Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, a group home, or a private home of a state certified caregiver. It offers children in need of a place to live a safe environment. Although this helps out the child tremendously, it takes so much more to be a foster family, or someone who provides housing for the child in need. I began to learn this myself when my family volunteered to take in children and become a foster home. My mother Shanna taught at a high school for pregnant or parenting teenage girls called the Helen Berube Teen Parent Program. Around two years ago, when i was just a freshman in highschool, my mother had a student named Nikki. Nikki had a one-year-old son named Aedyn, and due to the fact that she
was unable to care for the child, Aedyn was in need of a place to stay. My mom immediately wanted to help this baby out. She had known him since he was born and she couldn't stand the thought of him going to an unfamiliar home. After talking it over with everyone, we all agreed. The only thing left to do was to call the Department of Children and Families and let them know we were more than willing to help out. In less than a week Aedyn had moved in with us. It was very strange at first. My whole life it had only been my brothers and I, and all of the sudden there was a baby living with us. Everything had to be baby proof from top to bottom, I couldn't even walk up or down my stairs without nearly tripping over a gate. A chair at the table disappeared and instead was accompanied with with a high chair. The food in our cabinets switched from chips to applesauces. Anything and everything in our house was now made for a baby to be living there. After a few weeks, I was sick of it. My parents relied on me to do a lot for the Aedyn. Maybe it was because i'm a girl. Perhaps when they look at me, they don't see an unbiased view of a teenager, they don't see a young girl, they only see what society views as a future mother. They most likely felt that I could care for the child better than say my brothers. That view is probably what shaped my experience the most. It started off as what most would consider to be a new and exciting experience, creating a new bond, to something that seriously exhausted and frustrated me. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't easy. While my brothers were allowed to hang out with friends or watch tv, I was expected to babysit when no one else was available. If he was crying, I was to comfort him. If he was trying to get my attention, it was rude of me to ignore him. For my own selfish reasons, I wanted out. It took time and adjustment, but since then I have learned, and my perspective has switched. I had to remind myself that no matter how frustrated I was, he would always be in a tougher situation. His whole life was different, the least I could do was help him adjust. Since Aedyn, my family has fostered over twenty other children. They stay for as long as they need, whether it be a day, a week, a month, or even a year. Each one teaches me something new, and each one affects me in someway. They each have a different story, they each have a different personality and they each are kindhearted. I am grateful for every single encounter I have had with a foster child. They teach me to be patient and to appreciate everything that I have, not everyone is so lucky.
(mother has no name). Brothers Are the Same the story isn't really what you'd think it would be.
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.
Garrett Therolf said “Children in foster homes overseen by private agencies are one-third more likely to be physically, mentally, or sexually abused than children in homes overseen by the state” (qtd. in White). The debate on whether or not to privatize the foster care system is ongoing and is an excellent source for debate. While privatizing the foster care system does seem to have its advantages, such as the convenience, they are heavily outweighed by the many negative aspects of a privatized system. Privatizing the foster care system is an overall negative idea due to the fact that it turns desperate children into business pawns putting them at higher risk for many kinds of abuse. Privatization increases abuse and neglect among helpless
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.
Many potential adopted parents have experienced heartbreak, anguish and other problems that can be associated with adoption. There is an imbalance in the Nations foster care system and the system needs to be strengthening and the quality of services improved.
Before people decide if they want to adopt, they can become a foster parent. When children are not able to safely live with their biological family, Child Protective Services may become involved and place the child in foster care. Foster care is only a temporary living arrangement for the child, while the children's parents work to remedy the unsafe situation (Security,2014). When it is possible that a child may not be able to return home his/her situation turns into a case plan; which then the child is able to be adopted by another person.
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.
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.
As of 2014, there were over 415,000 children in the foster care system. Foster care is the raising and supervision of children in a private home, group home, or institution, by individuals engaged and paid by a social service agency (Legal Dictionary, 2016). Care givers can be of kin relationship to the child, or may not know the child at all. Group homes are run by a social worker and can house multiple children at a time. These homes are usually regulated by the state and/or government. Children of all ages go through many emotions when their lives revolve in foster care. This paper will discuss the emotions children deal with regarding separation from birth family, the effects of abuse, and the possibility of having to transition out of
Imagine waking up everyday in a home where there is nobody you can call mom or dad. Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent". The placement of the child is usually arranged through the government or a social-service agency. The institution, group home or foster parent is compensated for expenses. The state will inform through the family court and child protection agency stand in loco parentis to the minor, making all legal decisions while the foster parent is responsible for the day-to-day care of the minor throughout the time the child is in the system.
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
Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home, or
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.
How do they differ from group homes? Foster homes are a type of non-secure confinement that may or may not be associated with an offense. If a court finds that a youth's parent or guardian is unfit, that youth may be placed into a temporary household. Not all youths placed in foster care are criminals, some are orphaned or in need of supervision. Foster homes do prove useful in helping children who have mental, developmental, and emotional disabilities.
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