Have you ever been in foster care, know someone who has been in it, work for CPS, or even be a foster parent? See, a lot of people haven't so they don’t know what it's like, and some are very lucky to be part of the system “People say ‘he’s so lucky to have you. The truth is I’m so lucky to have him.” -Anonymous “Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best they can possibly be.” – Rita F. Pierson But people just read those and say “Foster kids are now in good homes”, but are they really? I believe that the laws need to change in the foster system because some kids get beat up in foster homes because they don't inspect the parents enough and also the DFPS needs to be more careful how they place the kids. When foster care started it was going good, families were happy and children were also happy. But then the system was just placing them in random homes, putting some in more danger than they already were. When children eventually went home to their parents …show more content…
A lot of states require that they go beyond the federal requirements, to see if they are able to be a foster parent, and to see if they meet the important standards that should be followed by all the states. Even kids typically do better in homes than they do if they get put in an abusive in a foster home. In Oregon, where fewer than 1 percent of children were abused in foster homes the state laws are higher than any other state. The law requires background check on abuse for everyone who lives there but some just take them into use as a slave, and they never get caught because they do not do random drop in’s on them. I think more abuse is happening because they are not doing drop in’s on people. They tell them when they are scheduled to come in next and do not give any warning so they can clean up their
One of the biggest misconceptions that we have in our country is that foster care is a great thing; well, it’s not. There are so many flaws in our foster care system to even consider it a good idea. With constant reports of abuse, depression, lack of stability, to even the terrible after effects of the foster care system, like homelessness and incarceration; the foster care system hurts more than it helps. Our foster care system is bad for America, but most of all, our children.
Some of the parents can only handle so many children at a time until they get so over burried they either drop out of the system, or start to send children back to find a different home to stay at. Foster parents are not allowed to get to attached to any one child, for a couple of reasons. One being they might end up adopting the child, or two they start to give more attention to that one child and start to neglect the other children. Some children ended up in foster care because of neglect in the first place and they do not what feeling to
There is nearly 400,000 children in out-of-home care in the United States right now (Children’s Right). Just about every day children are being shipped in and out of foster homes and group homes. Most people want the best for children in foster care and decide to take care of them until their parents can possibly recover. The foster care system can have both a negative or positive effect on children, foster parents, and biological parents because of the gaps in the system. Foster cannot not be avoided but the some aspects of the foster care system can be avoided if the missing gaps were filled.
Despite attempts in the foster care system agencies under the guidelines of the “Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997” (ASFA) to locate suitable homes and families for foster children, many remain in foster care. “Too often, Child Welfare policy and the agencies responsible for it – offices that respond to child abuse and neglect, oversee foster care placements, and seek to reunite children with their parents to find adoptive families- are out of sight and out of mind except for fleeting moments of tragedy, such as a child’s death”.
The foster care workers should investigate foster parents more thoroughly than they have before. These parents that just get handed kids and get given rules does not mean that every foster parents follow them. They can prevent giving children to the wrong people by doing more thorough background checks. They could also run more on their names and find out everything that they can before putting someone’s life in their hands. There could be more thorough interviews
Addressing the needs of children in foster care has been an issue that has tried to be addressed in many ways. In 2001, approximately 300,000 children entered the foster care system, with the average time spent in placement equaling 33 months (Bass Shields, & Behrman, n.d.). Statistically, the longer a child is in the foster care system, the greater number of placements they will have, and instability increases each year (Bass Shields, & Behrman, n.d). I recently read a novel by a girl who was placed into the system at age two, and by age 12 she had already experienced 14 different placements (Rhodes-Courter, 2007). Stories such as this one are not uncommon in the foster care system, especially if the child is a member of a sibling group or
One thing that catches my attention during my research about foster care adoption I thought once the foster children find a home their suffering will come to an end but I was so wrong and learning more about their situation it open up my eyes to the other tragedy that will continue to follow them wherever home they go. Some kids even though they found a new
In todays’ society many Americans never think about our foster care system. Foster care is when a child is temporarily placed with another family. This child may have been abused, neglected, or may be a child who is dependent and can survive on their own but needs a place to stay. Normally the child parents are sick, alcohol or drug abusers, or may even be homeless themselves. We have forgotten about the thousands of children who are without families and living in foster homes. Many do not even know how foster care came about. A few of the earliest documentation of foster care can be found in the Old Testament. The Christian church put children into homes with widowers and then paid them using collection from the church congregation. The system that the church had in place was actually successful, and was continued to be used until English Poor Law eventually regulated family foster care in the U.S.
