In a perfect world, all children would be loved and nurtured and live in a cozy home with a stable family. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. In the United States “over 400,000 American children are in foster care, taken away when their families are in crisis and can’t take care of them” (“Statistics on Foster Care”). Out of all those children in the foster care system about “114,556 of these children are available for adoption”, which means the biological parents’ rights have been legally terminated through the court system (“Adoption Statistics: National Adoption Month”). That is an immense number of children who do not get to have the same bond and love that a biological child would get from their own parents. The foster care …show more content…
Whether the child is a biological child or a foster child, both deserve to always have stability, support and a loving place to call home, even if it is temporarily. Most biological children have all of these benefits since they reside with the birth parents. The biological parents will always stand by their children and take care of them. Birth parents will always provide a roof over their child’s head, love them with all their hearts and support them in any and all decisions the child may make growing up, while showing them right and wrong decisions. The child may not always make the best decisions, but the parents stay hopeful and stand by them every step of the way. All of those things sound great; however, with a foster child they were not provided the same love and care and were removed from their birth parents. Even though they are no longer with their birth parents, it is the foster parents’ job to love, care, cherish and support the child in the decisions he or she will make, but also guide them down the right path and show them what a loving family is made of. Even if you only have the child for a few months, you have the ability to teach the child lifelong lessons and set positive examples for how healthy families should function, which the child may not have been taught by his or her birth parents. As you see the foster child grow and learn what a loving family is and just see the smile on the child’s face, knowing that they are now loved and cared for is
The life for a child in foster care is much different than any other child’s. While growing up children look up to their father or mother. They aspire to be like them and follow in their footsteps. For the children placed in foster care all they see is that their parents could not take care of them. They will not have the memoires of growing up with their family, but instead memories of the different homes they have been transferred too. Foster parents love and care for all of the children that come into their homes, but it’s hard for the children to accept someone who moves in and out of their lives.
In the United States 21% of all children are living below the federal poverty line. 2.9 million cases of child abuse and neglect are reported every year in the United States. 428,000 children are in the foster care system, and 107,918 foster children are waiting to be adopted. The foster care system is temporary out of home care for neglected, abused and impoverish children under 18. While the foster care system has all positive ideas, they fall short in providing certain needs for these children. Kids not only in America but all over the world that are living in poverty, are abused, neglected, and have an unstable home life. Nobody wants to live a life like that, especially not a child. They don’t know how to support themselves on their own, they need a family and a guardian that will take care of them, support, and love them.
Foster Care and Adoption are the most multi-faceted areas of child welfare. Foster care consists of placing children outside of the custody of their parents or legal guardians. This out-of-home placement can be temporary or long-term. Adoption on the other hand, consists of the legal and permanent process that establishes a parent/child relationship between individuals not related biologically (Downs, Moore, & McFadden, 2009). These two areas of child welfare are constantly evolving and the decisions made on a child’s behalf can affect many areas of their biological, spiritual, social, and emotional wellbeing.
Over 600,000 children in the United States are in the foster care system. Reasons include, abuse, neglect and abandonment. These children lack nurturing environments and stable homes. Children within the foster care system have more mental, physical and developmental problems. It is imperative to understand the challenges children entering the foster care system are exposed to. The system works best when children are provided nurturing, and short-term care until they can be placed back home safely or a permanent adoptive family. For many children, however, the stay is longer, with 30% remaining in temporary care for over two years. Staying in the system is detrimental to the child’s well-being. The foster care system is an unsuccessful intervention for children that cultivates development, health and mental issues.
In the past few decades there has be an increasing amount of children placed in the foster care system. With the amount of rising teen pregnancies and maternal drug abuse means increasing numbers of infants abandoned at birth. There have been many cases of child abuse or neglect that have been on the rise. State and local agencies are unable to suitably supervise foster homes or arrange adoptions. Statistics show that many children will spend most of their childhood and teenage years in the foster care system, which has shown to leave emotional scars on the child. Today, Child Welfare groups are looking for federal funding and legislation to increase programs and services aimed at keeping families together.
The Foster Care System with the kids who are in it is a massive social issue that America is facing today. There are more than 640,000 foster children in the United States every year. There are 23,000 foster children living in group homes at one time. There are 32,000 who live in institutions, and twenty-seven states do not meet federal abuse and neglect standards. (Attention) Personally, I am a foster sister, because my family currently fosters. Therefore, we see the issues and needs of fostering, daily. (Rapport and Credibility) This speech will discuss the importance of the nature of foster care, the catastrophic problems of foster care, and the proposed solution for the foster care system in America. (Preview)
The demographics of children currently in foster care in The United States system differs considerably from the children institutionalized in orphanages in the 1800s (Martin, 2013). Most children in protective custody have been removed from their homes due to maltreatment. “As of September 1, 2010 (the most recent statistics available), there were approximately 408,325 children in the U.S. foster care system” (Martin, 2013, p. 92). This represents a decrease of almost 105,000 children since 2006, and it also represents a continued pattern of reduction of children in out-of-home placement since 1998 and 21 percent Hispanic children. More than half of the children will be placed with nonrelative foster care placement, followed by about a quarter of all children placed in relative care (Martin, 2013).
