DISAPPEARING

AND DYING:
Why 20,000 kids disappear from foster care
every year and how to end this crisis.

AUTHORS:
Darcy Olsen, Gen Justice CEO
Rebecca Masterson, Gen Justice Chief Counsel

January 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Anaiah Walker was 15 when she went missing from Arizona’s foster
care system in December 2019. Five months later, her body – shoeless
and disfigured – was found discarded on the median of a freeway.1
It took the police 12 days to identify the child.
Anaiah was one of the estimated 20,000 children who go missing
from the child protection system every year. State agencies weren’t
required to report missing foster children to law enforcement until
2014. Since then, reports of children missing from care have more
than doubled.2 Protocols and best practices for the search and
recovery of missing foster children are scarce, and laws outlining
search requirements are virtually nonexistent.
Traffickers know that children without stable families are easy
prey. Research overwhelmingly shows that most sexually trafficked
children are from foster care.3 Some children, like Anaiah, are found
dead. Some are never found.

“No one looks for us. I really want to make this clear.
No one looks for us.”
– T. Ortiz Walker Pettigrew 4
 ISSUE BRIEF 2

THREE In the past 20 years, the cases of over 100,000 missing foster children
KEY were closed before the children were located.5 Some cases were closed
TAKEAWAYS as quickly as six months and on children as young as 9 years old.

An unknown number – but easily in the thousands upon thousands –

of kids who disappear from care are trafficked.

Children who have been recovered from sex trafficking report that
they are given a quota of up to 15 buyers per night. This means a
sex-trafficking victim may be raped thousands of times a year.6

On an average day, 55 children will disappear from the U.S. foster care
system – the very system charged with keeping abused children safe.
The state should make every effort to keep foster children safe and,
when a child goes missing, spare no effort in finding him or her.
ISSUE BRIEF 3

A dozen recommendations, if enacted by legislators, would reduce

the number of foster children who go missing and make it more likely
that those who disappear will be rescued.

CRITICAL REFORMS INCLUDE:

• Educate foster children about sex trafficking and related dangers.

• Give teens a reason to stay safe and in school by establishing a

personal Foster Care Trust for each teen.

• Appoint an attorney for every kid in state care.

• Require photo identification cards for foster children.

• Require searches for missing children and keep court cases open.

• Utilize 21st century technology and the private sector.

• Provide law enforcement with the resources to conduct

full-fledged searches for missing children.

• Amend state confidentiality laws to allow disclosure of

information about missing children.
 ISSUE BRIEF 4

ALICIA AND CLAUDIA:

A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

ALICIA CLAUDIA

Alicia Kozakiewicz was a typical 13-year-old who Claudia,8 a teenager in Arizona’s foster system,
lived with her loving family in a safe Pennsylvania disappeared from care in November 2020.
suburb.7 Alicia met a new friend, a teenage boy, Unlike Alicia, there have been no posters, no searches,
in an online chat room and agreed to meet him. and no FBI involvement. There is not even a photograph
After dinner one night, she quietly left her house to assist law enforcement in finding her. State law
and walked down the street to their arranged prevents anyone who receives information about a
meeting place. foster child from disclosing the information, thus
Alicia’s “new friend” turned out to be a 38-year-old even her real name can’t be shared.9
child predator who kidnapped Alicia from her safe This is the information available online to locate
neighborhood. He drove her to a basement torture Claudia (redaction ours). It could describe
chamber in another state, where he stripped, chained, thousands of girls.
beat and raped her for days while streaming the
abuse online.
It is a horrific story. But it ends with Alicia’s rescue.
Alicia’s family turned the world upside down to find
her. Not a single second was lost. Due to the family’s
diligence, police immediately launched a search.
Digital footprints were traced. A recent photograph
of Alicia was plastered on walls, bulletin boards,
and on television. Alicia was ultimately recovered
by the FBI.
As with most recovered children, someone recognizing
her photograph helped save Alicia’s life.
Alicia was not in the foster system. Claudia was.
And that makes all the difference.

With no families to lead the search, no photos to

broadcast, and laws that prevent transparency about
the details of a youth’s identity and disappearance,
Claudia disappeared from foster care Claudia and tens of thousands of other missing foster
children remain just that - missing.
in November 2020. There wasn’t even
a photograph of her to provide to
law enforcement.
 ISSUE BRIEF 5

Federal law requires child welfare agencies to report missing foster

youth to law enforcement for entry into the National Crime Information
Center (NCIC) and, separately, to the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children (NCMEC) within 24 hours.10 Many states fail to
meet even this bare minimum.

