Biological Vs Foster Parents Case Study

As of 2016 there were nearly a half million children in the foster care system, with roughly 25,000 “aging-out” each year (Ahmann, 2017). Most adolescents “age out” of the system with no one to mentor or serve as a caring parent figure. Foster youth are in dire need of long-term adult role models to guide them to achieve success. According to Ahmann, 50% of foster youth left “the system” without a high-school degree, as well as with having higher rates of PTSD, and depression (p. 43). Ahmann presented that research has proven teenagers, in general, that have quality relationships from adults able to provide support, do better than those that do not. If research has shown efficacy in supportive adult figures in a teen’s life then one can conclude that foster youth would also benefit. Foster children are at a disadvantage a soon as they enter “the system” so giving them resources proven positive is vital to their future success.

The U.S foster care system is corrupt and the children trapped in it face the worst of it. The goal of foster care is to eventually reunite children with their parents or find the child a safe, loving home. Instead, foster kids face the harsh reality of abuse, mental illness, and temporary homes. The children and ripped from the homes they’ve known their entire lives because their parents struggle financially. The system would rather pay strangers to the child to take care of him/her rather than helping the parents of the child. This case would be called “neglect” when in reality most parents were doing all they could to take care of their children. The children’s new foster parents are paid hundreds of dollars per month. Often times, the money doesn’t go to the child and he/she is left truly neglected. The system is broken because children are taken from their homes for the wrong reasons and put into unsafe environments that will have a traumatic effect on the rest of their lives.

The foster care system and the Child protective services (CPS) main goal is to maintain and provide children with a safe environment/home, when they are at risk or in danger. The main reasons children enter the system are because they are being abused, neglected, parents have abandoned them, have an illness, have died, or are struggling with addiction. As of September of 2015, there was an estimate of 427,910 children in foster care, 45 percent were placed in the homes of non relatives. About two thirds of children in the system have siblings and most are separated, about 31 percent of former foster youth will spend time couch-surfing and homeless. Their are far more children entering the system than people opening up their doors and becoming foster parents. There are also more and more cases of child abuse within the foster homes being reported and discovered. While the intentions of the system is to better the lives of the children the system itself is against them, the separation of siblings, being sent to multiple homes, and aging out are a few problems that the foster care system have control over and can change. It’s clear that the they aren’t meeting their goals, but what happens in the lives of these children that are the victims in the situation is a social issue that society as a whole should be a part of.

The foster care system has been stretched too thin as the turn of the 21st century rolled around. Higher entrance into the system with new policies and lower staff has given way to a new problem-the highly abusive environment that surrounds the whole system. The mistreatment of the children and their foster families within in the system is now a prevalent issue in the Child Welfare Organization. The long-term effects of the abusive foster care system comes from the mismanagement of the system such as the instability within placement, lack of rights to foster families, ignoring culture heritage and misused policies that create detrimental health for the children in later years. The harsh foster care system under the control of the government in the U.S. can be changed with the addition of reorganization to the agency via more staff and communication and stability through more permanent placements for the children as well as the families. First I will define what I mean by abuse and address the current problems that the foster care system is facing such as instability and mismanagement. Then I will explain what the possible negative long-term effects of entrance into the foster care system. Finally I will discuss what steps could be taken to change this situation such as the creation of stable housing and uniform programs for the foster care system.

The foster care system has been a public policy issue for some time. Advocates say there are six problems that hinder foster care in the U.S. The first problem hindering foster care is that too often group homes are the go-to. Because there are rarely enough foster families, there are more than 56,000 children that live in a group setting. Advocates argue that children who are placed in family settings from the beginning have more success than those that were defaulted to group settings. Group homes are also lacking in sufficient support and do not make financial sense since group homes cost seven to ten times more than if the child was placed with a family.

Foster Parent One: Shelly was born and raised in Avery, TX. She is the biological daughter of Delores Jackson and David Monsiviaz. Shelly was adopted by her maternal aunt and uncle, Eura and Woodrow Hicks at the age of 3, Shelly’s mother was killed in a car accident and her father was not accept by the family due to his ethnicity. Shelly reported she was informed by her adoptive parents that her biological father was dead as well. When Shelly was an adult she searched and located him, however she has never contacted him because she feels that should have been his job.

