Which system provides better care for orphaned children; foster care or orphanages? This paper will analyze the differences between foster care and orphanages and their pros and cons. Foster Care is a system in which youngsters are placed in homes with families because their biological parents cannot take care of them. An orphanage is a home for children whose parents cannot take care of them or who have died. The first orphanage was established in the United States in Natchez, Mississippi in 1729 to care for white children who were orphaned during the the conflict with Native Americans. Private charitable groups established the orphanages. The number of orphanages increased between 1830 and 1850 (Orphanages: A Historical Overview). Some reasons for the increase in orphanages had to do with health issues, war, immigration, the growth of …show more content…
When the parents take a child he or she receives love, support, medical care, and schooling from the new family. It is also a beneficial thing for the parent to adopt a child because most adopted children come from an abusive parent or parents. Adoption removes the stress of being a single teen mom who barely keeps up with school and work. On the other hand, a teenage mother may have physical or emotional problems and, therefore, cannot take care of a child.
On the other hand, there can be negative experience with adoption. The Child Welfare Information Gateway reports that despite the government giving money to the parents it costs roughly 5,000 to 40,000 dollars to complete the adoption. (Pros and Cons of adoption) Another negative about adopting a child is that the agency has to do a background check on the parents and the child. The parents have to wait six months to a year before receiving a child. In some cases, the biological mother can refuse to give the child away, and the process starts again. That is a tremendous
This paper will contain research done about foster care, including a brief history and progressing along to the system today. This research interested me because it is a professional career option after graduation. I found both positives and negatives about the foster care system that children and foster parents go through on a daily basis. As the paper progresses I will be explaining these positives and negatives in more detail. Throughout the paper I will be referencing different scholarly sources that explain foster care in different ways. Overall, this paper will show different aspects that the general public may never know about foster care.
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”.
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.
While the idea of adoption sounds so perfect and great, one huge factor makes the adoption choice somewhat difficult. One would never think of putting a “price” on their own child yet adoption is extremely pricey. A couple looking to adopt better be prepared to spend roughly $35,000 (babycenter). Personally, that number shocked me. Who finds it necessary to put such a high cost on the love between parents and a child? What is more important, the fact that a child needs a good home and a family somewhere out there wants to become parents, or spending thousands of dollars to fulfill a need that is supposed to be priceless? The answer here is obvious, and there are multiple reasons as to why the cost of adoption should be lowered immensely.
Foster parents goal is to provide for the child with stability as well as whatever help the child may need in terms of: medical or psychological (Brozak, 1-2). By fostering out these children they are provide a safe environment for them. Knowing that someone saved and made a difference in this child 's life is a blessing. This helps them during this transitional period. Some people believe that foster care can cause problems in the family. As in, not being able to have your own space, being emotional, or having a hard time adjusting. What people do not see Is these benefits your family. They began to learn how to serve others by welcoming people in need to their home. They learn how to share their space and important people as in, mom and dad. There becomes an extension in foster care. Foster children gain more caring adults through foster parents and other extended family. Family will also gain a broader world view. They will learn about different cultures, races, and family values. A family picks up all these traits from their parents fostering a child. It provides a family with a boarder aspect of life and improves their social kills and ways to work with others. This will help your family in their adult life. By foster care you are benefiting the foster child, foster family, but also the birth parents of the
Foster care is an agency that takes in more than 250,000 children EVERY year. With this many children entering the system every year; the amount of problems on finding the right caregiver for the child increases tremendously. When these problems are created there are many effects that can happen to the child that can last short-term and unfortunately long-term. Fortunately, there are multiple solutions for these problems that everyone can do so that everyone's position is improved. Foster care agencies can create negative situations due to the selection of the caregiver and the plethora, deluge, profusion, surplus, vast, prodigious, immense of problems that are created; however, there are several pathways that either party can take to improve the unpleasant situation and its effects.
