Foster Care and Emancipation

¶ … foster children face, especially when they become emancipated and begin to live life on their own. It has often been suggested that many more African-American children are in foster care than are children of other races. In order to understand whether or not this is accurate, a thorough review of available literature on the topic is necessary. Literature on this topic will include statistics, gender differences, and cultural diversity.

The problem statement concerns the disproportionate number of African-American children who are represented in the child welfare system, and who are not adequately prepared to leave foster care through emancipation. The logical assumption would be that something is lacking in the foster care environment that causes great difficulty for children once they begin to live on their own. It is the intent of the literature review to show whether or not is accurate, and what may be lacking in the foster care environment.

The possibility remains that it may not be the fault of the foster care environment, but rather may be the fact of other extenuating circumstances that have occurred in the child's life before they were placed in a foster home. More likely, it is not one or the other, but all of the factors together that cause problems for these children later in life. All of these suggestions must be explored, in the context of the literature review, in order to begin to come to terms with the immenseness of this problem in society.

They must be explored for another reason is well; unless they are explored and examined, no good suggestions will be implemented to help the children that are already in foster care, and the children who at some point in the future may find themselves in foster care due to adversity and poor circumstances in their lives.

Foster Care and Emancipation

Introduction

The idea of foster care has been in this country for years, but recently it has gained a great deal of media attention. This is largely because of government organizations that have been accused of misplacing children under their care, failing to remove children from households that present a dangerous environment, and generally not being as concerned with the welfare of children as they originally claimed to be.

While many foster children grow up and go on to make their way in the world, there are also many that do not. Some of this can be attributed to the natural problems that a child experiences by being placed in foster care, but much of the difficulty a person has in adjusting to the outside world, and their own independence, after being in foster care can be related back to the way they were treated during their time in the care of a foster family.

In order to understand the problems that children experience in foster care, and the problems many experience later on in adult life, a thorough review of literature on the subject is necessary. Not only are statistics such as gender and cultural differences important, but it is necessary to gain an overall picture of the types of children who find themselves in the care of a foster parent.

The age and gender of a child when they arrive in a foster care environment is important, and should be examined. Also important, however, are the cultural differences of both the children, and the foster parent who take them in. For example, the literature analyzed in this paper is expected to show that a higher percentage of African-American children end up in the child welfare system, and also in the care of foster parents.

The reasons why this is so will need to be fully understood in order to make suggestions as to how to help reduce the number of African-American children in foster care, and also how to help any children to find themselves in a foster care environment learn to be independent citizens. In order to work on these problems, it will be necessary to examine not just the foster care environment, but the ramifications that foster children experience later in life.

It has been suggested that many children who become emancipated are not really ready to survive on their own, and therefore the reasons behind this must be discovered. It is a hope that a thorough review of the literature, and thus an understanding of all of the aspects of foster care and emancipation, will bring about suggestions that will help to solve the problem of why many emancipated foster children struggle and have difficulties in life.

Suggestions of this nature will be invaluable to the children who are in foster care now, and those caseworkers and social workers who are assigned to help them to get through a difficult time in their life. The suggestions will also be helpful to children who will end up in foster care in the future, the caseworkers who will deal with them, and the people who graciously take these children into their homes and act in the role of foster parent.

One concern is that many foster parents don't really understand what they are getting themselves into when they take a foster child into their home. Being a foster parent is not the same as being apparent to one's own child. Often, foster children have special needs, or have been through terrible circumstances, that affect them very deeply. Foster parents must be very empathetic and loving to these children, but they also must understand the children's basic need for discipline and structure in their lives.

Very likely, empathy, love, discipline, and structure were things that many of these foster children were not acquainted with when they lived with their natural parents. If there had not been significant problems in their original home, they would not have come into foster care. Examples of these problems could be anything from financial difficulties to abuse or neglect. Also, some children come into foster care because their parents are deceased. Children of deceased parents may have difficulties that children of abusive or neglectful parents do not. All foster children are different from one another, and it is the foster parents' responsibility to find what works for the care and nurturing of each individual child.

Before the literature review, it is important to understand the true problem and purpose of this examination. Most people do not realize how many children in this country are living in foster families. Many of those people also do not realize that a high number of these children appear to be African-American, and statistics will show that many of these children do not do well in society upon emancipation. The purpose of this literature review, and the goal behind the examination of it, is to determine why this is the case and find reasonable and workable suggestions that can be used to make foster care, and the subsequent emancipation of foster children, better not only for those children but for society as a whole.

Literature Review

Children are placed in foster care because their home environment is no longer safe for them. Often this is due to abuse or neglect, but can be for other reasons as well. Many children who enter foster care are young, but the percentage of children between 13 and 18 who are entering foster care for the first time is growing. Transferring the children from a bad environment to one that is stable, nurturing, and non-abusive has been associated with better development for these children in the future, as well as better ability to survive on their own and live independently once they become emancipated (O'Hara, 1998).

