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Child Abuse In Foster Care

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“I believe the best service to the child is the service closest to the child, and children who are victims of neglect, abuse, or abandonment must not also be victims of bureaucracy. They deserve our devoted attention, not our divided attention.” by Kenny Guinn ( Quotes, 2015 Web). Every day there are children of all ages that are faced with living in unsafe home environments. It may be that they are being physically abused, emotionally abused, sexually abused, or neglected. Unfortunately, often the maltreatment is being done by the very person who was supposed to protect the child and keep them safe from harm. Neither one of the abuses being any less harmful to the child than any of the others, they all require action to be taken to preserve …show more content…
In California, which has the largest foster care population than any other state, the number of foster youth has tripled in the last 20 years” (Foster Care Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web). In my interview I spoke with Dena Price a long time foster parent in California. She talked about the different kinds of care they provided and the numerous children that have been taken into their home. We discussed the challenges in the foster care system and how it accounts for the instability to a child’s life. When I asked Dena about the training she received she stated, “I had to have 32 hours of training, fingerprinted for background check, TB test, physical, and yearly we need 8 hours of continuing training.” (Price, personal interview 2015). When I asked if she felt that was adequate training for what she has to deal with she said, “Yes we have more training/ongoing classes than we had as new parents with our biological sons” (Price, personal interview 2015). During the interview I found out that some of the negatives to being a foster parent is that the children often show up with just the clothes on their backs, sometimes just in a shirt and diaper. They usually have no other personal belongings so it falls on the foster family to provide clothes, personal care items, and toys. The final question I ended the interview with was what she felt needed to be changed about the foster care system. Her reply was “Communication …show more content…
Children should not remain in homes that are unsafe just because there is not somewhere else for them to go. Children should not have to suffer through abuse and neglect because they have parents that cannot or will not care for them properly. Parents with prior contact with child protective services should have stricter mandated requirements before their children are returned home. As well as continual mandated follow up care and check ins after the child or children have been returned home. If by chance you still do not see the importance of boosting up the foster care system to allow children the ability to remain in a loving and caring until the situation at home is suitable for their return, then you must just YouTube child abuse deaths. What you will see after that, the horrible images of children mistreated, could be what it takes to change your

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