Orphans Every year thousands of children reach the age of eighteen and are pushed out of the foster care system.3 Thousands more are still in the system with little hope of ever finding a foster family. Even though there are many organization dedicated to finding families that want to foster children, families in America wanting to adopt has decreased by almost sixty percent in the last ten years.1 California and Texas alone have almost 30,000 kids waiting for a foster family.5 Orphans are a growing problem in our society, and they will not be going away with our current system.
To rid America of our orphans an introduction to a new occupation would have to be presented. A small percentage of women and men could procreate children for the rest of our society as a Natural Parent. A woman is fertile from thirteen to fifty years of age. If the teenage years are taken away, a woman is fertile for about 32 years or 384 months. It takes nine months for a baby to grow, and if recovery weeks are added, a woman will take eleven months per baby on average. Therefore, a woman could have almost 35 babies in her lifespan. The Natural Parent would be someone selected by the government as the “cream of the crop”, and the Natural Parent would have the free will to accept or deny this offer. In theory, the best of our generation chosen by the government would produce a generation with even more desirable traits than the previous.
A couple can apply for a child from a Natural Parent, just
Society understands our current system is awful, but no one is protesting for a reform, or they’re aren’t trying hard enough. Child safety is the number one objective of the system, but it’s not working like it should. “In 2015, over 670,000 children spent time in U.S. foster care” (Foster Care). Of those 670,000 cases, more than half could be eliminated with a reform in the system. The focus should be on keeping families together, rather than taking them apart.
The majority of the children awaiting adoption are not simply sitting in institutions with little human contact and no sense of family. Most children waiting to be adopted are in foster care. Foster care provides temporary placement in a family setting. "Over 500,000 children in the U.S. currently reside in some form of foster care" (Foster). This is not to say that there are over 500,000 children waiting for adoptive parents. Actually, the number needing to be adopted ends up being much lower. "Two out of three children who enter foster care are reunited with their birth parents within two years. A significant number, however, can spend long periods of time in care awaiting adoption or other permanent arrangement" (Foster).
Laws in most states mandate that reasonable efforts be provide to families who become involved with child welfare agencies. Social workers, on behalf of the agency toil to provide reasonable efforts to families. Presumptively, reasonable efforts are provided for families to mitigate the issues that brought them to the attention of child protection agency.
In todays’ society many Americans never think about our foster care system. Foster care is when a child is temporarily placed with another family. This child may have been abused, neglected, or may be a child who is dependent and can survive on their own but needs a place to stay. Normally the child parents are sick, alcohol or drug abusers, or may even be homeless themselves. We have forgotten about the thousands of children who are without families and living in foster homes. Many do not even know how foster care came about. A few of the earliest documentation of foster care can be found in the Old Testament. The Christian church put children into homes with widowers and then paid them using collection from the church
Creating an action plan to help Canadian families affected by the particular issue of the foster care system and how to improve it. When beginning to set this policy it is important to look at the facts to be able to assess the issues that need to be changed.
Since the 1970’s, many debates and arguments have formed over the problems in the Florida foster care system. Some of the arguments were made as to whether different races should become foster families or whether or not is was suitable for gay couples to foster children. Another issue that arose was the children with special needs or older children that people didn’t want. As the foster system grew, it began to experience setbacks. There were now more children needing homes than available homes. The foster care system became full of problems. Foster parents started to complain about not having an adequate support system. The children were not receiving the medical treatments they needed. And foster children were staying in the system so long that some were aging out. Those that age out a were not receiving any support or training to cope with adult life. There was also a shortage in funding. In addition, there had become an alarming number of child abuse and neglect cases within the foster families. Although some aspects of foster care have improved, some changes still need to be made.
In the United States 21% of all children are living below the federal poverty line. 2.9 million cases of child abuse and neglect are reported every year in the United States. 428,000 children are in the foster care system, and 107,918 foster children are waiting to be adopted. The foster care system is temporary out of home care for neglected, abused and impoverish children under 18. While the foster care system has all positive ideas, they fall short in providing certain needs for these children. Kids not only in America but all over the world that are living in poverty, are abused, neglected, and have an unstable home life. Nobody wants to live a life like that, especially not a child. They don’t know how to support themselves on their own, they need a family and a guardian that will take care of them, support, and love them.
60 percent of kids who age out of foster care are dead, homeless, or in jail within a year. There needs to be more focus on the foster care system and child homelessness. Children should not be living on the streets, they need a home and a loving family so that they can grow up and live a stable, independent life.
I do not generally do a lot of arguing or debating unless it is with my brother, which in that case, I argue a lot. Even then, I do not argue unless I know that I am correct or that it is something that I am really passionate about. One thing that I am passionate about though is the foster care system and what happens to it. The foster care system has been going through a big debate on whether or not it should be completely eliminated and replaced or if it needs a strong reform. The side of the argument that I would like to be on is the side where people are fighting for reform in the system. Foster care is one of the many things that is broken in this world, but that does not mean that it cannot be fixed.
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.
One of the ways foster care is inhibited is that the separation of the child from their parents and placement in a foster home can be traumatic for the child. In some instances where the child is not safe in their home, the first choice may be to remove the child and place them in foster care. Both the parents and child have a hard time accepting the situation. This separation causes conflicts and resistance from the child (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p. 316). Other myriad adjustments, such as lifestyle change, new school, new friends and neighbors, and at times a new culture, also inhibit the effectiveness of foster care placement. Foster care can create an environment of
Many reasons exist as to why the foster system is failing and a major one is the number of children
Foster care is a temporary home for children to stay at when they are being neglected, abused, or not receiving the basic necessities from their parents. Children stay in foster care until they are able to live in a home suitable for kids. They can go to their old homes if the parents meet the requirement, get adopted, or they can grow out of the foster care system. According to the AFCARS () over 100,000 are still waiting to be adopted or waiting to be in a permanent, loving home with people that they can build loving relationships with. Foster care is meant to help children, but the kids that get separated
The necessity of adoption in the world is astounding. Currently, there is an estimated 143 million orphans worldwide (Wingert, vol.151). As of 2007, there were 513,000 children living in foster care within the United States alone (Rousseau 21:14). International adoption in the United States was jumpstarted post World War II as a way of helping those children who were left homeless, after war had taken their parents. Although there are thousands of healthy children awaiting adoption in the United States, several American couples still turn to foreign adoption when seeking potential children. Americans often fail to realize the need for intervention within their own country and their duty to take care of domestic affairs before venturing to
The process of adoption is complex and surrounded by many rules and regulations. Most heterosexual couples who have adopted will eventually tell you that despite the nuances, adoption is a worthwhile endeavor. You may need the services of LGBT adoption lawyers but if you do it right, you can be successful. In the past decade, many same-sex or LGBT couples have turned to adoption and the number of LGBT couples looking to adopt has increased since the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages. That is why LGBT adoption lawyers have become more skillful in helping LGBT succeed in getting a child.