One of the main concerns about foster care is the length of time that some children spend in it. Foster care is not only four children who have been permanently taken from their families, but is also sometimes for children who are required to be away from their families for a period of time, but will be reunited with their families at a later date. This is sometimes used in cases where one parent has been abusive and needs to receive anger management and parenting classes, for example. Children are removed from their families for other reasons, of course, but parental neglect or mistreatment are the most common. In a report from the United States general accounting office, concern was expressed that during the mid-1990s many children were in foster care much longer than they needed to be, even though repeated attempts were being made to reunite these children with their families (Homes, 2002).

The Adoption and Safe Families Act, enacted by Congress in 1997, was designed primarily to help children who were in foster care either be reunited with their families, or placed for adoption. The goal of this was to keep the more than 800,000 children in foster care in the United States from languishing in a foster home, instead of belonging to a family that the child believed to be permanent. One concern was that children who spent too long in a foster care environment to do not make the proper ties to parental figures, since they know that the people that they live with are not really their parents, and have no intention of actually becoming "real" parents to them (Homes, 2002).

Another provision of the Adoption and Safe Families Act was designed to expedite adoption for children who could not safely be returned to their birth families. For children who spent 15 of the previous 22 months in foster care, and could not be returned to their families, before requesting determination of parental rights could be filed, and upon approval of the child would be placed for adoption (Homes, 2002).

The Act was added to help reform the foster care provisions of the social security act. The main goal was to keep children from spending too much time in foster care, and either return them to their biological families or find adoptive families in the quickest amount of time. Foster care is growing, since more children enter the foster care environment each year then exit it through emancipation, adoption, or return to biological families (States, 1999).

While the intentions of the foster families were often good, as were the intentions of the court system, they failed to look at the desire for these children to have a permanent home. Instead, they were more concerned with processing these children through the court system and studying every aspect of their biological family and foster family in order to determine what should be done. Because of the need for these children to have a permanent family, the general opinion is that passage of this Act was very helpful for all children involved in a foster care environment (States, 1999).

Belief that this Act is working to help children comes from findings listed in the general accounting office report. According to data acquired from all 50 states in the U.S. between 1998 and 2000, children who were returned to their families after a period of foster care spent an average of less than one year in a foster home. Children who were adopted after foster care spent an average of 3 1/2 years in a foster home. Admittedly, the general accounting office had trouble determining whether or not the Act provided any significant benefits to children in foster care, due to discrepancies in the data collection methods between the pre-Act and post-Act information (Homes, 2002).

Nevertheless, it is still believed that children who spend less time in foster care fare better in the future that children who spend a significant amount of their lives in a foster care environment (Cicchetti & Carlson, 1989). It was also noted by the general accounting office that children who were returned to their birthparents after foster care returned to foster care within three years at the rate of 33%. The most common reasons for children reentering the foster care system were abuse and neglect at home by their natural parents (Homes, 2002). Parental drug abuse was also a problem for many children who were involved in foster care system. Studies have shown that 50% of infants who had drug addicted mothers were in foster care (Mahony, 1999, Amaro, 1989, Bell, 1995).

Some of these infants were placed in foster care immediately after birth, and returned to their natural mothers at a later date, after the mothers had completed a treatment program. Other infants who went home from the hospital with their natural mothers came into foster care at a later date because the natural mother either would not or could not complete a treatment program and remain drug-free (Mahony, 1999). This may be indicative of problems in the birth parents' home creating some of the problems that foster children have later in life, instead of placing all of the blame for foster children's problems over on to the foster parents (Homes, 2002).

It was largely the finding of the general accounting office that many of the problems faced by children who have been in foster care were not caused by the foster care itself, but rather from the legal hassles and the difficulties that foster parents and foster children faced when dealing with such topics as a returning to a birth parents home, adoption, or special needs for children with disabilities. It is important to note that the general accounting office points out that the term "special needs" does not only mean children with disabilities, but also relates to a child's specific age, whether or not they are part of a sibling group, and whether or not they belong to a minority race (Homes, 2002).

The older a child gets, the more difficult it is for that child to be adopted. Most children who get adopted out of foster care are under the age of 12, and are categorized as having special needs, although the general accounting office findings do not state whether that term is being applied to disabilities, or whether it is being applied to sibling groups or minority children. Children who are part of a group of siblings also have a difficult time getting adopted, since there is an effort made not to break up the family. Large groups of children, or even a brother and sister, are more difficult to adopt, as many couples who adopt children only wish to take on one child at a time. Consequently, this often leads to the breaking up of sibling groups (Homes, 2002).

