Foster Home 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.

Foster care is a growing epidemic in the United States. Youth who are involved in foster care are more likely to have contact with the criminal justice system, become addicts, and not be able to find employment. As a society we try to care for the child as best as we can. The average cost to help provide for a child is roughly $11,000 per year. The rate of a child being neglected in foster care is much higher than a child living with biological parents that’s being neglected.

Growing up in the foster care system can be a traumatic experience for most of the children in this population. This study takes a closer look at certain types of abuse, rather than traumatic experiences suffered extensively, that ultimately led to the diagnosis of PTSD. Most of the abuse consisted of either rape, torture, and/or molestation. The methods and data were obtained from 732 foster care adolescents, ranging from 17 to 18 years of age. The study assessed the trauma within the DSM-V that the participants were exposed during their lifetime, and the diagnosis of PTSD that followed. The results of this study showed that 80.3 percent of the participants were exposed to at least one major traumatic experience, with 61.7

There are multiple issues that transitional age youth (TAY) experience. Some examples include homelessness, gender identity confusion, depression and substance abuse. A former client that I worked with was a 22-year-old TAY male who had one of the issues mentioned above. The client will be identified as Marc, a former foster care youth.

There is a dramatic increase in the amount of “aged out foster youth” within the state of Delaware. Programs have been developed with this in mind; one that stands above the rest is the Elizabeth Murphy School. Though the Elizabeth Murphy school has developed a program for the youth who have aged out of foster care changes needs to be made to their program regarding the lack follow up care of aged out foster care youth after completing their Independent Living program. The Elizabeth Murphy’s mission statement follows as “It is my desire that this institution shall be a fostering home where children, who would otherwise be neglected, may have a happy childhood; and where they may have the fullest opportunity to develop toward useful and efficient

“I had no medical history. I had no shot records. I had nothing.” This was the response given by one of the foster caregiver participant in a qualitative research conducted by Greiner, Ross, Brown, Beal, & Sherman, 2015). Children in the foster care are among the most vulnerable population and have many health issues including chronic medical conditions and developmental delays. In addition, there is a high rate of mental health problems. As Greiner et al., 2015 depicted, children entering foster care lack organized documentation of their health history including immunization records. There are some efforts and policies in place to improve the provision of health to foster care children but they are implemented inadequately and lack coordination.

In 2014, more than 22,000 young people aged out of foster care without permanent families, says abcnews.com/fostercare.com. This is only one of the many problems in the foster care system. Not only did they get aged out of the foster care but some didn’t get jobs and/or became homeless. "The child-welfare system failed Logan Marr in every possible way," said Richard Wexler, the executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. "They failed her by ignoring her cries of abuse and they failed her by letting her die in that foster home." These are just two reasons why I think Ponyboy should stay with his family because they show him a type of protection and care and responsibility the system can’t.

These thoughts that pertained to Mariam reminded me of what I hear children say when they have to switch foster homes every few months. This connection developed because I met a few foster kids two years ago, and they told me of how they felt about being in foster homes. The little kids would say how moving to a new house was like an adventure because they were always discovering new things. However, they wished they could stay in one home for a really long time because wanted to have a mommy and daddy for once. Whereas, the teens would inform me that having hope and love while being in the foster system can cause more harm than good. Hope and love would cause them to believe that they finally found some foster parents that actually cared for

All children should be provided the basic primary needs such as love, stability, and security to ensure their prosperity. Unfortunately, many youth are exposed to neglectful and abusive situations that often interfere with their development. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (2017) child protective services received 3,358,000 calls to investigate in 2015, resulting in a 9% increase from 2011. A total of 683,000 cases were confirmed as being maltreatment which is the leading cause of foster care placement. Another demographic for whom states struggle to establish permanency is children who entered foster care when they were older than age 12.

The topic of foster care can be touchy one to discuss because we can debate so many issues and problems to discuss. We will start discussing how a child is placed with a foster parent and how they have to meet a low standards of qualifications. As well as the child’s social worker, not sure what she can do but place her in one of the homes she has access to. The foster care system today is not a great even though social workers do what they can for their kids but it only goes a short way. It starts with the foster kids meeting a family for the first time and realizing that their lifestyle is not for them.

A child in foster care is defined as any child who has been removed from the custody of their parent(s)/guardian(s) by the juvenile court and placed in a group home or foster home. The child is under the direct supervision of a county probation officer or social worker. This is a partial definition/circumstance. This week's reading, The Invisible Achievement Gap, Education Outcomes of Students in Foster Care in California's Public Schools, introduces proposals to positively impact education outcomes for students in foster care. First and foremost, the foster care, welfare, and education systems need to share information with one another. As I reflect over the past twelve years of my public-school teaching experience, I realize that our foster youth are rarely ever considered or discussed when addressing the opportunity gap that exists among our

Once upon a time, there was a lost girl, and a lost boy. The lost girl faced many challenges, having been abandoned by her parents, leaving her on the side of a desolate road for her to die and only with a blanket with the name Emma etched on was covering the little baby girl. After someone had found her with the baby blanket covering her tiny baby body, she was stuck in a foster home close to a city until someone had adopted her.

James was just your average kid, living an average life, doing average things, but not exactly. James is an orphan, and does not live in any foster homes. At the moment he is hiding in a warehouse. He has no friends, no one to live by, and nothing at all. This may seem sad now, but just you wait. James is about to get a friend, his lifelong dream! Not exactly. James has been homeless for one month, eight days, twelve hours, fifty-two minutes, and ten seconds. Moving to our next character: David. David is your stereotypical rich kid. He’s a snobby kid that thinks he’s better than anyone else. He has three dogs, five cats, two maids, a total of thirty fish, some horses, and a racoon. Why a raccoon? Well, David fed a raccoon, found the baby racoons from the dying coon, and took one in and abandoned the rest. You may also be asking ”How many horses?” You get to decide, it's unimportant to the story. Back to the main story.

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