'It felt like being kidnapped': the trauma of short stays in foster care

Every year, about 17,000 children are taken from their families only to be returned within days. The impact can be lifelong

• This story is a collaborative project between The Marshall Project and Searchlight New Mexico

The children usually arrived in the dead of night, silent and terrified.

For two years, Daniel Derkacs and Ashley Keiler-Green, foster parents in Albuquerque, New Mexico, regularly took in kids whose parents were suspected of abusing or neglecting them. Sometimes, as the couple scrambled to find pajamas for their latest house guest, they wondered if they’d just met a child who would be with them for years to come.

Related: The mother imprisoned for child abuse she didn't commit

This article was originally published by the Marshall Project and Searchlight New Mexico. The Marshall Project is a nonprofit news organization covering the US criminal justice system; sign up for their newsletter, or follow the Marshall Project on Facebook or Twitter. Searchlight is a nonprofit investigative news organization that focuses largely on child wellbeing in New Mexico. Its newsletter signup is here, and follow Searchlight on Twitter or Facebook

Continue reading...

from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2uAIJqv