reader not only what sort of damage is done to children but, more important, how it is done and why the way it is done creates young men and young women who emerge from it suffering everything from uncontrollable rage to bottomless need to terror of abandonment to PTSD. The reader is left with a profound understanding of the crucial importance of family and connection in a child's development.
I highly recommend this book.
October 14, 2025
Well worth reading, but please note (since I overlooked this initially) that the book focuses specifically on describing a foster care to prison pipeline and setting it forth as a key piece of evidence for the failures of the foster care system. I would have liked more info on and analysis of the failures of the foster care system more generally and how it insufficiently supports the traumatized youth it is intended to serve, reinforcing prior trauma and adverse childhood experiences or leading to retraumatization that in turn contributes to additional adverse experiences - of which becoming a part of a foster care to prison pipeline is unfortunately only but one potential adverse outcome. Most of the subjects in the book were so deeply traumatized by parental abuse and neglect by the time they arrive to foster care that they were unable to connect with positive and supportive individuals or environments even if they were made available to them (and the author notes that this in itself is all too rare due to a lack of resources within or investment in the foster care system). For me, it was the overall developmental trauma rather than the foster care system specifically that served as the critical risk factor contributing to the additional adverse outcomes the subjects went on to experience. However, if there is a foster care to prison pipeline, that is definitely notable and worthy of awareness, and the book remains convincing that the current system is not sufficiently protective or trauma-informed and often treats youth as prospective future criminals rather than providing a sturdy safety net and promoting healing, resilience, and second chances in the way that vulnerable young people deserve.
January 6, 2026
4.5 stars
November 8, 2025
yeah i knew the foster system was bad in the US but this was pretty eye opening and powerful. def reaffirms my preference towards adoption if ever i do have a child. 4.5 ⭐️
December 30, 2024
Told through eight different case studies with a rich history about the foster care and adoption system in the US, Rowe spells out one of the central arguments in her book she heard in a court case: if the children are the responsibility of the state while in the foster care and adoption system, is the state also responsible for crimes and other transgressions committed by those in foster care and adoption homes? What follows is an extremely compelling argument using first and secondhand accounts of individuals in varying stages of the foster care, adoption, criminal justice, and post-criminal justice systems.
Early on in the book, you see Rowe set up one of the overarching themes of the book: the relatively recent concept of the foster care-to-prison pipeline. Going into this book, I was aware of the abuse, underfunded, understaffed, and overworked caseload of social workers and the disregard for foster care kids, but this book opened my eyes up to much more and made me view it a different way. One of my favorite arguments she made in her book was about how the state spends money on “wards” (foster care children) to be raised by random people rather than using that money toward helping the family achieve upward mobility. Children are removed from their homes by the stage where, in a scarily large number of instances, are introduced to many foster and adoption homes, as foster parents “return” the child they adopted or fostered.
In accordance with FTC guidelines, please note that this ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Early on in the book, you see Rowe set up one of the overarching themes of the book: the relatively recent concept of the foster care-to-prison pipeline. Going into this book, I was aware of the abuse, underfunded, understaffed, and overworked caseload of social workers and the disregard for foster care kids, but this book opened my eyes up to much more and made me view it a different way. One of my favorite arguments she made in her book was about how the state spends money on “wards” (foster care children) to be raised by random people rather than using that money toward helping the family achieve upward mobility. Children are removed from their homes by the stage where, in a scarily large number of instances, are introduced to many foster and adoption homes, as foster parents “return” the child they adopted or fostered.
In accordance with FTC guidelines, please note that this ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
December 7, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
I've read quite a few books on foster care and how it fails the kids. But this book digs deep and really shows the link between foster kids and prison. The various former foster kids that were focused on had difficult stories but so many of them took their past and are trying to make positive changes.
I've read quite a few books on foster care and how it fails the kids. But this book digs deep and really shows the link between foster kids and prison. The various former foster kids that were focused on had difficult stories but so many of them took their past and are trying to make positive changes.
February 6, 2025
Journalist Claudia Rowe uses her investigative skills to peer behind the curtain of the foster care system in the U.S. A very eyebrow raising look into an antiquated way of looking after children who are in need.
Must read for those interested in social programs.
*I read an advance copy and was not compensated
Must read for those interested in social programs.