When a family is broken up, it is difficult for the siblings who are then parted from each other, especially if they had always been together in foster care. Often they will show their displeasure by acting up and making themselves difficult to live with which sometimes results in them being returned to foster care, and the cycle starts all over again (Coeyman, 2001). Approximately 1% of children who enter foster care in any given year come from adoptive families who found that the child's needs were too great for them to handle (Homes, 2002, Chernoff, 1994).

Since the mid-1980s, the amount of children in foster care has nearly doubled, and this brings a sense of urgency into the situation. Obviously, there are many more children that need help now then there were in the past, and there are more children needing foster care that there are people to provide it. Because of this more people will be taking foster children into their homes. Knowing how to deal with these children, how to help them through the problems they will undoubtedly face, and how to prepare them for emancipation in the future should be at the forefront of instruction for anyone who chooses to become a foster parent (Homes, 2002).

Apparently, gender does not play much of a factor in whether or not children are adopted out of foster care. According to the report by the U.S. general accounting office, the children they studied were equally likely to be adopted whether they were male or female. Children who were adopted out of foster care were also slightly more likely to be African-American, and much more likely to be under 12 years of age. The distribution of gender and race were very similar between children who remained in foster care and children who were adopted. The difference, it seems, in the children who were adopted was age. Forty-six percent of the children living in foster care in 1999 were 11 years of age or older (Homes, 2002).

While children of African-American origin or being adopted at a normal rate in 2002, it was not the case in 1998, when another report by the U.S. general accounting office was released. This report stated that African-American children had to wait longer than other children to be adopted, and that there were fewer minority applicants for adoptive parent positions or foster care positions then there were children who needed their services. Because of this, barriers that were related to race and ethnicity came down, and children who were African-American were sometimes placed in homes with Caucasian or Latino parents, this was also true of Latino children, and Caucasian children. African-American children benefited the most by this, however, because they were the ones most in need of Foster and adoptive parents (Foster Care, 1998).

Many adolescents choose to remain in foster care rather than be adopted, sometimes because they have strong ties to their birth parents even though they are not allowed to live with them, and sometimes because they have been at a foster parents' home for so long that they begin to feel comfortable there and do not want to change that adoption would bring. Many adolescents also realize that they will soon be old enough to live on their own, and make their own decisions. Knowing this, they would prefer to remain in a home where they are comfortable and stable rather than change their entire life around at that point to suit an adoptive family, only to have to leave yet another family a few years later when they reach 18 years old (Homes, 2002).

Other children remain in foster care because their emotional or physical problems are too severe for them to live in a family setting. Often children with physical disabilities, especially if they are severe, have a very difficult time getting adopted (Drillien, 1988). It is not that adoptive parents do not care as much about children who have disabilities, but children with severe physical limitations often cost more money, and require a great deal more time, then healthy children. In today's society where often both mother and father work, one member of the family staying home to take care of a physically disabled child is often very difficult. Most adoptive families will opt not to do this (Homes, 2002).

Emotional problems are also often a large barrier to adoption. Children who have been traumatized early in life by such things as abuse, neglect, or incest, are not likely to trust another adult for a very long time. These children especially will have trouble trusting an adult of the opposite sex if they were abused by an opposite sex parent when they were younger. Because of the strong emotional needs and very nurturing environment, not to mention the great deal of patience, that these unfortunate children require, many families will choose not to adopt a child who has strong emotional needs. Because of this, many of these children remain in foster care their entire lives (Homes, 2002).

Many states are now becoming interested in programs that teach foster families about the different needs that abused and neglected children may have, so that families who take foster children into their homes can better prepare those children for emancipation. Often, a foster family will take in more than one child, and this sometimes results in a lack of attention being paid to the foster children (Homes, 2002).

This emphatically does not imply that these children are neglected, but rather that they are treated as "normal" children would be treated, instead of as children who have needs, wants, and desires that are going to be different from the average child who has grown up in a loving home with their natural parents. Educating these foster parents about the sensitivity toward the foster children in their care is a first step in helping foster children to do well during their stay with the foster family, and to make successful lives for themselves once they become emancipated (Homes, 2002).

Several states are also considering incentives for foster parents who agree to take legal guardianship of the children in their care. While this is not as permanent and comforting to many children as an adoption would be, it is better than not having any legal or binding relationship at all between the foster parents and the child. It is possible that this will give the child a stronger sense of belonging to a family unit, and will therefore help with the emancipation process by giving the foster child more confidence in his abilities (Homes, 2002).

Whether or not this will actually help foster children remains to be seen, but it is one suggestion that has been made, and likely will not do any harm. This option of legal guardianship is used for children who have been in foster care for sometime, and are likely to remain there due to various physical or emotional problems that make adoption unlikely. Many states are even agreeing to financially subsidize foster parents who are willing to take on this extra burden of being a legal guardian to a special-needs child who is not able to be adopted out into a family environment (Homes, 2002).

