...Adopt Us Kids, there are over 14,000 children in the foster care system in Ohio alone. (Adopt Us Kids, 2013) If we factor in the entire United States, that number goes up exponentially. However, for the purpose of this paper, all references will be related to the needs of the foster children in Ohio. Unfortunately, what is discussed in this paper relates to the needs of the other 386,000 or so kids in the foster care system throughout the United States. That need, the one that is so important, is the fact that there aren’t enough foster parents. There are more children in the foster care system than there are parents to take care of them. Foster care can be considered a necessary evil. The end results are not always what we hope them to be, but without it, so many more children would be lost. An article, written in 1986, says it best: “Foster care is a necessary evil”, explained Robert Hayes, a lawyer with the Coalition for the Homeless. In a recent interview with Children’s Express, “There are times and places when parents cannot take care of their kids. But sometimes, children can live for 18 years in ‘temporary foster care’.” Hayes goes on to say: “this accounts for why these children never learn many of the appropriate tools of life”. (Lin, Zelermyer, Young & Young, 1986) This paper, written in 1986, tells of the same exact issues that are faced today. Children are often forgotten about or misplaced because of the demands placed upon foster parents and social workers. Having...
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...taken away from your parents, you've been placed into a new home with a new family. Your last family was unfit to take care of you, but now you're in better hands. Or so it seems. Six months later you're tired, beaten down, and slowly giving up on life. Your foster parents weren't as nurturing and loving as they seemed; although, the social worker who placed you in their care didn't know that, mainly because she didn't properly screen them before sending you into the home of strangers. Foster care reform is a drastically overlooked topic in America, which is becoming worse by the second. Although hundreds of thousands of children enter into the foster care system each year, foster care reform is a subject which is constantly...
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...the System The requirements for foster parents are not adequate enough to ensure that the children are in good hands. Foster care is when a child is provided with a temporary family life. Children that are placed in foster care are neglected, abused, or removed due to extreme circumstances that occur in the household. Social services play an important role on selecting the right foster parents for the children. To become a foster parent there are many requirements and regulations necessary to place the child in the right temporary custody. Some minimum requirements to become a foster parent include that you have to be at least twenty-one years old, be free of communicable diseases, be financially self supporting, and complete and pay for a criminal history check. Also the applicant can’t have over six children under the age of eighteen, including their own biological children (Taneika Goldman). Do these guidelines work? The guidelines need to go into more detail to increase the safety of the foster children. Are foster parents taking in children just to benefit themselves? The guidelines that are in place now could be better. The minimum requirements to become a foster parent need to be revised in order to see maximum success. Foster care is a system in which a minor is taken from their biological parent voluntarily or involuntarily and is placed in temporary custody of a certified foster parent. Children are taken from their homes due to varioss reasons. Sometimes...
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...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 which is called a foster parent. More than 463,000 children are in the foster care system. The living arrangements for foster care children are exceptional. The placement of the child is always arranged through the government or a social-service agency. Children had been physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, or their caretaker isn’t stable enough to take care of the child which result in the Child Protective Services removes the child from the home. Once this goes into effect the child is place into three possible temporally living arrangements which are foster home, group home, and kinship home....
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...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...
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...The Impact of Foster Care on Child Development Demeka F. Gaddy Liberty University Abstract The foster care system was designed to provide a safe temporary placement for children who can no longer stay in the care of their parents or guardian. The overall goal of foster care is for the children to return home to their caregiver. If the caregiver fails to regain custody the child is placed in other living arrangements, to include foster homes. However there is a controversy over the effectiveness of the foster care system in regards to child development. Foster care has been linked to negative impacts in child development to include; physical and sexual abuse, attachment disorders, and behavioral problems that eventually lead to children being placed in multiple placements and in some cases the juvenile justice system,. Children who are in foster care are a vulnerable group due to the being removed from their home, in some cases abruptly. It has been proven that the longer children living in foster care are subject to negative development more than children who do not live in foster care. Based on these factors the foster care system needs to focus more on the needs of the child so that positive development can occur. Keywords: child welfare, abuse, child development The Negative Impacts of Foster Care on Child Development The foster care system was designed to provide a safety net for children and families and to reunite children with their biological parents if possible...
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...What affect does foster care have on children? Is it a stable and supportive environment? Foster care allows kids to have a chance to live a somewhat normal life. There are advantages and disadvantages for kids living in foster homes, but questions arise when there are foster parents that do not provide a stable environment. When we are not aware of these situations of unstable foster homes the kids placed in those foster homes will not have a good survival rate for success. Although there are parents out there that provide security for their foster children, we still need to be aware of the circumstances of kids placed in foster homes that are not safe and secure. Foster care is a great system to provide kids with families who do not...
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...the foster care system have severe mental health problems” (Source E). Children in the foster care system have experienced trauma, abuse and neglect, and counseling is an effective non-drug solution. However the majority of these children are misdiagnosed; foster children are prescribed psychiatric drugs instead of counseling or other non-drug alternatives. These misdiagnoses are then added to a child’s medical history, which lacks consistency from constantly being transferred to different homes. Overhauling America’s foster care system will be challenging and strenuous, but is a necessary step in improving the welfare of foster children, who spend on average over two years in purported temporary placement...
