Essay on The Truth behind The Foster System

The Foster Care System with the kids who are in it is a massive social issue that America is facing today. There are more than 640,000 foster children in the United States every year. There are 23,000 foster children living in group homes at one time. There are 32,000 who live in institutions, and twenty-seven states do not meet federal abuse and neglect standards. (Attention) Personally, I am a foster sister, because my family currently fosters. Therefore, we see the issues and needs of fostering, daily. (Rapport and Credibility) This speech will discuss the importance of the nature of foster care, the catastrophic problems of foster care, and the proposed solution for the foster care system in America. (Preview)

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

Unfortunately, there will always be kids who get abused and neglected, and there will always be people who live in poverty, but this issue can be improved. First, we need more educational training for foster parents, as well as educating the public about the foster care system. There needs to be more funding for foster care so that children have an opportunity to have an education, and foster parents have the right resources for their foster children. That is where this charity comes in, The Alliance for Children’s Rights.

Imagine growing up without a family, moving constantly and never having a permanent home. Envision being taken away from an abusive parent and left to survive in foster care for an undefined period of time. Think about lingering within the system for years and suddenly loosing any kind of aid at the age of eighteen. This is a reality for thousands of children in America’s foster care system. There are kids that are searching for a home and family -- and many of them never get one. These youths are all hoping and wishing for a permanent place to go back to. The number of children aging out of the foster care system annually is a serious problem because many children leave foster care without support and suffer consequences in their adult life that could have been avoided if they had been adopted.

The topic of children in need of foster homes is a great one even where I, live they are in constant demand for more foster parents. For years and years, the problem of poverty has been a huge effect on abuse with children, or children needing more care. I found the article, “U.S. Foster Care: A Flawed Solution That Leads To Long-Term Problems? ,” is a great article to read it explains in detail how there is so much more going on with these children and having a successful path is so important since they have already gone through so much (Stone, 2017). According to Stone (2017), in 2012, nearly 36,000 foster children had been waiting more than three years to return home or to be adopted, and 24,000 had been waiting more than

Foster care has been a forgotten, ignored topic, but it is the reality for tons of children across the world. This fact brings up the question, should every human be allowed to have children? On one hand, some argue that it is a human’s right and instinct to have children. On the contrary, others argue that many people are incapable, too uninformed, and unstable to raise children, but it certainly doesn’t stop them from having them. This way of living is the primary source of why more and more children are ending up in foster care, which fits this statistic that, “There are more than 400,000 children in foster care today, up from 270,000 in the early 1980s” (Jost 1). All these children are all coming from the same common factor, “child

Approximately 800,000 children every year come in contact with the foster care system.” (News, ABC) Foster care is the raising or supervision of foster children, as orphans or delinquents, in an institution, group home, or private home, usually arranged through a government or social-service agency that provides remuneration for expenses (dictionary.com) “On September 30, 2004, 518,000 children were in the U.S. foster care system. Most children are placed in foster care temporarily due to parental abuse or neglect.” (News, ABC) Assuming that these numbers rise every`inge year that number had probably doubled because the ABC News article was written in 2006, 11 years

Between the years 2010 to 2014 there has been a 400,000 children who are currently living or lived in foster care In the United States. In 2014, which was the highest among the years, saw about 415,129 total children in foster care system. About 36 percent, of that population is from the ages of 12 to 20 years old (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, 2015; Ruggiero, 2015). While children between the ages of less than 1 year to 11 years is a large percentage, there is still a significant population of children that need foster homes. In 2014, foster homes with non-relative placement, over 46 percent of the children in foster care, and kinship/relative placement, with 29 percent, was most common placement settings in United

Foster Care is one of the major issues still faced in this world today. According to Crosson-Tower (2013), in the early 1800s, boarding homes was instituted with the idea of rescuing “good” children from ‘bad” parents. She notes that the idea of paying for foster homes to house children was renounced because agencies advocating foster care argued that it will lead foster parents to take children for money rather than out of altruism. However, she also explains the practice of paying for foster care emerged and the government became involved regulating and administering the foster care system in the twentieth century. In addition, her research indicates foster care became progressively more common as the form of caring where the parents were unable to care for their children. Although foster care is designed to be a temporary solution, the nature of foster care today shows the complete opposite (Crosson-Tower, 2013). The organization that will be discussed in this paper is going to expand on the issue of foster care and their advocacy efforts to combat the issue.