For a state’s search and Shortcomings build from there. Federal law requires states to develop
rescue protocol to be and implement specific protocols for locating missing foster children,
but leaves it up to each state how to conduct searches.11 Little
effective, confidentiality
guidance is available regarding best practices for these searches.
laws must be amended to Most states ask caseworkers to lead searches on top of their other
allow immediate disclosure responsibilities, instead of giving that duty to law enforcement.
of identifying information. States hamper searches before they begin by forbidding disclosure
of any information that would identify a missing child as a foster
youth. Child welfare agencies are prohibited from disclosing details
about the children in their care, missing or not. For a state’s search
and rescue protocol to be effective, confidentiality laws must be
amended to allow immediate disclosure of identifying information,
including photographs.
Additional reforms, such as creating ways to get more foster children
into stable homes, providing mentoring and establishing trust funds,
would prevent children from disappearing in the first place.
 ISSUE BRIEF 6

RECOMMENDATIONS If you’re like us, you can still hardly believe what you’re reading:
How could social services lose 20,000 children a year – and not
look for them?
A partial explanation is that many social service agencies historically
have classified missing kids as “runaways.” Never mind that some
missing kids are babies and toddlers.
Furthermore, the term implies that these children, despite being
children, are at fault for their circumstances or in some way
responsible for the harm that has come to them, negating the
need to search for them.
As an example, news reports used the word “kidnapped” about Alicia
Kozakiewicz, the teenager who was lured from her family’s home by
an online predator. But a foster child who walks out of a group home,
lured by a predator in an identical manner, is termed a “runaway.”
While children do run from foster care, this in no way absolves the
state of its responsibility to protect and find minors in its legal custody.
Child protection agencies need to take all the actions a responsible
parent would. Like Alicia, kids who leave their foster homes have no
idea of the horrors that may lie ahead. They need to be rescued.

How could social services lose 20,000 children a year –

and not look for them?
 ISSUE BRIEF 7

1. TRANSPARENCY

REQUIRE COMPLETE REPORTING AND TRANSPARENCY

ABOUT MISSING CHILDREN
Federal laws require states to report missing foster children
to law enforcement and NCMEC, as well as track information
about how and why the children went missing and whether
the child was a victim of sex trafficking.12 The NCMEC reports
that states are not reporting all cases to it, leaving crucial
information about these vulnerable children unexplored and
unresolved.13 In October 2020, the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services’ inspector general announced an audit
of states’ efforts to locate children missing from care, with
reports expected in 2021.14

Laws should require states It is vital that states clearly and transparently report missing
to report all efforts made to children and publicly categorize them as such until they are
found, and not just because it’s the law. The state has a legal
search for missing children,
and moral responsibility to locate and safeguard children in
which children have been its care until age 18.
found and which continue
In addition to the federal requirement that missing children
to be missing. be reported to law enforcement and NCMEC within 24 hours,
state laws should require agencies to report all efforts made
to search for missing children, to document which children
have been found and which continue to be missing, and how
many children are missing when they legally exit foster care
at age 18. Transparent reporting protects children and allows
lawmakers, children’s advocates and the public to hold child
protection agencies accountable.
 ISSUE BRIEF 8

AMEND CONFIDENTIALITY LAWS SO THEY

DON’T HINDER SEARCHES
When Anaiah Walker’s body was found on a Phoenix freeway,
the child protection agency was asked what it had done to try
to find her. Citing state confidentiality laws, the agency would
not speak to Anaiah’s case specifically, and instead, responded
with general information about the agency’s policy.15
We do not know whether this policy was followed.
Federal law requires states to keep child welfare information
confidential “in order to protect the rights of the child and of
the child’s parents and guardians,” but allows disclosure of
information when it serves a legitimate state purpose.16
Locating missing children is surely a legitimate purpose,
Child welfare agencies and law so state laws can be amended to ensure the most effective
searches possible. When these laws are used to prevent
enforcement must be free to use
examination of a foster child’s death, such as Anaiah’s, or
all available methods to search
to prevent the release of information that could help police
for missing foster children. and the public find a missing child, the intent of federal law
is being thwarted.
State confidentiality laws should be amended to provide a
clear exception allowing disclosure of information about a
child in state care when that child is missing. Child welfare
agencies and law enforcement agencies must be free to use
all available methods to search for these children, including
dissemination of photographs and other identifying details
to the public.
 ISSUE BRIEF 9

