Charlotte foster care symposium highlights education 

YOUVERSION | UNSPLASH

Fostering the Connection and Children's Home Society of North Carolina are partnering for the second annual State of Foster Care Symposium Oct. 15 at South Park Church.

Foster care can stabilize a child’s life. 

On Oct. 15, Fostering the Connection, in partnership with the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina, is hosting the second annual State of Foster Care Symposium at South Park Church from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Admission is free. 

The symposium brings together community stakeholders, child welfare professionals, foster and adoptive families to provide resources for foster parents as well as necessary conversations about the realities of foster care. 

“We are very excited,” said co-founder Camille Maara said. “We did this last year, and we realized immediately how needed the conversation was. It was an incredible opportunity to get everyone into a room that has their hand somewhere in the foster care community. … We want to bring awareness to what it means to be in the foster care community, what it means for our youth, because these children are going to grow up and hopefully be responsible members of our society.” 

Licensed foster homes are in short supply in Mecklenburg County, which had 67 for an estimated 400 children on any given day. As a result, many are forced into temporary arrangements while they wait for a home match.

Black children have historically made up a disproportionate share of Mecklenburg’s foster care community – in 2017 it was roughly half despite representing a third of all children in the county. Another challenge is navigating education. According to Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, issues ranging from frequent school changes to incomplete school records and accessing transportation to and from campus pose barriers to student achievement.

“Consequently, and through no fault of their own, these students are more likely to perform below grade level, be retained, or drop out of school altogether,” center researchers wrote in May. The four-year graduation rate of Mecklenburg public school students in foster care was 46% in 2025, compared to 60% for North Carolina.

In 2019 a report on race and poverty bias in the child welfare system showed five areas of disparity: the correlation between poverty and maltreatment; visibility or exposure bias; limited access to services; geographic restrictions and conscious or unconscious personal bias among welfare professionals.

Experts recommend several strategies to address those factors, including developing culturally responsive practices as well as recruiting and retaining foster families of color. 

The symposium’s aim is to provide resources to caregivers and foster families to help them better understand the realities and challenges. 

“We try to work within our community to make sure that our caregivers feel like this is something that they can do,” Maara said. “Once they open up their homes and once they are officially licensed, so many of them are not knowledgeable about what they really just signed themselves up for, and so they figure it out. They’re learning at the same time as they have a placement, and so that’s where we’re seeing a lot of doors close. … Our work is to make sure that once a caregiver says ‘yes,’ that they’re able to continue to say yes every day.”

Said symposium co-founder Nicole Hanks: “Ongoing support not just at the beginning when you’re starting to foster or when the kids come in your home,” Hanks said, “or at the end when you’re pulling your hair out. It needs to be consistent throughout the entire time, and that is continued education as far as what’s available, what resources are available, leaning on respite.”

Respite care is short term, temporary placement where a child stays with another licensed caregiver to give primary foster parents a break.

“So many people think that if you use respite then you are failing as foster parents,” Hanks said. “That is not the case at all. There are so many more challenges when it comes to parenting children in foster care, whether it’s special needs or extra needs, multiple doctors’ appointments and visitations and just trying to run your own household.”

The symposium will include panel discussions conducted by social workers as well as foster parents discussing challenges to change. The second panel will be focused on resources for parents and caregivers or anyone considering foster parenting. 

“That is why these conversations are needed and it’s bringing everyone in one room to talk about why we are doing the things we are doing,” Maara said.

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