Across the country, an unregulated system is severing parents from children, who often end up abandoned by the agencies that are supposed to protect them.
Across the country, unregulated “shadow” foster care is severing parents from children who often wind up abandoned by the system that’s supposed to protect them.
Natasha King thought it would be temporary, just a few months.
When the state called in 2013 and asked if she could parent her two grandchildren, she didn’t hesitate to take in the kids she loved more than anything in the world. Their mother’s drug problems had gone from bad to worse, and their father had addiction issues of his own.
King, a 46-year-old nursing assistant in Lexington, Kentucky, is still the primary caretaker of her grandchildren, now 12 and 13 years old. Although she had been working two jobs to support her family, she had to quit one during the pandemic to guide the kids through online learning.