Children being placed in the foster care system usually come from unhealthy or unsafe situations, some might be mourning the death of a parent; therefore, whatever the circumstance is it is crucial the child’s wellbeing be put first. In many situations the child is put into another low income or highly abusive home, or often times the system is not temporary for the child. Each foster kid should be closely monitored by the state, the child’s wellbeing is crucial to the development of their future. We should do thorough investigations on the homes, before and while the child is under their care. If a child ever feels unsafe in their foster home, there should be an immediate investigation of the home.

Life deals out cards from a deck where no one knows what luck they might get. Those in foster care, for example, receive one difficult hand in life; growing up without the nurture and care of a parent. In fact, Mother Teresa once said, “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty” (Calcutta 774). Even though people might lack necessities, such as food, water, shelter; the feeling of depreciation causes physical and mental pain. Foster care is a system that helps minors find a stable home; however, when they become adults at the age of 18, the government stops aiding them. In 2015, about 20,000 people that reached the age of 18, stopped receiving help from the government; being neglected from biological family, and welfare, make the thousands that age out of foster care more prone to becoming homeless and incarcerated ("Foster Care"). Even though, foster care’s purpose is to improve the life of those without a stable family, there are faults in the system that cause harm. Foster care has negative effects on humans, such as emotional trauma, anti-social conduct, and negative inclinations.

Everybody needs a family, even older children in foster care waiting for adoption. Teenagers are less likely than young children to get fostered or adopted, because everyone wants the perfect young child. More people should foster and adopt older children and teenagers, because it positively impacts the lives of the youth, family, and society. Children in foster care go through harsh things in life and need the love and support from a foster or adoptive parent. Not only does fostering or adopting older children change their lives but it also impacts the lives of the people parenting them. Society is positively impacted by teenagers being fostered or adopted.

According to the 2015 Adoption and foster care Analysis and reporting system (AFCARS), 427,910 children were in the US foster care, making Foster care one of the social issues in the USA. The US Department of Health and Human services (HHS) is working on this social issue for past few years but is still not getting positive results — every year population of Foster care is increasing by 50,000 youths. The statistics about Foster care system is changing every day. Some things that people don’t know about foster care is that they will not only lose their children—they had lost parental rights and had broken the laws, so this can lead to a punishment. There are many laws related to foster care. Once the parents had lost the children, the children

Since 1980, the United States has offered adoption subsidies to significantly lower the cost of adopting a child in the foster care system. These subsidies are a form of economic incentive and can cover legal, medical, and educational expenses. This system was put in place to increase the adoption of children in the foster care system (Argys). The federal government’s intention behind these cash incentives is to move children through the foster care system and into permanent homes. The number of annual adoptions nationally almost doubled from 1995 to 2001 (Kaufman). For International adoptions, the government will reimburse adoptive parents for travel costs, lodging, food, and transportation while in the foreign country. Many countries require

Many children are placed into foster care because their situation at home is not satisfactory according to The Department of Family Services. A lot of the situations deal with emotional, physical, and verbal abuse. A young girl named Tiffany was placed into foster care at the age of 8. The lack of a father role model in her life had life changing effects on Tiffany. As an already confused child, she was adopted by a foster home for females. It was run by females only. As a foster child at the time, when Tiffany would go out into public with either her “big sister” or foster parent, she would begin to understand that she wasn’t like most children because all the regular children had their mother and father. She began to develop insecurities

I would like to reflect on my PowerPoint presentation of my sociological analysis of foster families. Overall, I am very content with the outcome of my project. I feel that I have improved on my abilities to connect the different aspects of institutions to different sociological perspectives. To be honest, sometimes I struggle to view things through the functionalist perspective even though I understand the definition. In fact, most of the time, I am not completely confident about the ways different institutions could positively contribute to the structure of society. I was required to research facts for this project, and I discovered that using outside resources other than just my textbook really expands my comprehension of sociological

The study consisted of 12 parents who foster children ages 2-8 years old. The high levels of conduct problems among children in the foster care system and the added cost to families, society and services, there is a pressing need to support foster parents. Providing foster care to children with increased emotional, behavioral, and medical needs requires not only time, but patience in dealing with the child’s demands. Foster parents often voice they are unprepared to meet demand of children with increased behavioral and emotional needs and adolescents in their care. This situation can result in placement disruption, which further strains foster care resources and has negative impacts on foster children and youth. The incidence of conduct disorder

I gave Ms Moors a follow up call. She said that she was falsely accused by McKenzie and she lost the appeal. She said that the CW decided to believe on the child's lies and not even gave her the opportunity to tell her version.