2. PREVENTION

Two-thirds of victims of sex trafficking have a significant

history of child abuse and involvement with the child
protection system.17 By definition, every child in foster
care is at an increased risk of being trafficked.
2/3 of victims of sex trafficking At an even heightened risk of going missing and being
victimized are children and youth in group homes, children
have a significant history of child
who have been moved multiple times, foster children with
abuse and involvement with the intellectual disabilities, and children who have a history of
child protection system. running from their placement.18 On the other hand, children
living with licensed foster parents or relatives are less likely
to go missing, as are children placed with their siblings.19
These statistics provide a clear need for more foster
homes and stable relative placements.

PRIORITIZE SAFE PLACEMENTS BY FINDING

RELATIVES QUICKLY
Children who live with relatives, are placed with siblings,
and those who live with foster parents (as opposed to
group homes) are safer and less likely to go missing.
Effective prevention strategies should prioritize these
placements. Arizona and Georgia, as an example, require
an immediate search for relative placements within 30 days
of a child coming into care. As an oversight mechanism,
the child welfare agency must file proof of these efforts
with the court.20
ISSUE BRIEF 10

CREATIVELY RECRUIT MORE FOSTER PARENTS AND

RETAIN MORE FOSTER FAMILIES
Older foster children who have experienced several place-
ments are among the most likely to disappear from care.22
Recruiting and retaining foster parents for older children is
key to providing teenage foster children with a stable home.

TWO POSSIBILITIES:
• 
Recruit empty-nesters and early retirees to foster teens.
Older children often need the one-on-one attention that
being an only child can provide and could thrive with the
patience, authority, and stability of a home parented by
older adults.23 States can develop recruiting programs
aimed at empty nesters and encourage licensing
agencies to do the same.
• 
Allow licensing reciprocity between states. When licensed
foster parents move to another state, they must begin the
licensing process from scratch to continue fostering. As
part of the effort to retain foster parents, states could offer
reciprocity with other states, streamlining the process to
retain as many available safe placements for children
as possible.

“When I entered foster care at 13, I was told no

one wanted teenagers. They were right. By 16,
I was homeless, sleeping in bus stations and
at the airport, forced to accept that I was on
my own in the world.”
– Quay Bowen 21
 ISSUE BRIEF 11

PAIR AT-RISK FOSTER CHILDREN WITH MENTORS

All children at heightened risk – kids in group homes, with
intellectual disabilities or who have moved multiple times in
foster care – could be paired with screened, volunteer adult
mentors who commit to being a long-term presence for a
child in state care.
Placing these children in a stable home with foster parents
isn’t always possible, unfortunately. Children need an adult
in their lives who they know cares about them. Research
suggests that mentoring programs for teenagers in foster
care can reduce incarceration and homelessness rates while
improving educational and employment outcomes for these
young adults.24

State child welfare agencies EDUCATE FOSTER CHILDREN ABOUT SEX TRAFFICKING
have legally taken the AND RELATED DANGERS
responsibilities and functions Most parents teach their children from very young ages about
of a parent. As such, they “stranger danger,” sexual predators, kidnappers, and other
grave threats. State child welfare agencies are loco parentis,
have an obligation to provide
having taken the legal responsibility of the functions and
children in foster care with
responsibilities of a parent. They have an obligation to
appropriate education provide children in foster care with age and developmentally
about trafficking and appropriate resources on these topics, including grooming
predatory behaviors. and predatory behaviors.
Many non-profits, such as the McCain Institute and RAINN,
offer countless free and effective resources toward this end.
Children in state care also should be provided with emergency
resources, such as the National Human Trafficking Hotline,
that provides 24/7 confidential hotlines.
 ISSUE BRIEF 12

