by Christie Renick
"Shana King, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, spent more than three years in foster care as a teen. She lost her own children to the system during a struggle with heroin.
Since then, she has gotten her children back, bought a home, and received a national award for her work as a mentor. She badly wants to be a foster parent to American Indian children in Hennepin County, Minnesota's most populous metro area. But because of the drug history, the county says she can't.
"You can't have certain things in your background or on your record, even if you've changed your life around," King said. "But there is such need right now."
She is right about that. Minnesota's foster care totals have surged in recent years, and American Indian children are removed at vastly disproportionate rates compared to white children."
Shana King is a PLCSP graduate and was the keynote speaker at MCCC's Inaugural Imagine if...Breakfast.
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