I agree that the story is troubling. And I agree that foster care is not the solution. However, as someone who works in foster care in TEXAS, I gotta say, I don't think we've ever "lost" any children...unless you count the teenagers who run away because they don't have the tools to deal with stress. Of course there are those missed opportunities where children aren't saved at all. There has been a rash of those, but it isn't the foster care system that caused that. That was the children's own parents who killed their kids and it was the state and the judicial system that allowed it to happen. Now, as for foster family motivations...I agree with you that some do not always have altruistic intentions. Some do it for the money. We work hard to weed those people from our agency, but they do exist. There are rigorous background checks every two years, and an initial FBI check of every person over 14 in a home. Some criminal records are allowed, like driving with a suspended license or a decades old drug charge, but any recent felony charge must be dismissed in order to qualify. When we get a dirty background check back, the state foster care licensing division requires that we return an action form stating whether the person will be allowed around children. Most are not. One gentleman, who cares for the quadriplegic husband of one of our foster mothers just had an 8 page record come back. He will have to move on, and the mother will have to find other means to help with her husband. She's a wonderful foster mother who loves the children and her husband. I don't want to sound defensive, but your statement about the foster care system in several states had to be corrected. CPS is shit; the foster care system and parents are not.