In another study, researchers Susan Kools suggests that to children who grow up in foster care are also more likely to have illness. Health problems for these children are significantly higher than they would be the normal population, and Kools attributes that to abuse and neglect in their natural home before they came into foster care. Her research also includes the information that most children who end up in foster care are placed in several different foster care homes before they either reach the age of 18 or are adopted by a family. Because of the unsettled quality of their lives, many of these children are not ready to live on their own when they reach the age of 18 (Kools, 2003).

In disagreement with the previous study by the United States general accounting office, Kools states that the incidence of foster care has tripled, not doubled, since the 1980s. This makes the need for education and information for both foster children and foster parents that much more important. In Kools' report this is attributed to abuse and neglect, as well as a lack of services to help reunite foster children with their natural families. Homelessness on the part of the natural parents is also a factor, with 34% of children remaining in foster care for a period of time greater than three years (Kools, 2003).

It is common for children to live in several different foster homes during their time in foster care (Ruff, 1990). The longer a child remains in foster care, the more chance they have of being shuffled around to different foster homes. Whether or not the placement of a child in a particular home is a good one, as well as the emotional and physical needs of the child and if they are being met, will greatly affect whether or not a particular child remains in a specific foster home or whether they move on to another foster home where perhaps the parents are better able to care for their specific needs (Kools, 2003).

The continuing shuffle between foster homes can leave emotional scars on a foster child. This shuffling is often termed as "placement instability," and can come about for several reasons. Placement disruptions are very frequent, especially among foster care children who have only been in the system between 12 and 18 months. Research estimates this placement instability rate at somewhere between 38 and 57%. This means that, even on an average, for every child who has been in foster care for just a little over one year, that child has been moved to at least two different foster homes approximately 47% of the time. This is not necessarily bad, if the first foster home was not the best place for the child to be. More often than not, however, the child is moved from a foster home in which they were just beginning to feel comfortable (Smith, 2001).

Emotional and behavioral issues, as well as an inability to trust or get close to anyone, have all been linked to placement instability. The older the child, the greater the chance that they will be shuffled around from foster home to foster home, in general. This is largely because children who have reached their teenage years tend to be more outspoken and demanding about what their rights and freedoms should be. Some foster children take this to extremes, lashing out at their foster parents because of hurt that the child may have suffered in the past. Children who are a little bit older are somewhat harder to control, and their emotional and behavioral problems are often coupled with the natural changes and growing pains that teenagers often experience (Smith, 2001).

Children who have lived in chronically abusive or neglectful homes are also much more likely to be shuffled around during their time in foster care. This is largely because they have more developmental problems, and often more emotional problems as well. This makes it somewhat difficult for them to adjust to a setting where parents love and nurture them, as well as make rules that are not be broken (Stone & Stone, 1983).

It is not always the foster child that should be blamed for the inability to remain in a specific foster home. Very often, it is neither the fault of the foster child or of the foster parent, but rather a combination of personalities that does not mesh well together. The personality fit between child and foster parent is extremely important in foster care, and often foster care will not work well when the child and the caregiver have personalities that clash too heavily. Personalities are not the only problems with foster care, however, and the environment that the child was raised in before they came to foster care, as well as their feelings about social interactions with others, may also affect the outcome of a replacement relationship, as will the child's ability to respect the authority and rules of the foster parents (Smith, 2001).

As for the representation of ethnic minorities in foster care system, African-American and Latino children are greatly overrepresented (Sheppard, 1998). For example, 35% of children in foster care are African-American, and 16% are Latino (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000).

This does not sound like an excessive number, when it is pointed out that 40% of the children in foster care are Caucasian. However, it is important not just to look at the statistics as percentages of 100, but to look at them in light of the African-American and Latino populations throughout the United States. In the U.S., 68% of the children are Caucasian. Seventeen percent are Latino, and 15% are African-American. When these numbers are compared with the numbers of children in foster care, it is not difficult to see that minority groups, especially African-Americans, are placed in foster care at a greater rate that Caucasian children (Kools, 2003).

Also in Kools' study is information about the health and wellness of children who are in foster care. It is pointed out that many of these children have physical and emotional needs that are more complex than a child in the average population. Many of these children have been abused and mistreated already, and many have chronic illnesses or conditions that largely go untreated in foster care. This is not due to a lack of compassion from the foster parents, but simply from a lack of realization about the hardships that many of these children have endured before coming into foster care (Kools, 2003).

Children in foster care were also found to have poor nutritional status, a lack of proper immunizations, and many other acute or chronic health problems that went undetected in their natural home. These children also often had abnormalities in their development and growth, including being much smaller than the other children in their age group, and having developmental delays (Simms, 1991). Problems with simple functions such as hearing and vision were also not uncommon. Some of this is suspected to be caused by an increased prevalence of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco that these children were likely exposed to while they were in utero as well as in their first years of life (Kools, 2003).

