[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 3, 2023)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 27663-27665]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-09532]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 85 / Wednesday, May 3, 2023 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 27663]]


                Proclamation 10562 of April 28, 2023

                
National Foster Care Month, 2023

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The more than 391,000 American children and youth 
                living in foster care deserve to grow up in safe and 
                loving homes devoted to their health, happiness, and 
                advancement. This month, we honor the absolute courage 
                of young people in foster care, who too often endure 
                challenges that no child should ever have to confront, 
                and we give thanks to the dedicated kinship and foster 
                parents who care for them during their times of 
                greatest need. We recognize the biological parents and 
                families of foster children who work hard to overcome 
                difficult circumstances so they can safely reunite with 
                their children. We also rededicate ourselves to 
                supporting the volunteers and professionals who help 
                America's foster youth find temporary and permanent 
                homes.

                Despite the selflessness and service of loving foster 
                parents across the country, children in foster care 
                often face an uphill battle in achieving their full 
                potential. Many carry lasting physical and emotional 
                scars from trauma they experienced at a young age, 
                which can increase their risk of mental health issues 
                or lead to substance use disorders. These challenges 
                are magnified for children of color, who are 
                disproportionately represented in the child welfare 
                system: 1 in 9 Black children and 1 in 7 Native 
                American children spend part of their childhood in 
                foster care. Meanwhile, recent estimates suggest 30 
                percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQI+.

                To fulfill our Nation's responsibility to our children, 
                we need to prevent the conditions that lead to kids 
                entering foster care in the first place. My 
                Administration has invested hundreds of millions of 
                dollars in community-based child abuse and neglect 
                prevention programs, and we are requesting an increase 
                from the Congress for these programs. We are also 
                proposing a $5 billion expansion of evidence-based 
                foster care prevention services to allow more children 
                to remain safely in their own homes with their own 
                families. Because poverty can trigger interventions 
                that unnecessarily remove children from their families, 
                we are fighting to restore the expanded Child Tax 
                Credit, which in 2021 helped slash child poverty to its 
                lowest rate ever. And as a dangerous wave of cynical 
                State investigations targets families with transgender 
                children, we will keep working to stop politicians from 
                weaponizing child protective services against loving 
                families who simply want to support their kids and help 
                them to be their authentic selves.

                For children and youth already in the foster care 
                system, we must continue finding them loving temporary 
                homes and, ultimately, safe and supportive permanent 
                homes. My Administration is working to help States 
                place more children with relatives and other trusted 
                adults instead of in group homes. We are seeking to 
                make it easier for biological parents to safely reunite 
                with their children by providing these families with 
                legal representation to help them navigate the complex 
                child welfare system.

[[Page 27664]]

                To make adoption and legal guardianship more manageable 
                for families who could otherwise create safe and 
                supportive homes, I have called for the adoption tax 
                credit to be made fully refundable and proposed 
                extending it to legal guardians--including 
                grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives. This 
                would provide more breathing room to the kinship 
                caregivers currently raising nearly one-third of all 
                children in the foster care system, and it would also 
                help reduce racial inequities in our country's child 
                welfare system.

                To further increase the number of loving families who 
                can take in foster children, I issued an Executive 
                Order removing barriers and combating biases that make 
                it harder for LGBTQI+ families to foster and adopt. At 
                the same time, we are working with State child welfare 
                agencies to make sure LGBTQI+ youth are placed in 
                supportive environments that see and value them for who 
                they are.

                Since coming to office, my Administration has worked 
                hand-in-hand with States to help youth aging out of the 
                foster care system to stay in school, participate in 
                job training programs, pay their bills, and transition 
                to adulthood. I have also expanded the Military 
                Parental Leave Program, which enables service members 
                to spend needed time with their families following a 
                child's birth, adoption, or placement in long-term 
                foster care. My latest Budget calls for $9 billion to 
                provide housing vouchers to all 20,000 youth exiting 
                foster care annually--a key step in helping them secure 
                stable housing during this difficult transition. I have 
                also called for an additional $1 billion to help youth 
                aging out of foster care find a job, enroll in and 
                afford higher education, obtain basic necessities, and 
                access preventative health care.

                One of my great privileges during my career in public 
                service has been meeting some of the remarkable young 
                people in foster care and their foster parents. I have 
                seen what good foster care can do. Despite the 
                challenges that no young person should ever have to 
                face, loving foster families can help children become 
                independent, confident, successful members of society 
                and can be a critical resource to children and families 
                in times of need. Ensuring that children who are 
                separated from their families are placed in loving and 
                supportive environments, while ensuring that as many 
                families as possible have the resources they need to 
                remain safely together, is a moral duty we all share 
                and an investment in America's future that will pay 
                dividends for generations to come.

                This National Foster Care Month, we express our 
                gratitude to every loving foster parent in America, and 
                we acknowledge every young person navigating the child 
                welfare system, unsure of what the future might hold. 
                You can succeed, and my Administration will do all it 
                can to provide you with the tools and resources you 
                need and the secure, respectable upbringing you deserve 
                to create a meaningful life.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of 
                the United States of America, by virtue of the 
                authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws 
                of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2023 as 
                National Foster Care Month. I call upon all Americans 
                to observe this month by reaching out in their 
                neighborhoods and communities to the children and youth 
                in foster care and their families, to those at risk of 
                entering foster care, and to kin families and other 
                caregivers.

[[Page 27665]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                seventh.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2023-09532
Filed 5-2-23; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F3-P