Hi everybody! 

Just a quick request before we get started today: please start thinking about and submitting any topic or guest ideas you have for Season 2 of Shake the Dust. You can either reply directly to this email, or you can write to shakethedust@ktfpress.com. We’re starting to plan, and would love your input! Thanks in advance! Alright, let’s get to this week’s highlights. 

Sy’s recommendations: 

• About 1% of American children have no legal ties to their biological family. This is because of a federal law from the 90s called the Adoption and Safe Families Act, which created a nationwide, one-size-fits-all timeline for terminating parental rights when children are in foster care. This includes children who have no prospective adoptive family. Oh, and the feds give foster care agencies financial incentives to finalize adoptions, but not to reunite biological families. One law maker is fighting for some amount of reform, but many parents and activists are clear that we need to more drastically rethink the system. This PBS article lays out many of the issues at play clearly, and it’s a great place to start learning. You can listen to our foster care episode of Shake the Dust for a lot more information, and you will find several more resources for learning in the show notes there too.