The Foster Care System

A Social ProblemBy: Haley Larson

Table of Content:

Slide 1 – Title Page Slide 2 – Table of Content Slide 3 – Introduction Slide 4 – The Number of Children in Foster Care Slide 5 – Problems With Foster Care Slide 6 – Problems With Foster Care Slide 7 – Psychological Effects of Foster Care Slide 8 – Life After Foster Care Slide 9 – Life After Foster Care Slide 10 – Reflection Page Slide 11 – Sources Cited

Introduction: What is Foster Care?

Foster care is a social program that helps children who have been abused or neglected by their parents.

The government and social service agencies are in charge of the foster care system.

Abused and neglected children are removed from the care of their parents, and become a ward of the state. They are placed with a foster parent, a relative, a treatment center, or a group home. These people or places are compensated for their day-to-day care of the children.

Foster care is meant to be short-term and most children are expected to return to their birth parents, a relative or a family who is looking to adopt them. There is a big problem where children aren't finding permanent homes and are not being prepared for life on their own once they become 18.

The foster care system helps plenty of children escape abuse and neglect from their birth parents, but there are also a lot of problems with the foster care system. These problems will be discussed in the following slides.

The Number of Children in Foster Care In September of 2011, there were 400,540 children

in the foster care system. This amount has decreased since 2001 when the total amount of

children in foster care was 545,000.

Foster Care Placements in Sept, 2011

Non-relative FosterFamily HomesRelative FamilyHomesInstitutions

Group Homes

On Trial HomeVisitsIn Pre-AdoptiveHomesRun Aways

SupervisedIndependent Living

How Long the Children Had Been in foster Care

Less than 1year1-2 years

2-3 years

3-4 years

5 or moreyears

Problems With Foster Care

In the article “Foster care system faces problems” By Logan Nakyanzi, he talks about how more children these days that are entering foster care “are more disturbed then ever.” Most of these children in foster care have been physically and sexually abused and have been neglected thru ought their childhood. Nakyanzi also talks about a man named Antwone Fisher, who had a very rough time in foster care. Fisher ended up having some extended family in his city that he could have lived with, but his caseworkers never investigated it well enough. Finding all of the children's relatives should be the caseworkers first priority.

In the article “Foster care controversy; Kids taken from home, judge outraged” By Dan Tilken, two siblings are being taken away from their foster parents whom they love and call mom and dad. The reasons they are being taken away from these loving parents are not clear nor make sense. These foster parents have fostered these children for two years, and they are just now being taken away. The Department of Health Services told them that the children are being taken away because Willie, one of the foster parents, has had a restraining order put on him by a previous spouse and that he has a “recurring history of domestic violence since they have lived in the home.” The judge on this case is furious that DHS is taking these children away from great loving parents and sending them into strangers homes. There may be an issue of racism, and that’s why this is happening, but the foster parents don’t want to believe that is why the siblings are being taken away from them. Its strange that DHS is deciding now of all times to take these children away, when they have known these things about Willie for 2 years.

Percentages of Children in Foster Care..

54%

2%

84%

30%25%

30%

51%

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Earn a Highschool Diploma Earn a Bachelors Degree or Higher

Become Parents Too Soon Are Unemployed

Have No Health Insurance Experience Homelessness

Receive Public Assistance

Problems With Foster Care

Psychological Effects of Foster CareIn the article “Foster Child Health and Development; Implications for Primary Care” By Susan

Kools and Christine Kennedy, they estimated that 60% of children in foster care have developmental issues. They also say that the children have severe trust and attachment problems. They reason for their trust and attachment issues is because of the constant

placement transitions. Foster children are constantly being moved around and so they learn not to develop deep relationships with foster parents. This is the children's way of protecting themselves from the emotional loss for when they move homes once again. Also, because of

these ongoing placements, the children aren’t able to establish good social friendships and are often moved to different schools. Most of these children, when released at age 18, are

becoming homeless or incarcerated. This is because most of these teens aren’t being trained properly with the skills they need to survive on their own. There are a lot of people out there

trained and employed to help these children, but it is often very difficult.

