Foster Child Research Paper

A family partnership meeting (FPM) is a “deliberate and structured approach to involving youth and families in decision-making through a facilitated meeting of family, their identified supports and professionals working with the family” (Family Partnership Meetings, 2013). Virginia Department of Social Services uses FPM to engage families in the decision-making process when a child is at risk of coming into foster care, foster home placement disruption, and permanency planning (Family Partnership Meetings, 2013). With that said, foster parents are considered as professional members of the multidisciplinary team, working together to meet the needs of foster children (Child Welfare League of America, 2008). This

In America it is stated that 1 in every 84 children live in foster care circumstances via "Statistics on Foster Care". There is a numerous amount of contrasting children from various backgrounds and ages living within these special housing homes, and many are repeatedly in and out from unstable circumstances. As children grow and mature into the new faces of the world, they face many obstacles and tribulations that will alter their lives. Living in fostering homes is a substantial example and the effects of living in these institutions can truly be great.

Foster children are placed in foster homes because of their parents participating in physical, emotional, sexual, or psychological abuse, and/or neglect towards their children; however, the parents of the foster children are affected by their children being put into foster homes and therefore has complex feelings towards the program. Parents usually put up a defensive shield when people tell them how to raise their child, and they think the foster care program is supposedly raising their children how they should raise them and not how they currently are raising them. When the mother/father visits the foster child there is usually shared tension between the two relatives because the child has a new family now. Nevertheless, while there the mother/father is making the child think about

Kinship care is the full-time care and nurturing of a child by a relative or someone who has a significant emotional relationship with the child. If children must be separate from their parents, either voluntarily or by court order, kinship care should be the first placement option explored by the child welfare agency. The Federal Government endorsed this practice most recently in the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. Placing children in Kinship care helps States’ compliance with Federal requirements to provide children with safety, stability, and permanency. It also meets provisions of the Fostering Connection Act that requires agencies to notify relatives when

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.

When discussing placement, DHS acknowledges and supports the idea that children’s best place is in their own home with their family. When this isn’t possible, siblings are placed together (whenever possible) and placed in the most family like and least restrictive setting. Placement with the non-custodial parent or extended family, is considered first, and then next would be placement with a foster family so the child(ren) can retain as much normalcy as they can and stay in his or her school and maintain relationships with friends and family. When it is not possible or appropriate to place the child with siblings or relatives, foster care must make every effort to make sure that those relationships are preserved and nurtured.

The Florida Department of Children and Families has prioritized increasing foster homes specifically for teenagers, sibling groups, and children with needs beyond that of traditional care. By analyzing and evaluating the program success of an existing sibling foster care program, the system of care can implement the use and expansion of program focused efforts to meet the needs of sibling groups and focused permanency outcomes.

Children that are placed in your home on a long-term basis are more likely to become attached emotionally to your family. It is also very likely that your family will become emotionally attached as well. As with many short-term placements, long-term placements may, at first, feel like your home is a vacation. The same feelings of newness are often there. This period is sometimes referred to as the "honeymoon period". There can be a temptation for new foster parents to overdo things. Going out to eat more often than normal and always giving the child the choice of where you will eat. Buying lots of presents, toys, clothing and over doing praise (not that helping your foster child with self esteem is a bad thing). In short, spoiling the child. This only contributes to the feeling that your home is a holiday. This kind of thing happens to many first time parents as well. You want to give your child more than you had but in the end this kind of parenting often backfires and the child can become spoiled. Once the "honeymoon period" is over and you have to start disciplining bad behavior your foster child might swing in the opposite direction. At first they were the picture of sweetness, very much like Annie (the foster child from the movie Annie) but now that there are rules and consequences for breaking those rules the child can become almost uncontrollable.

Preserving and maintaining sibling ties and relationships has been an ongoing problem in the foster care system. Hegar (2005) states that “since the decades when orphans trains carried children westward, placement of siblings has been a child welfare issue” (p.719). Studies have noted the inadequate number of siblings in foster care being placed together date back as far as 1921 (Theis and Goodrich, 1921). Research and legislative efforts to address the problem of separation of siblings in foster care have intensified (Hegar, 1988). The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 has been instrumental in increasing legislation, specifically addressing the issue of sibling placements at the state level (Heger, 2005).

Fortunately, more than half of children in the foster care system get reunited with their birth parents or primary caregivers. In addition, more than 2 million children live with grandparents or other relatives because they were not able to return to live with their parents. Approximately half of the children in foster care spend at least 2 years in the system and one in five children remains in the system for 5 years or more. Some children in foster care move between families as many as seven times during their stay.

Foster care is something that 400,000 children in the United States, go through. I have personally been through this myself. To improve foster care for children, I have created a website along with an app. The name of both the website and app is Foster To Success. Foster To Success will especially be useful for foster youth, social workers, potential adopters, foster parents, and any additional people, who work with foster youth. But it can also be useful if you are going through a hard time. The app is free and available on iOS devices at the App Store, and on Andriod devices on GooglePlay. If you would like additional features the cost is ninety nine cents. I believe this will help improve foster care and help make it an easier transition for the children.

Helping these vulnerable children access the services, interaction, and the stability needed for them to grow-up to being successful members of society can be provided with foster placement. If the process is well planned and if the foster parents are given adequate support, the foster care system can be a valuable resource for abused and neglected children (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p. 321).

I believe to maintain a healthy parent/child bond a child needs to have contact with their parents or siblings as often as possible. Many parents that become involved with the agency are frustrated with this policy and want to see their child as often as possible. I have also seen the child suffer from lack of visitation. Most children that are assigned placement begin to call the foster parents mom or dad, leaving the parents and child extremely confused as to the reunification process. By looking into this specific policy it may affect the staff by assigning the additional visits to person or case-aide, this in turn would take a significant amount of time away from other responsibilities the employee has to perform. When developing a plan, I would like to learn when this state law was implemented and why "two weeks" was the target of visitation occurrence.

To help reduce the gap that is present there must be a process that is continuously being met by the foster care system. The agency the author works with has proposed different ideas that will help lessen the gap overtime. One way to lessen the gap is to help get family members involved with the reunification process by educating the family members, while promoting health learning environments for clients. Stated in the article it says, “The use of some type of family team meetings (e.g., Family Group Conferencing, Family Group Decision Making) to facilitate reunification efforts promotes

More than two-hundred and fifty thousand children enter the foster care system each year, making it extremely difficult to find the right caregiver for each child. There are so may effects on the child that last their entire lifetime, making it difficult for them to trust others. Not being able to trust their peers, they often find it hard to make friends and long-term relationships last. Fortunately, there are many results that can improve everyone’s position in placing the child. Foster care agencies repeatedly create destructive situations due to the selected caregiver, as well as the plethora of glitches that are created. Due to the unacceptable and inappropriate selection of foster parents, the child frequently experiences difficulties and disadvantages later on. Most children are placed into foster care because of mistreatment and experience the same treatment in their foster homes. Unfortunately, a lot of times the foster parent will take their anger out on their foster child, making a wide array of short-term and long-term complications for the child.