*I read an advance copy and was not compensated
January 6, 2026
Such an important book for anyone working with children or in any kind of social services or criminal justice role, whether with children or adults. The story-based structure made this a compelling read, the psychological explanations helped me understand my students better, and the data certainly made the case for a complete overhaul of the foster system in the US. My heart breaks for these thousands and thousands of children done wrong by our country.
Source: purchased hardcover
Source: purchased hardcover
Read
January 19, 2026With my wife and I having worked as foster parents, Claudia Rowe's book caught my attention. It raised some intriguing ideas, confirmed some of my own views, and left me wanting solutions.
Rowe's big, intriguing thesis is that foster care is a major contributor to juvenile criminal behavior. The state, having legal custody, sets up conditions that have a high likelihood of leading to criminality, but then bears no responsibility for the results of those conditions. Kids, having been kicked around, are then imprisoned for long stretches of their lives with little recourse or meaningful support. Rowe uses vivid, high-profile cases to demonstrate how the system works to this end. Prior to reading Rowe's book, I had not given careful consideration to this angle, but it makes sense. Of course, not all foster kids will end up in jail, but a significant enough percentage do, which makes the issue one worth thinking through.
Even if they don't end up in jail, foster kids have incredible difficulties transitioning to adult life, because they have usually bounced around to a number of different homes, and the state, though it offers some provisions up to a point, really does not set them up for any kind of adult success.
Rowe's book did confirm some thoughts that have been banging around in my head for a while. There are two major inflection points when it comes to foster care. The first involves when a child is taken from their home and put into the state's care. Is the state justified when it does this? In many cases, yes. There are children who are subjected to genuine abuse and neglect. Their homes are not safe and perhaps even their larger family network is not safe. But DSS also seems to confuse poverty with neglect/abuse at times. I have seen the state do exactly that with one of our own placements. A family may have a difficult time feeding their children and the state will see this as neglect. Though it is often difficult to determine when a child is in a genuinely dangerous situation, I suspect that it would be better if the state left families alone a little bit more. There's a risk factor in leaving kids with potentially unsafe home environments, but there's also a risk to placing children in foster care.
This leads to the second inflection point. Can foster care actually provide a family for these children? A better way to put it might be: can a state bureaucracy be a family? The answer is almost always no. A lot of kids who go through the system never get a sense of consistency. There's a rotating door of caseworkers, who often burn out within a few years on the job. Foster families, despite some training, are not equipped to deal with the complexities of raising a child who has come from a difficult, perhaps even abusive family situation. And so, when things get tough a foster family is free to ship the kid off to someone else. In the first inflection point (removing the kid from their home) there is no-win decision to make: do we subject this child to the risks of their own home or the risks of a state system that almost never provides security, consistency, and a pathway to healthy adult independence? Both things can be traumatic and unsafe.
I don't know what the solutions are for these problems. One possibility is to try harder to place children with extended family. States have focused on that more in recent years, but extended families are not always willing to take kids in. There's a lot of rejection going on. Another possibility is to have DSS focus more on helping families that are in troubled spots before deciding to remove kids from the home. This is an investment-minded solution. The state can spend money in a variety of ways. Which would be better? To provide a struggling family with a new refrigerator and a grocery stipend or to remove the child from their home? The state will spend money either way. In my view, it may help to focus on lifting up the family in their struggles.
Beyond these basic solutions, and others not covered in this review, I don't really know how to fix the problem, and Rowe doesn't seem to know either. There's risk everywhere you turn. The state, while it can improve practices and oversight, will never be able to provide a child with the stability and consistency that most families can. The state can't provide genuine, lasting relationships.
I am troubled by Rowe's book. There are times, as a foster parent, that I have wondered if maybe I'm working with the bad guys here. I've wrestled with the idea of raising a child by committee, which is what happens when there are foster parents, case workers, a third-party worker, guardian ad litems, etc all trying to make collective decisions about the child's welfare. The whole system is gut-wrenching.
If you are interested in foster care, or involved in the system at any level, Rowe's book is worth the read.
Rowe's big, intriguing thesis is that foster care is a major contributor to juvenile criminal behavior. The state, having legal custody, sets up conditions that have a high likelihood of leading to criminality, but then bears no responsibility for the results of those conditions. Kids, having been kicked around, are then imprisoned for long stretches of their lives with little recourse or meaningful support. Rowe uses vivid, high-profile cases to demonstrate how the system works to this end. Prior to reading Rowe's book, I had not given careful consideration to this angle, but it makes sense. Of course, not all foster kids will end up in jail, but a significant enough percentage do, which makes the issue one worth thinking through.