GIVE TEENS A REASON TO STAY SAFE AND IN SCHOOL

BY ESTABLISHING A FOSTER CARE TRUST
While every child in foster care has a unique experience,
common to many teens is a belief that they will never have
a safe and stable place to live. That’s why they run.
Individual foster care accounts, States can give these kids hope and a future to look forward to
in addition to reducing the desire by creating individualized foster care trusts. Health, education,
and welfare trusts have a strong history and legal pedigree that
for kids to run from the system,
can inform the creation of trusts for this unique population.
could include incentives that
The trusts could be established for teens in care and accessed
encourage education, employ- at age 18 or 21 for a variety of needs, including college, trade
ment and other positive choices. school, technical education or other means of learning life
skills, a phone and computer, rent, or any number of needs
a teenager forced to live on his own would have.
The trusts could include incentives to encourage positive
choices in a tangible and meaningful way, such as bonus
funds for academic performance, employment, staying clean,
or any number of positive life steps.
These accounts, in addition to reducing the desire for kids to
run from the system, would be life affirming for the estimated
20,000 children a year who age out of care without families.
These kids statistically face dismal odds, including increased
homelessness, incarceration and teen pregnancy.25
Funding could come from multiple public and private sources,
including existing revenue streams for education and foster
care. A philanthropic business or foundation could partner
with the state to set up a pilot program.
 ISSUE BRIEF 13

APPOINT AN ATTORNEY FOR EVERY KID IN STATE CARE

A dependency matter is a legal process, yet 34 states do not
provide lawyers for the children who are the subjects of these
cases.26 Children with client-directed lawyers get out of the
foster system and into permanent homes up to 3.5 times faster,
at a cost savings to the state.27
Specific to children at risk of disappearing from care, attorneys
ensure that a foster child has a strong voice in his or her court
case, including placement issues, the need for additional
services, and protection from abuse or neglect occurring to
the child while in the foster system. Attorneys can address the
myriad of issues that put children at risk of aging out, running,
Children with legal and being further victimized. They provide a crucial safety net
of protection.
representation exit
Further, if a child is missing, the attorney can ensure that
foster care and achieve
all search and rescue operations are being conducted, that
permanency up to all leads are being followed, and that the child’s case
3.5 times faster. remains open.
 ISSUE BRIEF 14

3. SEARCH AND RESCUE

Federal law requires every state to “develop and implement

specific protocols for expeditiously locating any child missing
from foster care.”28 The first priority must be compliance with
this mandate in a manner that accurately identifies each and
every foster child who goes missing, then requires an immediate
and meaningful search.

REQUIRE PHOTO IDENTIFICATION CARDS

FOR FOSTER CHILDREN

The single most helpful The single most helpful tool in recovering a missing child is
a recent photograph, according to law enforcement.29 Most
tool in recovering a missing parents carry a veritable photo album of their children on their
child is a recent photograph, smart phones, but children in foster care rarely have families
according to law enforcement. to snap pictures, making recent photographs of these children
scarce. Too often, when a child goes missing from foster care,
there is “no image available.” This translates to little hope of
being found.
A recent photograph is critical to locating a child. Legislation
introduced in Arizona would waive the cost of state identifi-
cation cards for all children in foster care and require these
photo cards for every child in a group home – a simple, yet
powerful update to state child welfare statutes.30 If a child
goes missing, the state identification card photo can easily
and immediately be linked to national and local databases
and missing person online indexes.
ISSUE BRIEF 15

UTILIZE 21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY AND

THE PRIVATE SECTOR
Seventy-five percent of child sex-trafficking survivors were
sold online.31 Predators use cutting-edge technology to exploit
children while, in contrast, states’ search efforts for missing
foster children range from archaic to nonexistent. Basic
online databases for missing children – the extent of the
search efforts for many missing foster children – are slow,
poorly organized and rely on out-of-date software.
Harnessing the power of social media, geotargeting, facial
recognition and other state-of-the-art digital technologies will
exponentially improve efforts to recover missing children.
Lawmakers can forge partnerships with the private sector to
utilize these capabilities to find the nation’s missing children,
as well as bring much-needed visibility and awareness to this
nationwide crisis.
As an example, the BBC recently featured an Egyptian
Facebook website that uses facial recognition technology
to find missing, kidnapped and trafficked children.32 Starting
with a simple Facebook page in 2015, the page’s founder
posted pictures of lost children and their stories. The initiative
has helped locate more than 2,500 missing people. In 2018,
Facebook selected the platform as one of the top 115 most
impactful initiatives on the platform. The grant money is
allowing the initiative to expand its reach beyond Egypt. This
concept can easily be applied to missing foster children.
In addition to social media, search engines have the capability
to search every corner of the web for missing children who are
being exploited. Traditional missing children posters can be
placed in online advertising space. These technologies exist,
have proven to be successful in bringing children to safety, and
can easily be applied to the crisis in foster care.33