Children in foster care, in addition to having poor health in general, are very underserved when it comes to health care. Many of these children don't have any type of health insurance, and because of this few doctors are willing to do anything above what is legally required of them to help the child get well. While many of these problems appear before the child enters foster care, they are often not treated during the child's foster care stay. While reasons for this are unclear, it is possible that parents who choose to take in foster children simply do not have the knowledge, training, and skills to notice some of the problems that the child is facing. Because of this, education for foster parents and caregivers who often deal with foster children is extremely important (Carlson, 1996).

Many of these children have special needs, and they are often developmentally delayed due to things such as their mothers drug use during pregnancy, no prenatal care, and lack of sufficient money to provide medical examinations, dental care, and proper nutrition. All of these things work together to cause difficulties for a child later in life, and can also cause trouble when the child becomes emancipated later on. A child who has never had a loving home will likely not know how to provide one as an adult (Carlson, 1996).

This causes difficulty if the foster child grows up and has children of their own, because they're unaware of how to properly care for and nurture a child. It wasn't something that was taught to them when they were growing up, so it is not an important part of life to them. This may cause suffering for the persons' children, and those children may end up in foster care as well, due to abuse and neglect from their parents. This tragedy could be prevented by better education of foster care parents, and more work to ensure that children who grew up in foster care learned life skills that they will need for their own families at a later date (Carlson, 1996).

While physical problems for children in foster care are a concern, emotional problems seem to be one of the most prevalent issues. Many children in foster care suffer from depression and other emotional difficulties, and researchers noted that while children who first come to foster care often receive treatment for these things, children who have been in foster care for some time often are neglected medically an emotionally since they did not receive treatment for a lot of the difficulties that they are facing. Children in foster care are more likely to be suffering from HIV or AIDS than the general population, and often come into foster care when their parents die of the disease (Barton, 1999). When both biological parents and foster care parents were questioned about these issues, they were uncertain as to why the children had not been treated for the problems that they had. They simply didn't know (Carlson, 1996).

Many times problems are not detected by natural parents because they are involved in activities which render their judgment somewhat ineffective, and so children that are placed for foster care are not listed as having any specific problems that their parents have noticed. Once the child gets into foster care, however, it is often noted that the child does have developmental problems or physical disabilities that the parents, who spent too much time with drugs and alcohol, failed to notice. Because of the inattention provided by their parents, many of these children have not been treated for any of the problems that they face, and now it is up to the foster care system to make sure that these children receive the proper care that the need to become independent adults in the future. Helping these children to become independent, emancipated adults seems to be the most difficult task faced by the foster care system (O'Hara, 1998).

The United States general accounting office, who takes a great interest in the welfare of children, points out that many children leave the foster care system every year, but yet there is no valid data to discuss what becomes of these children. Twenty thousand children are thought to leave the foster care system every year due to emancipation, many face hopelessness, prison terms, early pregnancy, and lack of stability in employment. While it is accurate that these are problems faced by many emancipated foster care children, data does not clearly reflect the rates at which these tragedies occur (Foster, 1999).

The federal Independent Living Program, which is supposed to give foster care children the skills that they need to make it on their own, apparently does not work as well as it had been expected to. Because of this failure, something more must be done to help children who are about to leave foster care and live independently if these children are going to be saved from many of the tragedies that befall people who are forced to live on the streets or in severe poverty (Foster, 1999).

The concern is that nothing is being done to help foster children make the transition to emancipation. If the Independent Living Program would have worked as expected, these children would be living happy, independent lives and be able to fend for themselves in society. Because it did not work as expected, these children are dealing with homelessness, extreme poverty, and many other tragedies that could have easily been prevented. The goal now is to make sure that children who are in foster care are receiving what they need in order to live independently, get and maintain a stable job, and complete any educational requirements that they did not finish due to all of the shuffling around that foster care often causes.

This is another pitfall with foster care; oftentimes children are not as highly educated, and not as equal in educational abilities with their peers, as they would have been had they remained in a natural loving home (Foster, 1999, Van der Kolk, 1987, Pardeck, 1985).

Many states provided additional help for children who have come from foster care. They offer such services as GED placement, help in finding work, and classes that teach such basic skills as housekeeping and personal hygiene. While it seems appalling that this would not be a basically understood necessity, many foster children grow up in homes that are not as concerned with issues such as housekeeping as one would expect (Foster, 1999).