Foster care needs to be reformed, especially when it comes to private agencies. Many people seem to overlook the issues embedded within the foster care system; all it does is take care of children, right? Wrong. Private agencies pervert the system with the nightmares they create. Foster children already feel unwanted and neglected because of the abandonment from their birth parents; private agencies provide them with conditions that further solidify their disbelief of care and love. Money comes first in the eyes of these agencies, followed by the need of control. This “control” can easily become abuse. It would only be sensible for a higher authority to intervene and put an end to these profound
Based off the attention from modern media, youth homelessness has been on an unfortunate upslope in the United States within the past decade. Various factors tie into why this issue is becoming more prominent such as low income households being unable to afford children, LGBT youth rejection, and domestic abuse leading to children leaving home. Now, vagrancy has a severely negative impact on the development of young people as it inhibits them from developing academically, socially, and mentally and can also expose them to diseases and potentially various types of abuse, such as sexual and substance abuse. This is an issue that should be addressed, for the rising generations are America’s future, and so investing in the overall well-being of the
There are many flaws throughout the childcare system, which can alter the overall goal of protecting children. Today, there have been several such cases in child protection that resulted in tragedy. This may happen in the foster care system itself, or in the child’s primary home.
“About two-thirds of children admitted to public care have experienced abuse and neglect, and many have potentially been exposed to domestic violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse” (Dregan and Gulliford). These children are being placed into foster care so that they can get away from home abuse, not so they can move closer towards it. The foster children’s varied outcomes of what their adult lives are is because of the different experiences they grew up with in their foster homes. The one-third of those other foster children usually has a better outcome in adult life than the other two-thirds, which is a big problem considering the high percentage of children being abused in their foster homes. Although, the foster care system has most definitely allowed children to experience the positive home atmosphere that they need there is still an existed kind of abusive system in the foster care program that is unofficial but seems to be very popular. Foster care focuses on helping children in need of a temporary stable environment; however, foster care can have negative impacts to the children and the people around them concerning the foster child going through the transition, the parents of the foster child, a new sibling relationship, and problems that arrive later influencing the foster child long-term.
According to the International Foster Care Organization “Foster care is a way of providing a family life for children who cannot live with their own parents.”(2004) Foster care is supposed to provide temporary care while parents get help dealing with problems, or to help children or young people through a difficult period in their lives. Children will return home once their parents are able to provide a safe enviorment for them. However if parent are unable to resolve the issues that cause their child in foster care their children may stay in long-term foster care, some may be adopted, and others will move on to live independently. (IFCO, 2004) Foster care has been a problem for many years and although there have been many attempts to improve it; it there still seems to be negatively impacting
Foster Children who are emancipated out of foster care are in danger of becoming homeless because Foster Homes are allowing many unfit parents to adopt, they are emancipated before they can find a job that can support them, and they are not being taught the skills to avoid homelessness.
In an article written by Bolg.acton.org titled as Our Foster Care System Is Becoming A ‘Pipeline’ For Human, half of a million of children in the U.S are put into foster care for a short period of time or for a long time due to crisis happening in their houses. Some of those children are placed with their relatives if they are ‘lucky’ enough. However, in the same article, in an interview with Malika Saada of Rights4Girls by NPR, she stated various issues occurring in the broken foster care system. As for what is happening with the children that are put into various houses in which at times are being abused without the knowledge of the state. In other cases, circumstances are different and unfortunate as for those who are seeing as profit. As for the story of one of the survivor leader whom they work with who was trafficked from the age of 10-17-all through California, Nevada, and Washington states-seeing foster care as training ground to being trafficked. However, even though she knew that the foster parents were getting pay to take care of her, all she cared about was that the pimp told her that he loved her. The lack of love, affirmation and protection are the reasons Malika thinks children pledge to follow their commands. In other cases, the children are told that the checks given by the government is not enough, that the only thing that made them worth was the money they would bring in. Malika also states that 60 percent of the children rescued in a recent FBI sting were from foster care at a point. Child maltreatment is being reported by the FBI throughout all the 50 states as stated by the