Society understands our current system is awful, but no one is protesting for a reform, or they’re aren’t trying hard enough. Child safety is the number one objective of the system, but it’s not working like it should. “In 2015, over 670,000 children spent time in U.S. foster care” (Foster Care). Of those 670,000 cases, more than half could be eliminated with a reform in the system. The focus should be on keeping families together, rather than taking them apart.
Unfortunately, there will always be kids who get abused and neglected, and there will always be people who live in poverty, but this issue can be improved. First, we need more educational training for foster parents, as well as educating the public about the foster care system. There needs to be more funding for foster care so that children have an opportunity to have an education, and foster parents have the right resources for their foster children. That is where this charity comes in, The Alliance for Children’s Rights.
Foster care services in the U.S. have been decreasing while children in the system have been increasing. According to Teresa James, Commissioner of the Department of Community Based Services, the system has an average of 7,700 to 8,200 children in need of foster care (qtd. in Toncray). Reduction of the system has caused foster children to suffer more than they already have. This has reached a crisis in which needs immediate attention. The U.S. government and foster care services know of the issues, but continue to disregard. There is more to the children then many people may realize. Foster children will end up homeless and stay suffering if no attention is aided.
Imagine being a child removed from your home in the middle of the night. Waken out of your sleep handed to someone you do not know and being taken to place where all the people around you are strangers. The removal process can be painful, mentally, physically and emotionally to children. The number of losses experienced by a child when they are removed from their home can be countless. Although, there are more White children in the foster care than any other race, research suggests African America children remain in foster care placements for a longer period of time and the chances of reunification with their family is greatly diminished (Knott and Giwa, 2012). The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) report notes
As family structure changes children pay the biggest price. They may lose the luxury of a stable home or school to call their own, when parent are no longer in the picture either. This is an issue that is largely ignored by society and most importantly the government. Without the foster system, children would be left abandoned and forgotten by all. The foster system provides thousands of homes for foster children each year, with parents that can give them what they need. But, foster care in America is inadequate for all American foster children and needs to be improved. Improvements are critical in bettering American foster systems, these improvements include, creating programs, finding more stable homes, and starting mentoring programs
“Family is forever.” Many people believe that this quote happens to be true. Everyone wants to believe that their family will always be there for them, and support the decisions that they make. For a normal family is quote would be accurate. On the other hand, there are families that will not be together forever. This is not just a choice that these certain families make, it is forced upon them. At this very moment hundreds of thousands of children around the country are spending quality time with their family. But, at the same exact moment, there are over five hundred thousand children living in the foster care system. These children do not know what it is like to spend quality time with their actual families. Instead, these children are forced to live with complete strangers, and suffer. Government officials say that foster care is for the safety of the children, but many do not share the same views. Foster care does not benefit children because of extensive developmental, social, and economic problems later in their lives.
Everywhere across the world, more and more children are being placed into foster care or a welfare type system. Foster care can benefit children or harm them; the effects of foster care differ for every individual. These types of systems often have a major effect on young children’s physiological state. Children entering in foster care are often malnourished and have untreated health problems. A high percentage of children who are placed in these types of systems have mental health, physical health, and/or developmental issue which often originates while the individuals are still in the custody of the biological parents. Children in foster care should be provided with a healthy and nurturing environment which often provides positive long term results. The age of children in a foster care varies across the world, but it is often seen that majority of these children are young (George para. 1). There are more young children in the system because younger children require more adequate care than older children that are already in the system. Placing these children in welfare systems is supposed to be a healing process for them. Although this is supposed to be a healing process, statistics say these children have a negative experience while being in these systems, but this is not always the case. A number of children in foster care fall sucker to continuous neglect and recurrent abuse with the lack of nurturing and an unstable environment. These same children often have unmet
Imagine growing up without a family, moving constantly and never having a permanent home. Envision being taken away from an abusive parent and left to survive in foster care for an undefined period of time. Think about lingering within the system for years and suddenly loosing any kind of aid at the age of eighteen. This is a reality for thousands of children in America’s foster care system. There are kids that are searching for a home and family -- and many of them never get one. These youths are all hoping and wishing for a permanent place to go back to. The number of children aging out of the foster care system annually is a serious problem because many children leave foster care without support and suffer consequences in their adult life that could have been avoided if they had been adopted.