Even if they don't end up in jail, foster kids have incredible difficulties transitioning to adult life, because they have usually bounced around to a number of different homes, and the state, though it offers some provisions up to a point, really does not set them up for any kind of adult success.
Rowe's book did confirm some thoughts that have been banging around in my head for a while. There are two major inflection points when it comes to foster care. The first involves when a child is taken from their home and put into the state's care. Is the state justified when it does this? In many cases, yes. There are children who are subjected to genuine abuse and neglect. Their homes are not safe and perhaps even their larger family network is not safe. But DSS also seems to confuse poverty with neglect/abuse at times. I have seen the state do exactly that with one of our own placements. A family may have a difficult time feeding their children and the state will see this as neglect. Though it is often difficult to determine when a child is in a genuinely dangerous situation, I suspect that it would be better if the state left families alone a little bit more. There's a risk factor in leaving kids with potentially unsafe home environments, but there's also a risk to placing children in foster care.
This leads to the second inflection point. Can foster care actually provide a family for these children? A better way to put it might be: can a state bureaucracy be a family? The answer is almost always no. A lot of kids who go through the system never get a sense of consistency. There's a rotating door of caseworkers, who often burn out within a few years on the job. Foster families, despite some training, are not equipped to deal with the complexities of raising a child who has come from a difficult, perhaps even abusive family situation. And so, when things get tough a foster family is free to ship the kid off to someone else. In the first inflection point (removing the kid from their home) there is no-win decision to make: do we subject this child to the risks of their own home or the risks of a state system that almost never provides security, consistency, and a pathway to healthy adult independence? Both things can be traumatic and unsafe.
I don't know what the solutions are for these problems. One possibility is to try harder to place children with extended family. States have focused on that more in recent years, but extended families are not always willing to take kids in. There's a lot of rejection going on. Another possibility is to have DSS focus more on helping families that are in troubled spots before deciding to remove kids from the home. This is an investment-minded solution. The state can spend money in a variety of ways. Which would be better? To provide a struggling family with a new refrigerator and a grocery stipend or to remove the child from their home? The state will spend money either way. In my view, it may help to focus on lifting up the family in their struggles.
Beyond these basic solutions, and others not covered in this review, I don't really know how to fix the problem, and Rowe doesn't seem to know either. There's risk everywhere you turn. The state, while it can improve practices and oversight, will never be able to provide a child with the stability and consistency that most families can. The state can't provide genuine, lasting relationships.
I am troubled by Rowe's book. There are times, as a foster parent, that I have wondered if maybe I'm working with the bad guys here. I've wrestled with the idea of raising a child by committee, which is what happens when there are foster parents, case workers, a third-party worker, guardian ad litems, etc all trying to make collective decisions about the child's welfare. The whole system is gut-wrenching.
If you are interested in foster care, or involved in the system at any level, Rowe's book is worth the read.
February 6, 2026
Wow. I knew the foster care system wasn’t great, but this was so enlightening. What a crazy system that is so overlooked and accepted, yet so off the rails
“It made no sense "to declare a home unsuitable for a child to receive assistance, and at the same time permit him to remain in that same home, exposed to the same environment," reasoned Arthur Flemming, secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
The policy sounds well-intended. But many social historians see this moment as a dire turning point. With Flemming's decree, the child welfare system shifted "from providing services to intact white families, to taking Black children from theirs," writes Dorothy Roberts in her 2022 work, Torn Apart. (Roberts is the same sociologist who tried to help Washington state reform its foster care system as a member of the Braam panel in the early 2ooos, and she came away from it convinced that the nation's entire approach to child welfare was corrupt.) In one fell swoop, she observes, Flemming enshrined the practice of hobbling Black families by evaluating them for benefits while removing the children of those judged unworthy.
Afterward, foster care was transformed. In a single year, between 19Gı and 1962, the system grew from 163,000 children to 272,000. Those numbers look quaint today. Child welfare agencies now touch the lives of more than a third of U.S. kids by the time they turn eighteen, including 53 percent of all Black Youth.”
