Injustices Of Lgbtq People Within The Foster System

More than half of the children in Foster Care are placed with complete strangers, which has many negative effects. Kinship Care fixes this delima by changing the type of placement for them. Kinship care is the care of children by a relative, or in some cases a close family friend ("Kinship Caregivers"). This includes aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents who are the most common. 104,000 kids lives in Kinship foster care, meaning they live with relatives instead of foster homes ("Kinship"). Kinship placement can occur in different ways. There is informal, which is a private arrangement between parents and related caregivers. Usually in these cases Child Welfare is not involved and legal custody of the children stay with the parents. Formal Kinship is when the children are in legal custody of the state and the Child Welfare Agency places them with a Kin. This is almost identical to how the Foster Care system works except the children are not placed with random foster parents, but with family. In this situation the relative will most likely have to become certified/approved by the state, similar to a foster parent. During Formal Kinship the states have the right to take the children away and put them in foster care if the caregiver is not following state orders. The last option of kinship care is Voluntary. In the time of a Voluntary Kinship care the Child Welfare Agency is involved but have limited contact. Even though the Welfare Agency is involved, the state has no legal custody of the child ("Kinship Caregivers"). All of these types of Kinships are different, but they all have one purpose. Each type of care is available anywhere, and want to provide children with safe homes where they live with their families.

Foster care: The system in which a child under 18 years old is placed in a group home, institution, or private home through a governmental or social service agency.

The foster care system exists in order to enhance the lives of children whose parents were deceased rather than because of abuse today. Our outlook, principles, and ways of being concern for and protecting abused or neglected children and looking after families has shifted greatly throughout history. In this paper I will discuss and inform the readers on the three main components. The first part will discuss the foundation and growth of the foster care system as time pass. Secondly, describe the contemporary state of the system within the United States, including pertinent statistics. Lastly, considering future guidelines intended for the system, including ways in which the system can progress throughout the time.

Each year 542,000 children nationwide live temporarily with foster parents, while their own parents struggle to overcome an addiction to alcohol, drugs, illness, financial hardship or other difficulties (Mennen, Brensilver, & Trickett, 2010.) The maltreatment they experienced at home, the shock of being separated from their birth parents, and the uncertainty they face as they enter the foster care system leave many children feeling abandoned or lost. Children have many needs, but while in foster care these needs are not always met. A supportive family environment is created for those children whose parents are not able to take the

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.

So before a child can be taken into a permanent home, they are in foster care homes that provides temporary placement in a family setting.

Definition of Foster Care Foster care is a temporary situation in which adults care for a child or children when their birth parents are unable to. Foster care is not for “delinquents” or problem children, it is where children who cannot be taken care of by their birth parents, go to be taken care of. Sometimes the family that has fostered a child goes on to later adopt them, but that is not always the case. There are families to just chose to foster children and open up their home as a space for the children to be safe until the find their forever home, in some situations the child is almost 18 and they just need a safe place to be until that time.

A question asked by few, but the answer known by millions. The definition of the Foster System is “a temporary arrangement in which adult/s provide for the care of a child or children whose birth parents are unable to provide care for them” (Center). The adoption system is more or less the same, except adoption is a permanent placement of children with an adult/s that is not their birth parent/s (Center). Foster care can be informal or arranged through the courts or a social service agency. Usually, the overall goal is to get the children back to their birth parents, but that may change if there were another option that would be better for the child (Center). An example of the courts trying to get a child back to their parent would be with the story A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer. This story is an autobiography of Dave’s life dealing with an abusive mother for years, and it continues with a sequel that goes to show how the courts almost put Dave back into the care of his mother, but then he testified and went through living in the foster system until 18. Once the option of going back to the birth parent is out of the question, adoption is the next step. A story that shows this would be Tricia Spellmon’s story. She was put into the Foster System as soon as she was born, and was moved to different homes until the age of 2. After being at that home for two years the foster parents decided to adopt her, and at the age of 4 she became a part of a better family (Spellmon). This type of adoption is called a foster adoption, which means that a child is placed into a foster home with the expectation that the foster parents are going to adopt them (Center). The other type of adoption is when the foster parents will not adopt them, but since they are in the foster system the birth parents rights have been terminated, so children are legally free for adoption (Center). In the end, the adoption system is just a branch of the foster system, and

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).

