Behavioral Issues in Foster Care Most people do not realize foster care originated in England in 1562. By law children from poor families could be placed with wealthy families as indentured servants. Prior to this law children were placed in almshouses, otherwise known as poor houses, which later became the foundation for orphanages. In the almshouses children were subjected to horrible conditions. Many were abused both physically and sexually or were severely neglected. Conditions started to change in 1853 when New York minister Charles Loring Brace started the Free Foster Home Movement which helped make the changes for the beginning of the modern foster system as we know it (A Brief History of the United States Foster Care System). Foster care has been used for centuries, and in the last century and a half the government stepped in and developed the Dept. of Health and Human Services.
The Dept. of Health and Human Services began the foster care system in order to take care of children who have been taken from their homes because of neglect or abuse. Foster care came about because the old orphanage system was not working. There was almost as much abuse and neglect in an orphanage as the homes the children were being pulled from. The government had to come up with a better system for the children pulled from their homes. The government came up with the foster care system. The way that the foster care system works is families volunteer to provide a more stable environment than the children had with their families. There are requirements that vary from state to state that must be followed in order to become a foster parent but the basic principles are the same.
They include:
* Being at least 21 years old.
* Having enough room (and beds) in your home for a foster child to sleep and keep his or her belongings.
* Living in a home that can meet basic fire,