Predators use cutting-edge technology to exploit

children while, in contrast, digital efforts to locate
missing foster children range from antiquated to
non-existent.
 ISSUE BRIEF 16

PROVIDE LAW ENFORCEMENT WITH THE RESOURCES

TO CONDUCT FULL-FLEDGED SEARCHES FOR
MISSING CHILDREN
Child welfare agencies across the country have internal
policies outlining the protocol caseworkers should follow
when a child in state care goes missing. But caseworkers
are not equipped to conduct missing persons searches, nor
should they be. Parents don’t lead the search for their missing
children, so why should case workers? Searching for missing
foster children and their criminal predators should primarily
fall to trained law officers, as it does for all other children.

On average, Lawmakers should convene a task force of law enforcement,

child protection, the judiciary, and other experts in the field
55 children go
to develop a clear, comprehensive and meaningful protocol
missing from foster regarding the searches for missing foster children. Because
care every day. these children were in the care and custody of the state when
they disappeared, the state has a legal responsibility to find
and save these children, including mandatory searches and
providing adequate resources to law enforcement.
 ISSUE BRIEF 17

KEEP COURT CASES OPEN

Since 2000, child welfare Since 2000, child welfare agencies across the country closed
agencies across the country the cases of more than 110,000 missing foster children when
their whereabouts were still unknown, federal records show.34
closed the cases of more than
Cases were closed on children missing for just six months and
110,000 missing foster children for children as young as 9 years old.35
when their whereabouts were still
This practice must end. A child’s court case and file should
unknown, federal records show. remain open until they have a safe, permanent home, or reach
the age of 18.

On average, 55 children go missing from foster care every day.

CONCLUSION Since 2000, more than 100,000 children have gone missing
from care and their cases closed. Because these kids are in the
care and custody of the state, the state has a responsibility to
find these children. The aforementioned reforms will decrease
the number of foster children who go missing, provide mean-
ingful search and recovery efforts for those who do, and bring
states into legal compliance.