Despite all that is being done to attempt to help these children, it is still not enough. Children are still becoming emancipated from foster care without basic skills that they need to survive. They are unable to find gainful employment, they are unable to make the kind of social connections and relationships that lead to good friendships with others, and they are unable to express love and other emotions toward their own families and children, if they have them, at the same rate or degree as someone who had grown up in what was considered a normal household (Foster, 1999).

There are also some indications that the foster care system can sometimes be more dangerous to children that people imagine. A personal account written by a foster mother who took care of a child named Laura details some of the more distressing things that had happened to the child during the time she was in foster care. She was abused both emotionally and physically by both of her older brothers, and although repeated attempts were made by the neighbors to have the children removed from the home, nothing was ever done. when the foster mother who wrote the account received the child into her home, it was a constant struggle to convince the little girl that nothing evil was going to happen to her in their home (Newman, 1999).

Her brothers had also been taken into the same home, and eventually they had to be removed and placed in separate homes so as to keep them from harming the little girl. Even though caseworkers allegedly knew of the problems, it was a long time before the foster mother could convince the workers assigned to the case that the boys were actually doing physical harm to the little girl, and had been for some time (Newman, 1999).

While this type of difficulty is not always the case, there is concern that many foster children are raised in squalor and poverty, and the caseworkers assigned to help them do not often actually pay attention to what is really going on in the home. The home that the foster child came from, her previous foster home, was a filthy, disease-ridden shack that neighbors had been complaining about for years. Even though the case worker drove past it every day on her way to work, it was years before Laura and her brothers were removed from home (Newman, 1999).

Not all stories are as tragic as Laura's, but more and more children are getting into foster care at a very young age, and this is presenting different concerns for caregivers. Children who are still babies when they come into foster care do not always have some of the emotional difficulties that older children will have, but their physical needs are more complex, since they cannot yet fend for themselves. They are unable, naturally, to dress, feed, or bathe themselves, but some of the emotional scars that would have been there had they remained in their natural home had likely been prevented (Sobel, 2001).

Caring for an infant is not the same as caring for a child who is able to do things for themselves, and adding a foster infant to a family that already has foster children may make it especially difficult for everyone. However, because there are so many children in the foster care system anymore, it may be necessary for those foster parents who have large houses and even larger hearts to agree to take in children who may place physical and emotional demands on other occupants of the house. This can lead to extra emotional strain for foster children who are already living in the home, as they must now deal with a new occupant who is requiring a lot of the time that the foster parents originally gave to their other foster children. Sometimes this causes a great deal of difficulty for the already established foster children, especially if they are already emotionally or physically disabled and needs the nurturing and support of their foster parents on a continual basis (Sobel, 2001).

On the other hand, seeing their foster parents take care of and nurture an infant, if they do it properly, may help the other foster children to see how to take care of their own children someday. It may teach them some lessons about life and love that they would not have learned had a very young child not come into the house. If they can get past the resentment that they may feel towards the infant because it takes up so much of the caregivers' time, they can learn much about the way he should be treated (Sobel, 2001). This is provided that the foster home is a good one, and not like the original foster homes Laura was placed into, where her brothers sexually molested her and beat her and no one bothered to do anything about it. At 3 1/2 years old, Laura had bruises all over her body, and did not even know what her name was (Newman, 1999).

Foster care is a poorly understood aspect of society, and those who are not involved in it either as natural parents who have lost their children, children who are living in the foster care system, those who offer to be foster parents, or those who work with foster children through either being caseworkers or social workers, do not really understand some of the intricacies that are involved in the foster care system (Barton, 1999).

There is a stereotype about foster children and families who care for them. It basically states that all children who come into foster care are malnourished, depressed, emotionally unstable children who throw tantrums and are uncontrollable. It also states that the people who choose to be foster parents only do it for the money that is provided to them by the state, and that they take on more children than they can possibly handle in order to get more money. It is assumed in this stereotype that these parents provide the children poor places to sleep, little food, and no love or attention, but only use them as a means to a paycheck. For the majority of foster children and foster parents, this could not be farther from the truth. The foster parents that make the news for abuse and neglect make the news because they are the exception, not the rule (Barton, 1999).

As for describing a "typical" foster family, that is very difficult to do. Foster parents come in all shapes and sizes, and come from all backgrounds, educational opportunities, and financial arenas. Foster parents can be anywhere from 21 to 65 years old, and contrary to the belief of many they do not have to be a married couple in order for them to be foster parents. A man and woman who live together and have a stable relationship, or even someone who is single and not living with anyone else, can be a foster parent. It does not matter if they rent or own their home, and it does not matter if they are rich or poor. As long as they are able to provide for the foster child or children that they take in, they are approved (Barton, 1999).

Foster children also come from very different and varied backgrounds. While it is true that a higher proportion of foster children are African-American, this does not mean that there are no Caucasian children in the foster care system, or that African-American parents traditionally do a lower quality job of caring for their children. African-American children are more likely to live with a caregiver who is related to them, such as a grandparent or aunt. Foster parents who are African-American are also likely to be slightly older than average age of Caucasian foster parents, and they are also more likely to have a somewhat lower income (Barton, 1999).

