Foster Care System Analysis

Raising children is one of the most important responsibilities in any society. Today, working parents have many options, but what about those children who have neither a mother nor father? What about those children who come from broken and abusive homes? In such cases there are often few choices. Parentless children may be placed in orphanages or in foster homes. Ideally, foster care offers children more personalized attention than would normally be available at a public or private situation. However, orphanage care is notoriously uneven. While some children are indeed in loving homes, others find themselves neglected or

Foster care is supposed to be temporary, but for many teenage youth in foster care it is often a permanent solution. Foster care was never meant to raise children into adulthood. Even though foster care is supposed be temporary, most teenage foster youth reach their 18th birthday and become emancipated and end up living their lives without a family. Currently, 40% of foster youth in the system are between the ages of 11 and 21 (Child Welfare 3). Foster care is supposed to be a temporary arrangement in which adults provide care for children whose parents are unable to do so, due to issues within the family such as neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or homeless. The earliest documentation of foster care can date back to the Bible, which

According to the National Foster Youth institute, “More than 23,000 children age out of the US foster care system every year.”() Aging out is the process of a teens transitioning from the legal control of the foster care system, to independent living. Youth aging out of foster care should be given an extension on foster care services after the age of 18, because it provides a stable home for teens, it increases the amount of college graduates and it provides healthcare for those in need.

When an adolescent comes into for therapy there is really never an easy task of finding out what is going on. Adolescent that come in who are part of the foster care system will add another degree of challenges. Children and adolescents that are put into the foster care system are not there because they choose to be, they are there due to some event in their life putting them there.

Each year, an estimated 20,000 young people "age out" of the U.S. foster care system. Many are only 18 years old and still need support and services (. Several studies show that without a lifelong connection to a caring adult, this older youth are often left vulnerable to a host of adverse situations. Compared to other youth in the United States, kids who age out of foster care are more likely to not have completed high school or received a GED, they often suffer from mental health problems, many are unemployed and live in poverty, and nearly 40% become homeless.

In the John Burton Policy Brief on AB 12 the realities of education for foster youth are highlighted, “The rate at which foster youth complete high school (50 percent) is significantly lower than the rate at which their peers complete high school (70 percent),” (2011, p. 2). This affects chances for higher education including college degrees. This has a significant impact on the community as “aged-out” youth without services have more chance of risk for: homelessness, poverty, unemployment, going to jail, prostitution, substance abuse, early parenthood and untreated health conditions. Samuels and Pryce state that foster care has not always been a positive, developmentally appropriate experience. Youth who are

when they are on their own (Mech, 1994). These are some of the problems faced by 20,000 foster children who age-out of care each year. History In the early 1980's, older adolescents in foster care and young adults who had been discharged from foster care become a source of great

Active involvement in learning to develop life skills can help people to become independent. Learning in a

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, every year close to 25,000 youth age out of the foster care system and are faced with cold hard realities of adulthood. This does not include the youth who leave the system, which is estimated to be another 30,000. Most adolescents anticipate their eighteenth birthday, as it brings on a new found sense of independence and most importantly a time of celebration. However when foster children reach eighteen, they begin facing the challenges of transitioning to adulthood. These children disproportionately join the ranks of the homeless, incarcerated, and unemployed. These youth are unprepared for the independent life they are forced to take on. The average age that young adults who have never experienced foster care leave their family home for good is 24, and 40% return home again at least once afterwards (Margolin, 2008). With these facts being stated, we yet expect youth who has dealt with rejection after rejection to leave “home” of the state custody permanently and fin for themselves. These youth sometimes have fewer than $250 in cash, only one-third have drivers licenses, and fewer than one-quarter have the basic tools to set up a household, let alone the skills to know what to do with the tools (Krinsky, 2010). Youth exit care with no more than a garbage bag of their belongings, finding themselves alone at the age of eighteen, with little reason to celebrate what is supposed to be an exciting milestone

An adult’s psychological development depends on one’s childhood experiences with adults and their capability of providing nurturance, protection, trust, and security to the developing child. Children with current and previous ties to the foster care system were found to have behavioral, emotional, and social well-being issues. The United States averages more than 400,000 children in foster care during the year. Amongst these 400,000 children, as many as 50% have developmental disorders or psychiatric diagnoses (Hutchinson). Children placed within the foster care system are more likely to be found to have mental health issues due to the inadequacy

Foster care is a multifaceted service. It serves children who have experienced abuse or neglect at the hands of their birthparents and families, and their foster parents. Children in foster care may live with unrelated foster parents, with relatives, with families who plan to adopt them, or in group homes or residential treatment centers. Foster care was designed to intervene on behalf of the children during their time of crisis, with hope of reuniting the children with their families in a safe, stable and loving environment. Some children remain in foster care for extended periods of time. Many “age out” and go on to live on their own. This research looks

Some awful things we hear about the foster care system makes the system seem like it is awful, but in reality the system was created to help the foster youth. Some examples would be that the system does not help after a child has entered into a foster home, but the system pays a monthly supplement to the foster parents to pay for clothes and medical expenses. Despite the common belief that foster care is an awful system, but in actuality there are programs within the the foster care system that help youth and the main goal is to reunite the foster children with their biological parents.

The article discusses a research which was performed in 1990 to 2011, that found between 11% to 36% of the youths that age out of the foster care become homeless during the transitional to adulthood. The analysis was based on data from the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth, which was a ten-year study that used a sample of youth from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois from 2002 to 2012. According to Dworsky and Courtney data collection reflected that transitioning out of foster care in the three Midwestern states, that the odds of becoming homeless by age of nineteen years of age were higher, those who had ran away from a foster care placement, those who was placed in group home settleing, those who had been physically

Over the past several there has been increased focus on the foster care system with implementation of new policies and pieces of legislation to support this population. Although, initial services and support was extremely broad with the intent to meet the needs of the entire population, the youth exiting foster care due to age limitations shed light on the need for more specific legislation for this population. It is clear that youth “aging out” (Dworksy, 2008) of the foster care system are in some ways forced to transition into a role of independence much differently than the general population. There is typically no chance for this population of youth to return to the foster care system for support even if they are completed unprepared for the transition (Geenen & Power, 2007). Clearly, specific populations of foster care youth are in need of special attention particularly those aging out of the system. These youth are believed to encounter adverse challenges in areas such as incarceration, drug use, education, and homelessness. In the hopes to address the issues of homelessness in youth several pieces of legislation have been passed and amended over the years.

Youth who age out of the foster care system are faced with several challenges. Aging out of foster care refers to children who are discharged from care, namely care that is no longer provided by the government, usually between the ages of 18 and 21. Many of these young adults are forced into independence, with little to no resources helping them assume adult responsibilities. Youth that age out of the foster care system have a higher likelihood of becoming homeless, lack job training skills, and have a higher risk of substance abuse and health problems. Many youth who aged out of foster care report being homeless at some point in time after discharge. Approximately 14% of males and 10% of females report being homeless at least once since their discharge from foster care services (Baugh 2008). Due to limited work histories and/or lackluster job training, many former foster children will face difficulty finding employment. Those who do obtain employment may be forced to work low-paying jobs, making them susceptible to exploitation, poverty, and increased difficulty establishing their independence. Foster care youth are a vulnerable group with a high risk for substance use and abuse. Within this population of youth illegal drugs are used because of experimentation and peer pressure, self-medication due to lack of health care, and coping mechanisms for stress. Many youth upon leaving foster care face additional issues in relation to their physical and mental health.