Pennsylvania already recognizes that children in foster care are entitled to essential rights and protections. 

But rights written on paper are only as strong as the accountability that exists when those rights are not honored.

I didn’t come to this issue because I read a report about foster care.

I came to it by living inside the system.

As a foster and adoptive parent, I have sat in meetings, made phone calls, sent emails, asked questions, pushed for services, and watched decisions made by adults ripple through children’s lives.

I’ve also met caseworkers, foster parents, biological families, advocates, attorneys, providers, and professionals who are trying desperately to do good work inside an incredibly complicated system.

This isn’t about making those people the enemy.

It’s about recognizing a gap that matters.

Pennsylvania’s Children in Foster Care Act establishes essential protections for children in foster care, including fairness, dignity and respect; appropriate care and services; involvement in decisions affecting their lives; and access to a grievance process.

Those protections matter.

But when a child believes those protections have failed, navigating what happens next can mean navigating the very system responsible for their care.

A child shouldn’t need to know which county agency, private provider, grievance procedure, regulatory office, advocate, attorney, or government entity has jurisdiction before someone listens.

Children should not have to understand the bureaucracy surrounding them in order to have their rights protected.

What we are asking Pennsylvania to do

We are calling on Pennsylvania policymakers to establish permanent, independent statewide child-welfare oversight that helps hold the system accountable to the rights and protections already promised to children in foster care.

That structure should include:

• A clear, accessible way for foster youth to raise concerns outside the agency or provider involved in the complaint.
• The ability to receive and meaningfully review complaints from children, families, and others involved in the child-welfare system.
• Appropriate access to records and information necessary to examine those concerns while protecting children's confidentiality.
• Child-friendly information explaining rights and how to seek help, written in language children can actually understand.
• The ability to identify recurring problems across counties, facilities, agencies, and providers. 
• Public, de-identified reporting of statewide trends and systemic concerns. 
• Clear pathways for referring concerns to agencies or authorities that have the power to take corrective or enforcement action.

Whatever legislative path Pennsylvania ultimately chooses, the principle should be simple:

A child’s ability to have their rights heard should not depend entirely on the system they are asking to hold accountable.

Foster care will never be simple.

The people working inside it will never be able to prevent every difficult decision, placement disruption, disagreement, or painful outcome.

Independent oversight won’t fix every problem either.

But accountability matters.

Transparency matters.

A child’s voice matters.

And dignity cannot simply be something we promise children when they enter foster care. It has to remain part of how we treat them when the system becomes complicated, overwhelmed, or uncomfortable.

This is bigger than one agency, one county, one provider, one foster family, or one child’s story.

It’s about what Pennsylvania believes children deserve when the Commonwealth assumes responsibility for their safety and care.

I believe every child deserves to be heard, protected, and treated with dignity. And if this effort helps even one child feel less alone, find the right person to listen, or have their rights taken seriously, then it will be worth it.

Children deserve more than rights written on paper.

They deserve a foster care system that protects those rights in practice, not just in theory.

Please sign this petition and stand with Pennsylvania’s children in foster care in calling for permanent, independent accountability for the rights they have already been promised.