National Foster Care Month spotlights the children and families navigating the foster system every May.
For Black families, the spotlight often reveals a stark reality: Black children are disproportionately represented in the system, while Black foster parents are underrepresented.
However, Cynthia Rose shifts that narrative by opening her home and holding her family together.
“These are my first cousin’s kids,” she said. “In the Black community, we’ve always cared for our own. That’s just what we do.”
When it became clear that the children’s biological mother couldn’t care for them, Rose and her extended family stepped in. Seven children were at risk of being scattered through the foster system. The family wouldn’t allow it.
“We couldn’t keep them all in one house, but we made a plan,” she said. “I have three of them. Other relatives took the rest. We live near each other and the kids still see each other, play and celebrate birthdays together. We kept them close. That’s what mattered most.”
Their 93-year-old family matriarch was the moral anchor behind that decision. “She said, ‘Get the kids. Keep them together,’” Rose said. “And we listened.”
But love alone doesn’t make it legal. The family had been doing the work of feeding, clothing and raising long before the paperwork. That’s when they turned to someone who’s helped hundreds of families just like them, Houston attorney Rodney Jones, who specializes in family law and adoption.
Jones has been practicing law for nearly two decades, but his journey with foster care started long before that.
“My mother was an adoption attorney,” he said. “I grew up helping her work with families. I’ve been involved in this work for over 25 years.”
Jones plays a key role once families, like the Rose’s, are ready to move from foster care to adoption.
“I come in when the children are legally eligible for adoption after the biological parents’ rights are terminated and the state gives the green light,” Jones said. “I file the suit, compile the necessary documents and prove to the court that this family is the right fit.”
For the Rose family, it was a long road. There were home studies, background checks, even counseling options that they didn’t know they had. One surprise was college tuition.
“We found out that if you adopt through the foster care system, the kids can get tuition covered by the state of Texas. That was huge. We want all of them to go to college.”
Jones says that kind of benefit is often unknown in the Black community, where informal kinship care is more common than formal foster arrangements. In Texas, more than 892,000 children live in homes where a relative is the head of household and 286,000 youth are raised by kin with no parent present.
“Black families already do this,” he said. “Aunties, uncles, grandparents take in children when the parents can’t. We just don’t always go through the legal steps. But when you do, there are real protections, financial support, medical access, college tuition and more.”
But he’s also seen the painful side of the system. Texas currently faces a foster care crisis.
Black children are overrepresented in the system, but there aren’t enough culturally connected homes to receive them.
Rodney Jones, Managing Attorney/CEO of RJ Law Group
“We have children without placements, living in hotels, being watched by caseworkers because we don’t have enough foster families,” Jones said. “Especially Black foster families. Black children are overrepresented in the system, but there aren’t enough culturally connected homes to receive them.”
Rose’s story is an exception.
“Usually, when you have seven siblings in care, they’re split up,” Jones said. “They get adopted by strangers, maybe moved to different cities or even states. Sometimes they never see each other again.
“But in this case, four different family households stepped up. I handled the adoptions for all of them. Now these children are being raised by their own blood, near each other. That kind of outcome is rare and it’s powerful.”
Still, emotional challenges remain.
“The hardest part was explaining to the kids why their mom couldn’t be around,” Rose said. “That part hurt. But now? They wake up and say, ‘I love you, Mom.’ They hug us. They go camping with family. They’re thriving.”
Jones emphasized the legal importance of doing things right.
“Once adoption is final, the child becomes yours in every way. You have the legal right to make medical decisions, choose their school, say who they can visit. That’s why it’s so important to go through the courts.”
He also pointed to the strict background checks that sometimes make it harder for families, especially in communities disproportionately affected by criminal justice, to qualify.
“A non-violent charge from 20 years ago can prevent someone from fostering. That shrinks the pool of eligible families. We need reforms that balance safety with fairness.”
And as more children enter the system, especially with banned abortions happening across the nation, the need for safe, stable, loving homes will only grow.
“We don’t just need people to adopt,” said Jones. “We need people to foster, to be temporary homes, role models, safe places. These kids don’t just need a bed. They need consistency. They need love.”
