The Role Of Youth In The Foster Care System

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.

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.

Foster children struggle immensely within healthcare and the foster care system. They are not receiving the correct support to help them when they go out into the real world.Within foster care, children and teens can either go into a foster home or a group home. Group homes can prevent permanent and authentic connections, while in foster homes, adolescents experience abuse and they are aware that there is no long term stability. For fifteen years, Betsy Krebs has worked with teens in the foster care

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

Every year in the United States, hundreds of children and adolescents are taken from their parents and primary caregivers and placed in out-of-home care situations due to issues in their homes and family lives which contribute to unsafe living conditions. These children and adolescents often face many health, behavioral, developmental, and psychological issues.

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 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

For many teenagers, their 18th birthday is an exciting time in their lives. They are finally becoming a legal adult, and are free from the rules and restrictions created under their parents. But not all teens feel the same joy about this coming of age. For the hundreds of thousands of children living in foster care in the United States, this new found freedom brings anxiety and fear. Where will they live after turning 18? How will they get the medications they may need? How will they find a job with little to no experience? How will they put themselves through school? Aging out of foster care is a serious issue among America’s youth. Every year, 20,000 children will age out with nowhere to go, being expected to be able to survive on their

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

Many children will average about five or six years in the system and go through four to seven homes, making it hard for the children to find stability and have a productive life. Generally, when a child moves to a new foster home, it is far away, forcing the child to pretty much start all over from the very beginning. Moving from home to home and not having that stability causes the child to have many emotions, which are often ignored by foster parents. The neglect and maltreatment by a lot of foster parents is out of control, but a lot of social workers say there isn’t much they can do. And when the children age out of the system, there aren’t that many resources for them to be on their own. Once they turn eighteen, the foster parents usually send them out on their own, making it difficult for the children to finish school. An ideal environment for the growth of children does not usually exist anymore and in order to promote continuity in the social, emotional, and developmental growth of children, there has to be people out there willing to listen.

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.

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

Unfortunately, this is the cold, sad reality of many children and teens who have been thrown into the system like a piece of meat for the wolves to devour. I have decided to write about the issues of foster care and the abuse children and teens face while moving through this broken system. Over the past years, I have developed a passion to intercede on behalf of our youth. I want to help them navigate through a life filled with turmoil and discord. I chose this topic because I want to make a difference in the lives of these mistreated, misunderstood, and misguided children and teens. One might ask, “How can we fix such a system with these particular problems?” Although I may not have the “right” answer to that question, I do believe there is a way to repair the massive leak that has caused a system meant to serve and protect our youth to

Neglect. Loneliness. Disappointment. These are some of the many emotions kids face while they are in foster care. Many kids don't receive the help they need to learn how to cope with these emotions.

My interested in foster care has increased because of the show “The Fosters” and reading the “A chance in the world” by Steve Pemberton. He talks about how he taken away from his mother at a young age, and how to he travel from foster homes and had to deal with cruel and a lot of abuse. But he was able to deal with it and find a home that took care of him. Reading this book and watching a show that has to do with foster care really open my eyes about foster care problems and what kids had to go through. Foster kids are barely getting adopted if you were to stay 12 to 18 months in foster home you’re chance of you leaving the foster home will decrease, and after the 36 to 42 months you’re most likely not being adopted and that’s bad. Because