What this means is that there are a lot of children out there, both minority and Caucasian, who need help, love, and nurturing from either their biological parents or someone else willing to take them in and give them what they need. Many foster homes are willing to do this, and they do not do it for the money, but because they have a love for children. While many studies are made out to show how cruel and terrible foster care really is, Barton is quick to point out that this is not the norm for foster parents (Barton, 1999).

Much of the problem rests with the state governments and the court systems that make it extremely difficult to remove a child from a home where abuse is occurring; and with caseworkers, who look the other way when they see that a young child has bruises, or seems extremely frightened of strangers. It all comes back to the fact that many people, when they see something terrible happening to someone else, simply thank God that it isn't them and just don't want to get involved (Barton, 1999).

Self-image is extremely important for children who are involved in the foster care system. It is often difficult to build self-image in children who have been beaten down either physically or emotionally by parents and siblings in the past. However, emotional stability and self-esteem can be established for these children. It takes a lot of nurturing, and a lot of work, which is something that some foster parents aren't willing to provide. For the foster parents that are willing to provide this kind of support, they can help the children in their care turn into happy well adjusted independent adults (Yancey, 1998).

The estimates of emotional disturbances for children in foster care range anywhere from 35 to 85%. Children who live in institutional settings have the highest percentage of emotional disturbance. It is believed that many of these problems are rooted in the situation, not in any specific genetic defects or abnormalities that these children have. They are a product of their environment, and the environment that many of them have grown up in has been so difficult and painful that they are expressing themselves in the only ways that they know how. Often this leads to failure to complete school, unintended or unwanted pregnancies, arrests, and other maladaptive behaviors that these children do not seem to be able to escape from. There is help for these children, but many foster care parents are at a loss as to how to provide it. Education, once again, becomes the key for these people who want so desperately to help these children and yet cannot seem to find a way around all of the pain and emotional heartbreak that these children have had to endure throughout their lives (Yancey, 1998).

A recent intervention idea has been the suggested use of role models for children who are in foster care. The idea is that these children must not only be told about proper ways to do things, but they must see it demonstrated by people that they can relate to, in order for it to make sense. That emphatically does not mean that these children are stupid, it only means that they have been through so much emotional turmoil already, that they need to see that people like themselves can do things in a certain way, before they believe that they are able to do it as well (Yancey, 1998).

Often, there are not enough people available to help all of the youths that need it, so one-on-one mentoring is usually not possible. It is also important that any mentors or teachers come from the same cultural and ethnic backgrounds as the child. For example, a Caucasian foster child should be mentored by a Caucasian adult, an African-American child should be mentored by an African-American adult, etc. This is important in building relationships, as many children tend to trust people of their own ethnic makeup more quickly that they will trust those of another culture. It is also important that children are mentored by people of both genders, so that they understand that both men and women are capable of doing anything that they need to do, and the children do not develop stereotypes about what is typical behavior for a man, or for a woman (Yancey, 1998).

Mentoring a child, however, is not the same thing as being a role model for that child. Mentors are, in general, normal people who have grown up in some type of adversity so that they can better understand the difficulties that the child is going through. These mentors are either blue-collar or white-collar people in the community, and are often what most of society would consider normal individuals. Role models, especially those who are famous, tend to be thought of as larger-than-life. They are often seen to be above the law, and it is assumed that they have no problems other than how to spend all of the money that they receive (Yancey, 1998).

While this is obviously a stereotypical and untrue view of many famous people, children perceive adults to be very different from the way that the adults actually are. Young children are not able to separate fact from fiction as easily as older children or adults can. Because of this, it is important that children have mentors as well as role models (Flaxman et al., 1988). While a role model may be someone that the child admires and wants to be like some day, a mentor is someone who is there with the child right now, and can show the child that being famous or rich is not necessary to have an enjoyable life (Yancey, 1998).

Studies show that children who have mentors are positively influenced by them, at least in the short-term, especially if those mentors come from the same ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Having a mentor who is from the same cultural background helps children to express how they feel about not only their situation, but the situations of others around them. It helps them to develop empathy for the human condition, and not to focus totally on their own wants and needs. This will help them later in life when they become emancipated, as they will better be able to understand and appreciate that other people have needs and desires that must be fulfilled. Having mentors will help these children to learn about other people, and to be respectful of others (Yancey, 1998).

Emancipation is the goal for children who are clearly not going to be adopted during their time in foster care. In order for these children to thrive in foster care, and to succeed in the outside world, there are basic necessities of life that they must learn. Unfortunately, the current foster care system is not working in a way that benefits many of the children. Many of them end up on the street when they are released from foster care at the age of 18, instead of working in gainful employment and building a life of their own, as would be hoped (Bandura, 1965, Barden, 1991).

