Foster children should be included in the U.S. Census

Letter to the Editor: A Place in Out Heart
San Francisco Chronicle, April 29, 2007, pg. E4.

Editor -- After reading the article in last Sunday's paper concerning how the United States is eliminating the foster-child option from the Census, I was deeply troubled (Editorial, "Inconvenient youth," April 22). As a high school junior, I understand struggles that children and teenagers face when trying to find their place in society. This strain increases if, like most foster children, they have not had a place that they truly fit into for a long time.

A few years back, my grandmother took in two foster boys, and what they went through before Social Services rescued them was astonishing. What the children really need is a place in our heart and the heart of our country. Children are not something to be deleted because they do not fit. Children are so much more than that. The government should never imply that they do not matter.

JENNIFER OHARA
San Mateo