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...The Department of Human Services (DHS) is Arkansas’ largest state agency, with more than 7,500 employees serving Arkansans of all ages. People seeking support will find at least one local DHS office in each of the state’s 75 counties. Arkansans have access to many services that they can apply for in person or online. Those services include ARKids First health insurance for children, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), Transitional Employment Assistance (TEA) and Medicaid. DHS uses Medicaid that is both federally and state funded to pay for 64 percent of the babies born in Arkansas each year and for the care of 69 percent of the state’s nursing home patients. Additionally, DHS protects children and the elderly who have been abused or neglected; finds adoptive homes for foster children; funds services for the elderly such as congregate and home-delivered meals and regulate nursing homes. While regulating childcare facilities, they also support high-quality early childhood education; treat and serve youth in the juvenile justice system; oversee services for blind Arkansans; runs residential facilities for people with developmental disabilities; manages the Arkansas State Hospital and Arkansas Health Center for those with acute behavioral health issues; and supports nonprofit, community and faith-based organizations that depend on volunteers to continue programs vital to our communities. The agency also partners with community mental...
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...As of 2014, more than 650,000 children were involved in foster care. More than half of these children were non-white (Foster Care - Children's Rights). The numbers continue to rise as years go by and we are seeing these children become products of their environment. Once they age out of foster care nearly a quarter are homeless, sixty percent of males have been convicted of a crime, and more than two-thirds of women have a child (Fessler). With all of these children under the care of the states, these children will soon age out and become members of our society. With almost forty-seven percent of former foster children being unemployed (CR Staff) they are contributing nothing to society, thus making this a huge societal problem. So, what happens...
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...Chapman, who grew up in the foster care system. She had a horrible experience that still haunts her today. Her parents were divorced so her two brothers, two sisters, and she lived with their mother. Chapman’s mother had an alcohol problem. She would go out drinking and not return for weeks at a time. This would leave the oldest girl, nine years old, in charge of taking care of her siblings. Their school noticed the children were missing quite a few days of school so they called child services. Child services placed the children in temporary foster care. This happened several times while their mom had on and off problems with alcohol. Each time the children were placed in foster care the girls and boys would be split up into different foster homes. Finally the children were placed in permanent foster homes until new homes could be found. Once again the boys were split up from the girls. The boys were being physically abused by their foster parents. Eventually the children’s...
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...Remarkably, children around the world occupy the streets. Countless children each day are abused, assaulted, and harassed, commonly in their own homes. The foster care system, created by Charles Loring Brace, allowed children to enter safer homes and environments when they weren’t safe at home. Sadly, there aren’t enough homes for every kid, meaning some go into group homes. But while the foster care system has come a long way since being invented, this innovative organization has changed many children’s lives, the evolution of the system, and has an interesting origin story. The foster care system has significantly influenced children all over the country over the years. The main goal is to improve and benefit children’s lives. In the 1850s,...
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...Foster Care in the United States Sue King Liberty University Abstract The history of foster care in the United States started with orphan trains and the Children’s Aid Society founded by Charles Loring Brace. Recent research describes the child welfare system as an organization that provides service to helpless children in need. This paper will discuss foster care as it is relates to safety, permanency, and wellbeing of children in need The role of a foster parent and the process of loss, and grief after a child leave their biological parents will be discussed. Research suggests that Courts has the final decision whether a child will stay in foster care or return home. This paper will describe the developmental impact that foster care has on children after losing their biological family. There are several risk factors associated with poverty. This paper will discuss the significance of children reuniting with their biological parents and/or being adopted for permanency. Empirical evidence from recent research confirmed that hard times during childhood was related to health problems later in life. Foster care reform, educational outcomes, economic incentives for adoption, mentors and home visitation programs should be implemented to improve the foster care system. Keywords: foster care, developmental, health problems, orphan trains Foster Care in the United States The prevalence rate is high for foster care in the United States. The history...
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... always prone to drugs or neglect. This is the reality of countless foster kids well into adulthood. Without stability and a family to love, they are at a disadvantage and are proven to have less academic and career success. Kids aging out of foster care tend to have lower graduation rates and have difficulty finding a job. They are forced to navigate a constantly changing life, which can lead to negative outcomes such as homelessness, financial struggles, and social anxiety. Shockingly, as of 2023, over 225,000 teenagers have aged out of the system. Only half of these children are reunited with their parents, and this number has decreased since 2021. Only 37% of teens in foster care are...
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...Foster Care It was close to midnight, only a few days before Thanksgiving. There was a certain calming silence as my mother was preparing to go out to Lounge 46 with her friends. I was studying for the SAT which, at the time, I believed to be the most important exam of my life. I received an unexpected call from my grandmother, I could barely understand her. She was unable to stop sobbing long enough to tell me what happened. After she calmed down, she told me that three of her grandchildren, my cousins, were taken away by Child Protective Services. She explained that if my mom and I do not take them, they will be sent to live in a foster home. According to the Department of Children and Families of New Jersey, Child Protective Services...
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