Nationally, more than 800,000 children are in the foster-care system, according to the National Working Group on Foster Care and Education, a coalition of child-welfare groups.
Virginia has about 8,000 children in foster care, and about half — a higher percentage than any other state — leave the system without a permanent home, according to Great Expectations.
Many foster children must overcome their belief that everything in life is unstable because of their experiences moving from home to home, said Casey Irving, Hatcher's case worker at Southside Virginia
Hatcher admits her earlier attitude and behavior made things difficult.
After her mother lost custody of her and she moved in with an aunt, Hatcher said she skipped school to “party all night, and I would drink and get high and do pills every day.” Her aunt eventually turned her over to the state, and such behavior got her booted from two group homes.
Two other group homes shut down, and Hatcher eventually moved into a foster home.
But with her social worker’s help, Hatcher earned a high school equivalency diploma and finished her nursing assistant certificate in December. Now, she regularly checks in with Irving and others at the school.
“I always have somebody to go to — they’re still there any time I need to talk to them,” she said. “They’d do anything for me.”
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