Fostering: The Mathews’

Ramsey Sullivan  Riverbend News In the United States alone, there are nearly 437,000 children in foster care. Roughly 30,000 of these foster youth age out of the system each year, without having found a forever home, leaving them to fend for themselves. Within four years of aging out, 50 percent have no earnings, 70 percent will be on government assistance, 25 percent will not have completed high school and less than 12 percent will have earned their college degree.  Though these statistics can be disheartening, there are fostering success stories all around us, like that of Shane and Erica Mathews, of Live Oak. Shane Mathews commutes to Madison each day for his position a