Foster Care Misconceptions

The number of children in the foster care system continues to increase. While the foster care system is essential in helping abused, abandoned, and neglected children, many children remain in foster care for long periods of time when family reunification or adoption is planned. Court delays can often extend the time between when children enter the foster care system and when they are placed into permanent homes. Significant differences exist in the quality of care and outcomes for children depending on their race and ethnicity. The percentage of children of color in the foster care system is larger than the percentage of children of color among the general U.S. population. However, the occurrence of child abuse and neglect is at about the same rate in all racial/ethnic groups.

It is a reasonable argument that child welfare service entities are necessary as it is all too frequent that child abuse/neglect cases are heard all over the nation and is ultimately a world health issues.  Increasing social issues such as unstable families, poverty, crime, poor education, lack of access to health care and mental health services are some of the factors that contribute to this continuous epidemic that affects many people from various socio-economic classes. Many nations have taken steps to enhance and improve efforts in the fight against the mistreatment of children.

Many people across the country may not be familiar with what foster care actually is. Foster care is a full- time substitute care of children outside their own home by people other than their biological or adoptive parents (“Foster” par. 1). These parents may have their children taken away from them for many different reasons. There are also

The foster care system in America negatively affects the lives of adolescents in the system mentally and physically. On any given day there are over 428,000 children in foster care and more than 20,000 kids age out of foster care with no permanent family; therefore, they are being left behind socially, educationally, mentally, and under developed for the real world. Foster care first started in the nineteen hundreds when Charles Loring Brace created the “Children’s Aid Society” in New York. Then later on the 1900’s, social agencies started to supervise and pay the foster children’s sponsors. However, back in foster care’s history and still today, the kids in the system experince abuse and become mentally unstable. One out of five kids

In America it is stated that 1 in every 84 children live in foster care circumstances via "Statistics on Foster Care". There is a numerous amount of contrasting children from various backgrounds and ages living within these special housing homes, and many are repeatedly in and out from unstable circumstances. As children grow and mature into the new faces of the world, they face many obstacles and tribulations that will alter their lives. Living in fostering homes is a substantial example and the effects of living in these institutions can truly be great.

For many years, foster care has been a difficult subject throughout our society. When the idea of foster care comes to mind, many immediately think of screaming children, distressed parenting and uphill battles. Before foster care existed in the United States, orphaned children were sent to orphanages. While these institutions were often the best option available to children with nowhere else to go, they often lacked the necessary staff, structure and resources to adequately care for all of the children in need. As a result, some orphanages were overcrowded, and children lived in poor conditions. Some children even died due to the lack of sufficient care (Adoptions, 2017). In order to give children better living situations, the United

According to the Federal Definition of Foster Care and Related Terms, when a child is placed in foster care, the state removes the child from their parents or primary caregivers and places them in a 24-hour substitute care situation. Children may be placed in foster family homes, group homes, emergency shelters, child care institutions, pre-adoptive homes, or any other number of environments structured for their care and protection. A child in this situation is considered to be in foster care whether or not the facility is licensed or if payments are made by the State or an organization for the child’s care. (Code of Federal Regulations)

The life for a child in foster care is much different than any other child’s. While growing up children look up to their father or mother. They aspire to be like them and follow in their footsteps. For the children placed in foster care all they see is that their parents could not take care of them. They will not have the memoires of growing up with their family, but instead memories of the different homes they have been transferred too. Foster parents love and care for all of the children that come into their homes, but it’s hard for the children to accept someone who moves in and out of their lives.

As of 2016 there were nearly a half million children in the foster care system, with roughly 25,000 “aging-out” each year (Ahmann, 2017). Most adolescents “age out” of the system with no one to mentor or serve as a caring parent figure. Foster youth are in dire need of long-term adult role models to guide them to achieve success. According to Ahmann, 50% of foster youth left “the system” without a high-school degree, as well as with having higher rates of PTSD, and depression (p. 43). Ahmann presented that research has proven teenagers, in general, that have quality relationships from adults able to provide support, do better than those that do not. If research has shown efficacy in supportive adult figures in a teen’s life then one can conclude that foster youth would also benefit. Foster children are at a disadvantage a soon as they enter “the system” so giving them resources proven positive is vital to their future success.

The U.S foster care system is corrupt and the children trapped in it face the worst of it. The goal of foster care is to eventually reunite children with their parents or find the child a safe, loving home. Instead, foster kids face the harsh reality of abuse, mental illness, and temporary homes. The children and ripped from the homes they’ve known their entire lives because their parents struggle financially. The system would rather pay strangers to the child to take care of him/her rather than helping the parents of the child. This case would be called “neglect” when in reality most parents were doing all they could to take care of their children. The children’s new foster parents are paid hundreds of dollars per month. Often times, the money doesn’t go to the child and he/she is left truly neglected. The system is broken because children are taken from their homes for the wrong reasons and put into unsafe environments that will have a traumatic effect on the rest of their lives.

Over 600,000 children in the United States are in the foster care system. Reasons include, abuse, neglect and abandonment. These children lack nurturing environments and stable homes. Children within the foster care system have more mental, physical and developmental problems. It is imperative to understand the challenges children entering the foster care system are exposed to. The system works best when children are provided nurturing, and short-term care until they can be placed back home safely or a permanent adoptive family. For many children, however, the stay is longer, with 30% remaining in temporary care for over two years. Staying in the system is detrimental to the child’s well-being. The foster care system is an unsuccessful intervention for children that cultivates development, health and mental issues.

Along with requirements to bring a kid to family, I also researched testimonials/background stories of behind the scenes of the actual care these kids receive. For example, the story of Marcus Fiesel, Holly Schlaack wrote a book titled Invisible Kids. This book defines the foster care system through the eyes of a child. The book starts off with a little boy talking to a social worker about his mother, she threatened the 5 year old boy by saying he would end up in foster care and like the little boy in the closet if he told that her boyfriend was living with her. That refers to a little boy, named Marcus Fiesel, who was taped up and killed by his foster mother. The little boy’s mom was a drug addict and police officers had been called to her house several

Children are taken/put into care for many different reasons, they may not have had a great life or may have missed out on opportunities, or maybe they were neglected and/or abused and being in care is an opportunity to give them the best life possible. However, being in foster care also has its difficulties. Children may be unable to form attachments; they may isolate themselves socially, making it hard to build relationships. They may have been through trauma and are unable to move on, which will affect many parts of their development.

The numbers of children in foster care continue to increase annually with minimal attempts to intercept the causes of the escalation. Children are generally placed into foster care as a result of parental abuse or neglect; however, there are many racial inconsistencies circulating general foster care involvement. In the year of 2014, the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System reported a total of 415,129 children in the foster care system. Depending on their situation, children in the system are in need of some sort of home, whether that be temporary or permanent. When experiencing this type of shift in their lives, many children tend to act out. Foster care in the United States is a

Foster care is a temporary agreement in which an adult provides care for a child that cannot be taken care of by their birth parents. Foster care is usually arranged through the court or a social service agency. The intention for a child in foster care is normally reunification with their birth parents unless adoption is in the child’s best interest. The difference between foster care and adoption is that foster care is temporary while adoption is permanent. There are many other things that are different between foster care and adoption for example, parental rights. While a child is in foster care the child’s birth parents have parental rights over the child and with adoption their new parents have parental rights. In that case foster parents