Problems with Foster Care

Destiny Bell

                In America, thousands of children’s and teenager’s lives are permanently altered by being put in foster care every year. Over 670,000 spent time in foster care in 2015. Reasons children are put into foster care are because they have suffered from neglect, physical, or sexual abuse(“Foster Care”). In general, I think foster care is a good way to get kids away from destructive family situations. Unfortunately, in some case putting children and teenagers in foster care could possibly make their situations worse because they are separated from their siblings and they also be sent to a foster home that is also abusive. I believe that foster care today is more harmful than helpful because there’s a good chance that they will be abused, they will have some kind behavior or mental problem, they are less successful academically, and they end up with nowhere to go once the turn eighteen.

            The requirements to be a foster parent include: must be 21 years old, be a U.S citizen, and have an adequate living space. With the requirements being so low for who can be a foster parent, the government is basically handing kids over to just anybody. Some people apply to be foster parents just because they get paid for it. They don’t even care about the child that they are supposed to helping and they will just neglect them and collect their check.  According to a study done, over 28% of children were abuse while in foster care (“A Critical Look”). Of course, the statistics for abuse are much higher than that. When children are in abusive living situations, they may be scared to tell their social worker or they might just think that being in an abusive environment is “normal”. In a case in California, a former foster child took his former foster parent to court for sexual abuse and won $30 million in damages, but even though he was a known abuser he was still allowed to foster kids. There need to a law against known abuser being allowed to be a foster parent. If the foster child reports to their social worker that they are being abused they need to remove them from the abuser as soon as possible to prevent more emotional and physical damage. To make it illegal for a known abuser from adopting and abusing more kids there need to be a bill sent to Congress because this a major issue that needs to be dealt with immediately to save an innocent child’s life. To prevent from sending as children to foster home that is abusive, there need to be stricter requirement for who can become a foster parent. Although, it is impossible to stop all children in foster care from being abused, making the restriction high to becoming one will prevent some people who to do not need to become foster parents.

            Due to the multiple children that are physically and sexually abused in foster care, many children developed emotional and behavior issues. In a study done on children ages 11 to 18, it was shown that four years after being removed from foster care 32 percent of them showed clinical levels of emotional problems and 41 percent of them had clinical levels of behavioral problems(“Children”). After foster children are adopted, at any time they can be put back into foster care by their adoptive parents. The adoptive parent may want to return their foster child because of their emotional or behavioral problem they may have developed in foster care. It is also possible that due to some the situations that the child was in before they were put in foster care they may have had pre-existing mental issues that just got worse once they were put into foster care. When the adoptive parent adopts a foster child, they should be told if they have any type of mental problems so they can help them with their issues. Foster children should be required to be put into counseling after they are adopted to help them to help them adapt to their new environment. It should also be outlawed to be able to return a foster child after they have been adopted because being returned to foster care after being in adopted could cause the child to suffer from post- traumatic stress because they were abandoned by their new family. The foster child may also feel like they were not good enough and suffer from psychological issues.

            It is estimated that a foster child will change placements about every six months. Due to all the changing of locations for foster children their education suffers in result. Students that are in foster care are forced to move schools at least once or twice a year. Due to being force to move schools they miss a lot of classroom time. When a student switches schools, it is likely that the school they transfer to is learning different material which will automatically cause them to be behind as soon as they get there. It is estimated that every time a foster child moves they lose about six months of academic progress. Also, the more a foster child is forced to move schools, the less likely they are to graduate from high school. When a student has falling behind so much, they will probably lose motivation to try and catch up and they might drop out altogether. If they actually end up graduating they most likely will graduate with a low class rank which will decrease their chances in getting into college. On average, seven to thirteen percent of foster children enroll in higher education and only one percent receive a college degree (“Foster Care Abuse”). When a foster child transfers to new school, the school should provide a tutor to the student to help them catch up on the material that they missed.

            When children in foster care turn eighteen they have “aged out of the system”. They are no longer a ward of the state and are officially adults. Most children are completely separated from their families so they have nowhere to go when they no longer qualify for foster care. Each year, it is estimated over 20,000 eighteen year old’s are left to fend for themselves after being removed from foster care. Most of them have not developed the skill to survive on their own and they end up on the streets. Former foster children have a higher chance of living in poverty and around 40 percent become homeless. In some states, there are Convenant Hosues for homeless former foster kids. The Convenant House provides a Right of Passage Passage program where they can learn skills to help them transition from foster care to being an independent adult. Although the Convenant House is a very helpful for former foster children transition to society. There should be Convenant Houses in all cities all over the Unites States, not just in certain places. In order for there to be Convenent Hosues all over the U.S., there needs to be money added to the government’s budget on foster care. In order to raise the money, the government could cut the cost on issues that aren’t as imperative as the well- being of former foster children.

            The foster care system today is extremely flawed. Some people think that the main purpose of foster care is to get a child away from their abusive or dangerous parents. Other than getting the child into a safe place, they also need to be rehabilitated. The government just turns a blind eye to foster children as soon as they are taken from their families, but they need to be taken care their whole way through foster care. Children in foster care don’t ask to be put in the horrible situations that they are in, they are innocent and deserve to be given a second chance of finding a family that loves and cares for them.

           

           

 

 

Works Cited

“A Critical Look At The Foster Care System: How Widespread a Problem?” Lifting The Evil. 1

Dec 2005. liftingtheveil.org/foster04.htm. Accessed 12 Feb 2017.

Babbel, Susanne. “The Foster Care System and Its Victims: Part 2” Psychology Today. 3 Jan

2012, pychologytoday.com/blog/somatic-pychology/201201/the-foster-system-and-its-victims-part-2. Accessed 12 Feb 2017.

“Children in Long Term Foster Care Suffer High Rates of Behavioral, Emotional Problems.

Social Work Today. 2017, socialworktoday.com/news/dn_070111.shtml. Accessed 13 Feb 2017

“Foster Care Abuse Statistics” RocketSwag.com. 2012, rocketswag.com/legal/family-law/foster-

care-abuse-statistics.html. Accessed 12 Feb 2017.

“Foster Care” Children’s Rights. 2017, childrensrights.org/newsroom/fact-sheets/foster-care/.

Accessed 12 Feb 2017.

“Foster Care” Convenant House. 2017, covenanthouse.org/homeless-teen-issues/foster-care.

Accessed 13 Feb 2017.

Lahey, Jessica. “Every Time Foster Kids Move, They Lose Months of Academic Progress. The

Atlantic. 28 Feb 2014, theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/02/every-time-foster-kids-move-they-lose-months-of-academic-progress/284134. Accessed 12 Feb 2017.