For more information visit genjustice.org

JUSTICE CAN’T WAIT

 ISSUE BRIEF 18

END NOTES
1. Sonu Wasu, “Children missing from state custody: Who’s looking for them?” ABC 15 News Investigation, July 17, 2020.
2. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, “Children Missing from Care.”
3. FBI Operation Cross Country, conducted across 75 U.S. cities, reported that 60 percent of recovered children were involved in foster care. A 2007 study by the
New York State Office of Children and Families reported that 85 percent of trafficked children had prior child welfare involvement. Michel Martin, Carrie Johnson
and Malika Saada Saar, “Finding and Stopping Child Sex Trafficking,” Tell Me More, NPR, Aug. 1, 2013, and Cassi Feldman, “Report Finds 2,000 of State’s Children
Are Sexually Exploited, Many in New York City,” New York Times, April 24, 2007.
4. Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Human Resources, Oct. 23, 2013. Ms. Pettigrew went missing from foster
care when she was 10 years old. Her kidnapper raped, beat, and sold her for sex across the western United States. T escaped at 17 and is now a child and human
rights advocate. She was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2014.
5. Eric Rasmussen and Erin Smith, ”Missing and Forgotten: Thousands of foster kids kicked out of the system,” Boston 25 News, May 23, 2018.
6. Linda A. Smith, Samantha Healy Vardaman and Melissa A. Snow, “The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children,”
Shared Hope International, 2009.
7. Alicia Kozakiewicz , “Kidnapped by a paedophile I met online,” BBC, March 7, 2016.
8. “Claudia” is a real child missing from Arizona’s foster care system. Due to Arizona confidentiality laws, we are unable to share any identifying information about her,
and therefore altered the details on the missing juvenile posting and redacted her name.
9. A.R.S. §8-807(j).
10. Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, P.L. 113-183 (2014).
11. Ibid.
12. Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, P.L. 113-183 (2014); Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, P.L. 114-22 (2015).
13. Eric Rasmussen and Erin Smith, “Missing and Forgotten: Thousands of foster kids kicked out of the system,” Boston 25 News, May 23, 2018.
14. “Audit of States’ Efforts to Locate IV-E Eligible Children Missing from Foster Care,” Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
October 2020.
15. Sonu Wasu, “Children missing from state custody: Who’s looking for them?” ABC 15 News Investigation, July 17, 2020.
16. Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), 42 U.S.C. §5106a(b)(2)(viii)
17. Debra Schilling Wolfe, “Foster Care Youths at Risk for Child Sex Trafficking,” Social Work Today.
18. Jennifer Michael, “Children Missing From Care: How should agencies respond?” Child Welfare League of America, and Jessie Boye-Doe, “Opinion: Sex Trafficking
Happens Here, and to All Kinds of Kids,” City Limits, Jan. 10, 2020.
19. Jennifer Michael, ibid.
20. ALEC adopted a model law.
21. Quay Bowen is a former foster youth turned college grad, neuroscientist and writer. She can be found on her blog and Facebook page.
22. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, “Children Missing from Care.”
23. Susan Kreimer, “More Older Adults Seek to Adopt,” AARP Bulletin, June 1, 2011.
24. “Evaluation of the Effects of a Mentoring Program for Youth in Foster Care on Their Criminal Justice Involvement as Young Adults,” U.S. Department of Justice Office
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, April 2018, and Heather Taussig & Lindsey Weiler, “Mentoring for Youth in Foster Care,” National Mentoring Resource
Center, September 2017.
25. Amy Dworsky, Mark E. Courtney et al, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, 2005, 2010, 2011, and “Fostering Success in Education:
National Factsheet on the Educational Outcomes of Children in Foster Care,” January 2014
26. Noy Davis, Amy Harfeld and Elisa Weichel, “A Child’s Right to Counsel: A National Report Card on Legal Representation for Abused and Neglected Children,”
University of San Diego and First Star Institute.
27. Amy Harfeld, “Twenty Years of Progress in Advocating for a Child’s Right to Counsel,” American Bar Association, March 22, 2019; Zinn, A. E. & Slowriver, J. “Expediting
Permanency: Legal Representation for Foster Children in Palm Beach County,” Chicago: Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, 2008.
28. Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, P.L. 113-183 (2014).
29. “When Your Child is Missing: A Family Survival Guide,” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, May 1998.
30. House Bill 2223, 54th Arizona Legislature. The Legislature adjourned because of COVID-19 before taking final action on the bill. It has been reintroduced for the
2021 session.
31. Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, “Technology that ‘never sleeps, never gives up’ looking for missing and exploited children,” CNN, April 10, 2019.
32. Dina Aboughazala, “Egypt Facebook page raises hopes for missing children,” BBC Aug. 15, 2020.
33. Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, ibid.
34. Eric Rasmussen and Erin Smith, “Missing and Forgotten: Thousands of foster kids kicked out of the system,” Boston 25 News, May 23, 2018.
35. Ibid.
 ISSUE BRIEF 19

ABOUT GEN JUSTICE Gen Justice is an award-winning charity working to mend

the broken child protection system through nonpartisan
policy changes and a pro bono Children’s Law Clinic.
genjustice.org

ABOUT THE AUTHORS DARCY OLSEN

Darcy Olsen founded Gen Justice with a foster baby in her
arms and a promise to improve the odds for children in
foster care. An experienced public policy leader, Olsen
spent twenty years working to strengthen constitutional
rights for all Americans including the Right To Try. But she
considers the ten infants she fostered her most important
work. After seeing the injustices facing abused kids, Olsen
knew she needed to act. She founded Gen Justice in honor
of her ten foster children, including “Baby A” who lived just
56 days. Darcy, a single mom, adopted her four children
from foster care.

REBECCA MASTERSON
Serving as Chief Counsel since the founding of Gen Justice,
Rebecca Masterson has been the chief architect of multiple
reforms that are improving the well-being of kids in foster
care. She was on a litigation fast track and named a Super
Lawyers Rising Star when she adopted her first son. She
quickly realized the necessity parents of children with
special education needs had for legal help and formed a
boutique consulting and law practice to fill the gap. She
met her oldest son when she went into court as his volunteer
lawyer and came out the other side his adoptive mom. He
had spent most of his childhood in foster care and is now
proudly serving in the U.S. Army.