“It made no sense "to declare a home unsuitable for a child to receive assistance, and at the same time permit him to remain in that same home, exposed to the same environment," reasoned Arthur Flemming, secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
The policy sounds well-intended. But many social historians see this moment as a dire turning point. With Flemming's decree, the child welfare system shifted "from providing services to intact white families, to taking Black children from theirs," writes Dorothy Roberts in her 2022 work, Torn Apart. (Roberts is the same sociologist who tried to help Washington state reform its foster care system as a member of the Braam panel in the early 2ooos, and she came away from it convinced that the nation's entire approach to child welfare was corrupt.) In one fell swoop, she observes, Flemming enshrined the practice of hobbling Black families by evaluating them for benefits while removing the children of those judged unworthy.
Afterward, foster care was transformed. In a single year, between 19Gı and 1962, the system grew from 163,000 children to 272,000. Those numbers look quaint today. Child welfare agencies now touch the lives of more than a third of U.S. kids by the time they turn eighteen, including 53 percent of all Black Youth.”
December 25, 2025
Had to DNF this book. The author lacked the nuance required to discuss this topic compassionately. The writing felt like her own unchecked biases were bleeding onto the pages. It’s frustrating to see an author writing about the foster care system and describing a white girl who grew up as a ward of the state like this,
“She shaped herself to please whoever was looking. Bare shoulders for online escort sites. Black slang when she ran switch street kids.”
That black slang/ street kid comment went all over me especially in a book about the foster care system. What is a street kid? What makes the girl being discussed different from said street kids? Her whiteness? I kept reading but I repeatedly ran into the same issue with how the author went about describing children, foster parents, etc.
Then I ran into the author stating, “Three years before she’d been playing soccer on a county field, white water rafting with the (adoptive family) and riding horses. Now she ran with Black girls who lived on the street or in PAC Highway hotels.” It’s wild no one read that sentence and thought maybe this author should rethink this. That now she ran with black girls comment came off tone deaf. This author could have kept this book to herself or at least ran it by folk who come from different backgrounds.
“She shaped herself to please whoever was looking. Bare shoulders for online escort sites. Black slang when she ran switch street kids.”
That black slang/ street kid comment went all over me especially in a book about the foster care system. What is a street kid? What makes the girl being discussed different from said street kids? Her whiteness? I kept reading but I repeatedly ran into the same issue with how the author went about describing children, foster parents, etc.
Then I ran into the author stating, “Three years before she’d been playing soccer on a county field, white water rafting with the (adoptive family) and riding horses. Now she ran with Black girls who lived on the street or in PAC Highway hotels.” It’s wild no one read that sentence and thought maybe this author should rethink this. That now she ran with black girls comment came off tone deaf. This author could have kept this book to herself or at least ran it by folk who come from different backgrounds.
October 11, 2025
This well-researched and compassionate look at the complex and heart wrenching foster system and foster to prison pipeline was eye opening. I started taking more of an interest in the system when friends served as foster parents and saw first hand the lack of support and resources for children in their care and everyone working or volunteering in the foster system. This book points to another broken system in the US. A fact I’m still stuck on, only 5% of foster children apply to college. I want to do something about this fact.
October 18, 2025
Exactly the nonfiction I’m drawn to, Wards of the State investigates the foster-care-to-prison pipeline through the stories of multiple young adults whose lives were impacted by state intervention (mostly in Washington state). A couple of these teenagers seriously harmed others through robbery and murder. Rowe weaves the steps that got them there as well as the evolution of thought on topics like family reunification, being placed with kin whenever possible, attachment theory, and child brain development. It’s heartbreaking what these kids went through, and heartbreaking what their decisions caused, but there are real nuggets where I think the author argues well regarding where we can go. I mean, the judge Ernestine Gray out of New Orleans’s way of thinking blew my mind: while foster care placement rose nationally, it plummeted in Orleans Parish. This is a great narrative nonfiction book for folks who like to learn about people and state systems.
November 19, 2025
i wanna help all the kids
October 15, 2025
The stories Claudia Rowe tells here are undeniably compelling, but the book as a whole felt somewhat surface-level. It didn’t reveal much I hadn’t already understood about how broken the foster system is, though I recognize that might not be the case for every reader. I wanted a deeper interrogation of why some kids emerge relatively unscathed while others don’t; Rowe gestures toward that question but never really sits with it. Still, her empathy as a reporter toward the men and women she profiles certainly comes through.
December 14, 2025
Children and adolescents in foster care are diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at nearly twice the rate of U.S. war veterans.
20-25% of the US prison population are former foster youth.