According to American academy and adolescent psychiatry, about 120,000 children are adopted in the United States alone. That is a lot of children that need to find a new home to stay in. Not only do adoptions affect the child after they are adopted, no matter the age; but adoption also affects the parents giving their child up for adoption. There are many types of adoptions. Along with that, there are many reasons for giving the child up for adoption. There are three main perspectives that I will be talking about. One function would be the structural functionalism. How society cooperates. The second would be the conflict perspective. The third would be symbolic interactionism approach. There are many different aspects of adoption, making it
Though foster care was originally established to help children who were orphaned, abandoned, neglected or abused, it has also caused problems for children. Agencies often have difficulty providing adequate, accessible, and appropriate services for the families in their care. (Chipungu and Goodley, pp. 76, 2004) This paper will examine the negative impact of foster care on children as a social problem and how it is viewed and understood. Also this paper would point out the key figures and groups that are affected by problem. This paper would analyze past attempts to better the foster care system and current policies that exist to face this problem. Throughout this paper the goals and objectives of the current polices would be addressed.
Many women who carry unexpected or unwanted children are left to decide between keeping the child, adoption, abortion and maybe foster care. Most of the time the decision is just between adoption and abortion. In that case, the mother is losing the child either way. Most of the time choosing adoption or foster care would be a better choice than abortion because the pregnancy would end by giving life instead of death. Adoption and foster care are an opportunity for people who wish to be parents, but are not able to have a child of their own to finally become parents or people who have children of their own, but want to add-on to their family.
The cost of adoption mainly depends on what kind of child one wants to adopt. Where you are adopting from has a major impact on cost also. The price for a healthy white baby is generally in the $15, 000 price range, but can easily reach up to $25,000(Ademec 68). A black or biracial baby is substantially less in cost. Also a baby with health problems will generally be lower in cost(Ademec 68). When you first apply to an adoption agency, the first fees you will pay are the application fees. These fees range up to several hundred dollars or more. The next fees you will pay are the home study fees. The median price range runs around $1,500 to $2,000 dollar range. The most expensive fee for adoption is the placement fee, which will generally be priced from $10,000 and up(Ademec 69). But if the child is from another country, you will have to visit it. ...
the foster care system in America is not the best system for a child to go through throughout their life. children are often times place in many homes during a short period of time. it gets tough for children, because they feel they will never be loved and no one cares. this causes most foster children to be outcasts and
When a couple or individual decides to adopt a child, they know they are going to take on the responsibility of taking care of someone else’s child. Due to the biological parent(s) who can’t take care of that child anymore, because of either drug abuse, alcohol abuse, abuse to the child or if the parent(s) had died and there is no other care for the child. So that’s why this gives other couples who cannot have kids, the opportunity to promise themselves to be a great parent to a child in need. Though there are some bad things about adoption as well. Like adopting a child from another country of another race, because once that child is adopted into an American family, he or she will be cut off from their culture and never know about their history. Everyone should to know about their culture and history.
Public adoption agencies are run by the state, and are therefore much cheaper or possibly even free. Generally the public adoption agencies focus primarily on special-needs adoptions, as opposed to an infant or international adoptions. They accept applications for older children, children with special needs, or children with siblings. Children in the public adoption system have predominantly been abused, neglected, or abandoned by their birth parents, which indicates the children could have emotional and physical scars requiring extra attention and care from an unfamiliar family. A private adoption agency is licensed by the state, but not paid for by the state, and can become quite pricey for families looking to adopt. According to parents.com, an adoption from a private agency can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000. Private agencies execute adoptions domestically as well as internationally. They can provide a wider span of options since they are not funded by the state, and adoptive parents are already expecting to pay a greater amount. Adopting independently implies that you are in direct contact with the birth mother, and you have an adoption attorney assisting you in the process of adoption. Finding a birth mother in an independent adoption may require sending out your information to pregnancy crisis centers, posting it on the internet, or
If you have ever considered adopting a newborn, or a child under the age of three, then you have undoubtedly recognized that the price affiliated with this type of adoption is outrageously expensive. Some adoptions costing in the upper $40,000 range. When there are so many children in foster care already, why are the costs of adoption so extreme? How is the adoption process broken down into these fees? What do adoptive candidates have to go through in order to adopt a baby? Is the foster care system failing the children it currently serves? Why are more birth mothers choosing the unsightly demise of abortion rather than adoption? Do these women who choose abortion know all their options when it comes to their unborn child? Is there enough