It has been a trend for foster parent to not be very support and not give the proper care or service to the children (Wilber, 2006). Because of the lack of the resources that support foster parents, in a situation of having a LGBT child, it can lead to many children experiencing multiple placements and having to move around during their time in the foster care system (Wilber, 2006). Therefore, somethings that are being done to help those foster parents is giving them the tools that are needs, along with seeking members of the community that are more understanding towards the LGBT community (Wilber, 2006). It even goes as far to say that, agencies which are experiencing members who are violating their nondiscrimination policy be disciplined, and be held responsible for their actions (Wilber, 2006). Craig-Oldeen mentions that there are something that should be done to help prepare foster parents in the journey they are going to take by allowing a LGBT youth because sadly there are very few training program that specific in this section (Craig-Oldsen, 2006). He also explains that the AFCARS, which was mentioned before, does not include any statistics that involves the LGBT community, therefore we are not able to know how many children are LGBT in foster care system (Craig-Oldsen, 2006). Though it is good to have training that involves helping this community, it does become tricky since some children do not disclose their sexual orientation in most occasions (Craig-Oldsen, 2006). All the information that is listed above shows that there is so much improvement that needs to be done, and getting proper education for the foster parents is crucial to the foster system to be effective and

Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent". The placement of the child is

Watching many films in the past and seeing scenes with small children trying to draw a picture of their family: However, they could not, because a single parent raised them, for other children were bullying them. Imagine what children will go through when they have homosexual parent. Many of people live in the U.S. are Christian, for many of them does not believe in same sex marriage, but many of them respect homosexual people’s decision as a human; after all, it is their life. However, most of people disagree to let homosexual couples to adopt and raise innocent foster children, because they believe it might be a very difficult path for the

Nearly 26 per cent of GLBT youth are forced to leave their homes due to disputes concerning sexual orientation. This leaves the youth feeling isolated and unaccepted by the family. Often, teens believe running away is the only option. It makes teens feel like they have some control of their situation (Quinn, 2002). If GLBT teens seek refuge in a shelter will they meet the same discrimination and rejection they initially were trying to escape? Counselors at shelters need to be prepared to protect, and not perpetuate, these GLBT teens from further victimization.

This is where a relative such as a grandparent can take in the child and care for them while the parent can not. The legal custody can still be placed with the parents if the child is placed with the relative if the parents decided to or the relative volunteers. However, if the child welfare agency then they obtain legal custody of the child while they place them with family or in a foster home. Another type is the non-related kinship, where the child is placed with a family friend who has known the child for some time. This prevents the child from having to go through the traumatic experience of getting removed from their home. Most of the time the family friend must obtain their fostering license before taking the child in but, sometimes they can receive a temporary license so they can begin taking care of the child right away. The last form of foster care is emergency foster care. Children are placed in emergency foster care if they are taken into state custody. The child can enter the state custody at any given time. Emergency foster care is short-term arrangement that places the child in the states custody until a foster family is

Children are brought into foster care when there is a problem with the biological parents’ inability to provide or care for their children adequately. Based upon statistics found in the national Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS); most often children are removed from their homes due to neglect, drug abuse by the parents, caretakers inability to cope or physical abuse to the child (U.S. Department of Health and Family Services, 2016). All of these services are governed by each states Department for Child Based Services. Children are placed into foster homes where they can receive the appropriate support, proper care and ability to thrive. Foster care is intended to be a temporary solution for the child with the primary goal as reunification with their biological parents. The state offers a wide variety of services to the biological parents through drug/alcohol classes, counseling services and parenting classes.