1 in 41 Black children will have their legal parental relationship terminated, compared to 1 in 100 for all U.S. children (note that the US has a history of family separation, from auctions of enslaved people to Indian boarding schools to immigrants at the border)
Total spending across federal, state, and local levels for all child welfare activities, including foster care, exceeds $34 billion yearly, much of this goes to administration and payments to foster parents/facilities rather than family reunification services
The National Academies of Sciences affirmed that the experience of foster care causes neurological damage to children’s brains
Between 2008-2020, 66,000 children were given back to child welfare after being taken in by families who later changed their minds
Fewer than 5% of kids who age out of foster care at 18 earn bachelors degrees
20-25% of the US prison population are former foster youth.
1 in 41 Black children will have their legal parental relationship terminated, compared to 1 in 100 for all U.S. children (note that the US has a history of family separation, from auctions of enslaved people to Indian boarding schools to immigrants at the border)
Total spending across federal, state, and local levels for all child welfare activities, including foster care, exceeds $34 billion yearly, much of this goes to administration and payments to foster parents/facilities rather than family reunification services
The National Academies of Sciences affirmed that the experience of foster care causes neurological damage to children’s brains
Between 2008-2020, 66,000 children were given back to child welfare after being taken in by families who later changed their minds
Fewer than 5% of kids who age out of foster care at 18 earn bachelors degrees
July 5, 2025
The issues facing children who have interacted with the foster care system are as complicated as the systems that have failed them and as simple as their need for a consistent and caring adult in their lives. Ms. Rowe, through her in-depth and thoughtful reporting of the experiences of those who have been through ‘the system’ and the system itself, lays out a compelling examination of where the children in our foster care system are and have been. I am hoping that this book will be an agent for needed change- where do we go from here?
December 16, 2025
For anyone who wonders what people mean when they say the foster care system is broken, this book is a good start. 5 stars for the stories! The devastating, the amazing, the exceptional & the all-too-typical stories. If you aren’t already sad & mad, this book will make you so. Not necessarily 5 stars for all the claims, though I buy most of them. (See WSJ book review as an example of criticism. Studies on foster care outcomes are not simple.)
July 3, 2025
A look at the lives of six adults who were foster youth- moving through regular placements, lack of support, and experiencing the immense problems in the system. A lot of the focus was on the foster care to prison pipeline, and the need for kids to have consistent people pouring into their lives. Worth a read for sure!
November 3, 2025
An absolute must read. I was captivated, devastated, and yet hopeful the entire way through.
November 3, 2025
A powerful, deeply human examination of how the U.S. foster system often fails the children it’s meant to protect. Through the stories of several former foster youth, Rowe exposes how instability, neglect, and systemic dysfunction can lead many toward incarceration, homelessness, and despair.
November 11, 2025
Confirmed a lot of what I see and worry about.
December 30, 2025
A hard but necessary look at Foster care and the outcomes faced by the kids and families it claims to serve. There has to be a better way.
January 27, 2026
A must read for understanding how a large portion of people imprisoned were parented by the government. This book is a thorough examination of how we collectively fail children in foster care. Rowe's writing builds empathy for children who are determined to be unsafe in their homes. A difficult but important read.
November 5, 2025
I read this book because it's a National Book Award Finalist for nonfiction. And it is very worthy of being a finalist. A look at foster care and how very terrible the system is. How it preys on the poor and people of color. How those children are abused and spit out and are in a pipeline straight to jail. It was a hard read but a great one.
November 2, 2025
The hard truth about the foster care system and all its ugliness. Although the government has tried to fix the pitfalls, it just doesn't work out for most.
January 15, 2026
A deep dive into the depressing dysfunction of the foster care system. While fascinating, it’s a little heavy handed in its bleakness, perhaps because it focuses so heavily on the foster care to prison pipeline. I was most intrigued by her research on the origins of the foster care system, which were truly shocking, and both past and present attempts to change outcomes.
January 1, 2025
4 stars-When you think of foster kids a lot of what comes to mind is the little who get placed and then adopted to go to live happy full lives. What you don’t think of is that the majority of teenagers who are placed into foster care will end up in multiple homes, group homes, and potentially prison. The author provided a very thoroughly researched look at the foster to prison pipeline. Through the stories of eight kids, there are successes, but there are also failures in the system. My heart aches thinking about how some kids get placed in foster care and are “returned” to the system. This was an eye opening read, especially being a teacher who has taught kids from foster families. There is a lot of work to be done with the foster care system and this book will hopefully bring some light to that topic. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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