Colorado is short on foster parents — so much so that abused and neglected children from rural counties often end up far from home, and city kids are uprooted and sent to the suburbs.

The state has about 4,200 children in foster families, and all of them live in 2,800 homes. In some cases, siblings are together, but many of those homes are doubled-up with up to four foster children who are not related.

Those 2,800 foster homes include aunts, uncles and grandparents housing children of family members. Those “kinship” parents normally do not take non-relatives.

Plus, children and teens living in group homes and staff-run residential centers are unable to move to foster homes because there are not enough certified foster parents in the state, according to officials at the Colorado Department of Human Services. About 800 children are living in residential treatment centers and group homes.

The state needs 200 to 280 more foster families in order to

Failed to Death: Colorado needs hundreds more foster families – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/failedtodeath/ci_22134385/failed-death-colorado-needs-hundreds-more-foster-families#ixzz2EHEWGzOE