0%

20%

40%

60% Language Delays

Cognitive Problems

Gross MotorDifficulties

Growth Problems

Life After Foster Care

“Aging out” is the term used when foster children reach the age of 18 and are forced to head out into the world alone. Most of these teens are still in high school when they have to find a home and a job. Unlike most teens moving out on their own, these foster teens don’t have much of a support system and don’t have a home or family to fall back on if things don’t work out. Most of them become homeless or live in poverty. After aging out, they tend to become parents and rely on public assistance and welfare to survive. They are also at a high risk for drug and alcohol abuse and also have a high rate of being incarcerated.

0%

50%

100%

2-4 Years After "Aging Out"

Were Unemployed

Were Homeless

Were Receiving Public Assistance or Incarcerated

Became Parents

Did Not Finish High School

Experienced Drug or Alcohol Abuse

Life After Foster Care

“Hardship follows children after foster care” By Marilyn Elias. This article explains how much harder it is for foster children to have healthy adulthoods then non-foster children. They are more likely to have mental health problems such as post traumatic stress disorder (foster children have a higher rate of PTSD then war veterans). They are less likely to earn college degrees and more likely to become homeless or live in poverty. To be able to live healthy lives on their own, they need good mental health care and a stable environment. In some states, before aging out, they need do write down their plans so they have something to follow and go off of. Like many articles have said before, foster children are known to slip through the cracks of the system and these children aren't getting the best care and training for life on their own. Not having the proper training makes it harder to start a life after foster care.

The article “The aging out dilemma; plaguing the foster care system” By Bill Baccaglini, talks about the number of foster children, who are not ready, have to leave the system and provide for themselves. He says that these teens are not on the same level as most, and need more help transitioning from foster care, to life on their own. These 18-21 year olds have spend their adolescents under the care of the government, moving from home to home, and not having a stable environment or support system to rely on. This makes it harder for them to live healthy lives on their own and so they become incarcerated, homeless, forced into poverty, or become parents of their own. Baccaglini states that 21 is simply not old enough. These 21 year olds are on their own and they have no one; no mentors, no family, and no support system. He also states that the solution to this problem is having more help for these young adults and better programs to help them start a life on their own. He says they need to stress the fact that these programs are temporary so they can be able to learn to help themselves.

Reflection Page

I am going to school to get my degree in social work. The reason that I chose the foster care system as a social problem is because I wanted to

go into this typical field and I have heard a lot of bad things about it. I was very shocked at how much of a problem the foster care system is

and makes me want to switch what area of social work I want to go into. It is meant to take children away from their abusive and neglecting

parents and give them the opportunity to enjoy a good life, but in most cases is does just the opposite. Foster children are more likely to live in

poverty, or become homeless. Drug and alcohol addiction, early pregnancy, and dropping out of school are also highly likely among foster kids and most have a mental disorder. It is very upsetting that

most of these children are doomed either way, staying with their awful parents or being put into foster care. I believe more should be done about this problem. There is statistical proof that the majority of time,

these children don’t end up well off as adults, The Government needs to do more about this since they are the ones running it and they need to

figure out what exactly it is going to take to get these children into happy homes and get these kids the help they need in every way possible

because they deserve a great life just live everyone else.

Sources Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foster_care Foster Care Statistics 2011 -

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/foster.cfm http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/foster-care-faq6 News Article - http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=132011&page=1 News Article - http://www.katu.com/news/investigators/Kids-taken-from-

foster-home-after-two-years-with-no-issues-187374691.html?tab=video&c=y http://www.angelsfoster.org/about-angels/the-foster-crisis/scary-statistics/?

gclid=CN-GlMrUtrYCFcw7MgodsxgAyg News Article - http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/449673_5 http://foreverfamily.org/life_after_foster_care.html News Article - http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-04-06-

foster-challenges_x.htm