Foster care is one of the major issues still faced in this world today. According to Crosson-Tower (2013), in the early 1800s, boarding homes were instituted with the idea of rescuing “good” children from ‘bad” parents. She noted that the idea of paying for foster homes to house children was renounced because agencies advocating foster care argued that it would lead to foster parents taking children for money rather than out of altruism. However, she also explained that the practice of paying for foster care emerged, and the government became involved regulating and administering the foster care system in the twentieth century. In addition, her research indicated foster care became progressively more common as the form of caring where the parents were unable to care for their children. Although foster care is designed to be a temporary solution, the nature of foster care today shows the complete opposite (Crosson-Tower, 2013). The organization that will be discussed in this paper is going to expand on the issue of foster care and their advocacy efforts to combat the issue.

In 1980, about 500,000 children were in foster care, but a series of successful reforms, began with that year 's Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act, dramatically decreased the number of children in foster care. But in the early 1990s, with the advent of crack cocaine and an economic recession numbers went back up. Child welfare advocates say the foster care system is in need of changes so that children spend less time in foster placements America’s child welfare systems needs an improvement. Some children in care will be separated from their siblings. Others will be transitioned from one foster care placement to another, never knowing where to call home. Too many children will be further abused in systems that are supposed to protect them. And instead of being safely reunified with their families or moved quickly into adoptive homes many will remain for years in foster homes or institutions.

Child welfare agencies today are facing numerous amounts of challenges that are affecting children who are increasing entering into the system and their families. One of the main problems that children and their families are facing is the attention, services and resources to strengthening their family and the decline in foster care for children who needs adequate care. Sacramento, California has seen a drastic drop of children in the foster care for the past decade, but there has also been a decline in need for high quality foster care parents (Gutierrez, (2013). California’s decreases its’ cut of children going into the system by nearly half during the past decade, even though there is still a significantly high amount of children in the system.

On any given day, 428,000 children are in the foster care system (“Foster Care.”). Every single child in the foster care system is in the state’s custody, and the state should protect them. Yet, this year in Kansas, the two foster care services providers has admitted to not knowing where many children are. Of the seven thousand children in Kansas foster care (The Kansas City editorial staff) KVC Kansas, which is in charge of the eastern region of the state, has announced the whereabouts of thirty-eight children are unknown (The Kansas City editorial staff). While the service in charge of the western portion of the state, Saint Francis Community Services, does not know the whereabouts of thirty-six children. In total, more than seventy foster children are missing (The Kansas City editorial staff). No one knows if the children ran away, were abducted, or are still alive. With children being the United States future, some would think children would be held in high regard, but with so many uncared for children in foster care they are not. The American Foster Care System is a broken system because of the children’s mental and physical health, how the children leave the system and how the system is running.

There are many problems with the foster care system today that are simple things we can fix. A child is placed into foster care because they or their families are going through a crisis. The children, from babies to teens, have been removed from their parents because the child is unsafe, abused, or neglected. Foster Care is a wonderful way to provide a child with a home and people to love them till the parents can prove they can provide for the child then they are either reunited with her biological parents or family or until their foster parents can adopt the child. Fostering is not an easy process, there are struggles. But we can all change this. We can help these kids find a forever home.

There are several problems with the foster care system that are simple things we can fix. A child is placed into foster care because they or their families are going through a crisis. The children, from babies to teens, have been removed from their parents because the child is unsafe, abused, or neglected. Foster Care is a wonderful way to provide a child with a home and people to love them till the parents can prove they can provide for the child then they are either reunited with their biological parents or family or until their foster parents can adopt the child. Fostering is not an easy process, there are struggles that can be changed. Lets can help these kids find a forever home.