Reform in the court system is another thing that will work to help children in foster care. Now, the courts decide everything about how a child will be handled, once they enter the foster care system. While it is important to have a governing body decide this, the courts are very backed up with trying to place children and to deal with juvenile offenders as well. Reform is an attempt to make sure that children are placed in foster care or adoptive care as soon as possible, and not left to languish in squalor and poverty simply because their caseworker is too busy to get out to see them, or the court system is too backed up to hear their case for another six months (Juvenile, 1999).

Since many juvenile offenders are also foster care children, the courts have begun to notice that there is a growing trend. While not all foster care children turn out to be offenders, and not all juvenile offenders live in foster care, there is a disproportionately high amount of foster care children who also find themselves in juvenile courts for one infraction or another. It becomes especially difficult for the court to determine whether or not a child who has been causing a great deal of trouble is doing so because of problems in their home, or is doing so simply because they deem it necessary. The problem then becomes, if the child is still living in their natural home, how to decide whether or moving the child to foster care would improve the child's quality of life (Juvenile, 1999).

The parents or primary caregivers must be examined at this point, to see if there are indications that abuse or neglect may have contributed to the child's delinquency. If this is found to be the case, the child will likely be placed in foster care. While this may be helpful, it may only serve to make the child more rebellious, and the inability of a foster parent to care for that child may cause that child to be moved to yet another foster home. This shuffling around of homes often makes children's emotional problems worse, when the court system was only striving to make them better. Decisions such as this one tie up the court's time, and this is part of the reason that they become so backlogged with cases that they feel something else must be done to help children in a more timely manner (Juvenile, 1999).

For intervention to be effective, it must begin when the problem first begins. If a problem in a home is left for years, the child will likely be so used to this way of life that they will not be able to adapt easily to anything different. This means that even if the child is removed from an abusive home after ten years of pain and suffering, that child will have a very difficult time learning to love and trust another adult, even if that adult treats the child extremely well. It is no fault of the foster parent, for they are doing all they can, but that does not mean that the child will respond well (Juvenile, 1999).

The desire of the court, in enacting reform to the juvenile system, is an interest in making sure that children who were abused and neglected not remain in their natural home until they reach the point where they will not be able to trust anyone. This does not mean that the courts want to take children out of their natural homes. An effort should be made to allow the child to remain with their natural parents if at all possible, however sometimes the parent's inability or disinterest in receiving any kind of help or improving their quality of life in order to help their child, necessitates that the child be removed from the home (Juvenile, 1999).

Putting a child in foster care, however, is not always the best choice. As has been mentioned previously, not all foster parents treat children the way that they should. While these are often exceptions, and not rules, it is still extremely painful and difficult for the children who have to endure torture at the hands of people who they thought would protect them. A Time magazine article recently discussed some of the atrocities that are committed in foster care. Much of what was mentioned happened to poor black children who were not checked on repeatedly by their caseworkers. While this was not always true, it was generally the case. It is also true that many of the atrocities listed in Time magazine happened in large cities such as Atlanta, Georgia and Dallas, Texas (Roche, 2000).

That does not mean that children who live in small towns, or children who are Caucasian, are saved from problems at the hands of foster care individuals. It is only indicative of the problems that the foster care system faces all across the nation. For many of these children, having their caseworkers actually check on them, visibly examine them, and listen to what they had to say would have prevented much of the pain and suffering. In another case, a simple background check of a man would have determined that he had a history of molesting children. Children were removed from their natural birthparents, who had little education or money, and were placed in the home of what was thought to be a loving couple. While the mother made cookies upstairs, the father was downstairs molesting the children (Roche, 2000).

The problem appears to lie not with foster parents per se, but with the system that is supposed to check into these people before turning someone else's children over to them. That does not mean that all instances of abuse in foster care can be prevented. There are simply too many children in the foster care system to ensure that every single child will always be safe from harm. While that is a tragedy, the bigger tragedy is children who could have been saved from harm and suffering simply by a case worker or government official taking five extra minutes to make sure that someone who wanted to be a foster parent was actually an acceptable choice for that job (Roche, 2000).

The Department of Health and Human Services has admitted that their record-keeping abilities and auditing processes are extremely flawed. They also admit that they do not know where are all of the children that are supposed to be in their care are located; there are children that are literally lost in the system. Will these children ever be found? That is something that no one can answer. Perhaps some of these children have become emancipated and moved off on their own, but many of the children will probably never be located. There is not enough money to properly provide for many of the children who are now in foster care, and there is not enough money to pay for caseworkers and more social workers to ensure the safety of these children (Roche, 2000).