Foster Care Crisis in Alaska Exacerbated by Covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is leaving more children in Alaska’s foster care system without a stable home. For many of the roughly 3,000 foster children in Alaska, finding a stable home has never been harder, APM writes.

“Children are sleeping in offices, in OCS offices, because they test positive for COVID, and there’s no one available to take them,” said Amanda Metivier, interim director of the Child Welfare Academy, a University of Alaska Anchorage organization that provides training for people working with foster youth. 

Alaska has long struggled to have enough foster homes for the children and teenagers who need them, but the pandemic has made the problem even worse.

There are roughly 3,000 children in the foster care system. But by the end of last year, there were just over 650 licensed homes that could take any child — down from more than 1,100 the year before, according to the Office of Children’s Services.