Arizona’s foster care system is filling up fast

PHOENIX — On average, 32 children are placed in Arizona’s foster care system every day.

“Today in Arizona, 32 new kids are going to come into foster care, and tomorrow the same thing, and the next day the same thing,” said Kris Jacober, Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation executive director.

Jacober is a foster parent who lives in the Valley and works with several foster care organizations. She said the state of Arizona is in desperate need of more foster parents right now:

“There’s more kids in foster care than there has ever been before; 16,400 statewide,” Jacober said.

Because there are so many children in the foster care system, Jacober believes right now is time for loving families throughout Arizona to come forward and take in a child who needs a home.

“If there were ever a time for the community to step up and do something about it, I would say this is the time,” Jacober said. “So that when those 32 kids come in to foster care today they don’t end up sleeping in a Department of Child Safety office in a cot next to a desk.”