Programs for children in the foster care system

Programs for Children in the Foster Care System

This paper aims to discuss the United States Foster Care system. It puts light on the trends of entries, exists, adoptions and placements in the U.S. foster care system. In addition to that, the kinds of difficulties that are being faced by the foster families due to lack of funds and proper support are also being discussed in this paper. This paper also indicates the defects that are being rendered in the nurturing of the children by the foster care system.

In this paper, the foster care system of the United States of America has been discussed in detail. It has been observed during the last few years that a rising number of children are located in foster care systems in the United States by public welfare agencies. Recent reports specify that foster care families lack support and need to provide adequate care, nurturing and safety for the children placed in their care. This paper discusses the issues related with the nurturing and adoption of the children and it also examines the problems faced by the foster families due to lack of funds. The paper is divided into four sections. The first section discusses the rising trend of entries in the U.S. foster care system and it statistically analyzes the volume of over-aged unadopted children in the system.

The second section examines the inability of the foster care system to employee appropriate staff in order to monitor the foster families. The system is not able to hire professional staff because of the unavailability of funds. The third section examines the defects and drawbacks in the nurturing and bringing up of the children under the foster care system. It examines how the children raised in foster care may suffer from different consequences (physical / mental / emotional / psychological etc.) due to inadequate nurturing.

The last section consists of the conclusion on the existing facilities and the recommendations that are being made for the betterment and improvement of the foster care system of the United States of America.

Background

It has been indicated by a number of studies that since the last few years a prominent number of U.S. families have gone under a substantial crisis. Some people respond to the great economic crisis and other social pressures by using drugs and alcohol, whereas, others adopt aggressive behavior as a response in relation to unpleasant events. The most vulnerable population that is being effected greatly during such unstable circumstances is children belonging to such families. As they remain neglected throughout the period of crisis or they become the victims of mental or physical abuse.

The government of the United States of America has taken the responsibility of nurturing of such children. The government has designed different mandates and legislations that ensure the safety of children. The local child protective service agencies are reported whenever any child is subjected to violence or negligence. After the report is being made, an investigation is being carried out and if it is discovered that the child is really being abused then the court interferes and takes the custody of that child. When, due to abuse or negligence, a child is being removed from his biological family and is placed with a temporary family then this temporary family is known as foster family and the system of such placement is called foster care system. (Hancock, 2009)

History of Foster Care System:

Foster care system in the United States of America roots back to 1853 when the first renowned and acknowledged foster care program, 'The Placing out System of the New York Children's Aid Society', was established by Charles Loring Brace. With the establishment of the placing out system of the New York children's aid society about twenty states established public orphanages. These orphanages had an aim of providing homeless children with a home. For about a decade, a healthy debate was carried out on the topic that is an institution a better home for the homeless or a foster family? In the year 1909 foster care system won the debate when it was termed as the best substitute of the natural home at the White House Conference on Children. Since then there has been a rising trend of children being located in foster care system. (McDonald, Allen, Westerfelt & Piliavin)

Entries, Exists, Adoptions and Placements in the U.S. Foster Care System

The trend of entries and exists in the United States foster care system is a bit fluctuating. The rate of children entering the foster care system has changed very slightly and the rate of adoptions is quite low during the last ten years. The entries in the year 2002 amounted to 295000. The maximum number of entries, ranging up to 307000, in the foster care system was reported in the year 2005. The number of entries during the fiscal year 2011 was reported to be 252000. The highest number of exists, ranging up to 295000, was reported in the years 2005 and 2006. The lowest number of exists was 245000 and it was recorded in the year 2011. Another point that is evident from the following graph is that the number adoption is very low as compared to the number of entries. The highest number of adoptions was 57000 and it was recorded in the fiscal year 2009 and the lowest number of adoptions was 50000 and it was recorded in the year 2003. ("Trends in foster," 2011)

In the following graph 'in care' represents the children that were under the care of foster care system in the beginning of the given fiscal year. 'TRP (termination of parental rights)' represents the children who have been separated from their biological parents and are waiting to get adopted and 'served' is an accumulated amount of all the children who have been in the foster care system during the given fiscal year. ("Trends in foster," 2011)

It can be observed that there has been a prominent decline in the children who are waiting to be adopted. The rate of children waiting to be adopted was highest in the year 2006. The rate was recorded to be 135000 in the said year. This amount declined continuously from the year 2006 and was recorded to be the lowest in the fiscal year 2011. In this year the rate of children waiting to be adopted amounted to 104000.

("Trends in foster," 2011)

In addition to that, the children entering foster care systems are placed in a variety of temporary homes including, a group home or a relative home etcetera. In the year 2010, out of the total children who were placed in different temporary settlements, 48% of the children were placed in non-relative foster families whereas, 26% of the children were placed in relative foster family homes. About 9% were placed in institutions and 6% in group homes. 5% of the children were sent to trial home visits and about 4% were sent to preadoptive homes. The runaway rate in the year 2010 was 2% and the remaining 1% of the children led an independent life under the supervision of concerned authorities. ("Trends in foster," 2011)

The placement of the children has an influential impact on the behavior of children. If children are constantly sent to trial homes then they have to make continuous adjustments in their behavior according to the requirement of their current home. These adjustments can have a number of negative effects on the behavior of the children ("Foster care statistics 2010," 2012). The comparison between the placement of children in the year 2000 and 2010 is represented in the following graph:

("Foster care statistics 2010," 2012)

The rate of runaway, supervised independent life remained same in the year 2010. However, there were slight changes in the remaining placement variables. ("Foster care statistics 2010," 2012)

Children Aging out of the Foster Care System

Foster care system is a temporary home for the children who are neglected or abused. The child welfare institutions try to find out a permanent home for the children who are located in the foster care system. These children are either sent back to their biological parents or they are accommodated with their guardians or relatives. In addition to that children also get adopted from the foster care system. In the 2010 most of the children entering the foster care system were permanently accommodated. But 11% of the children were left to live on their own under the supervision of concerned authorities. Children growing older than 18 years, or children aging out, have to leave the foster care system without having any safe and permanent home. (McCoy-Roth, DeVoogh & Fletcher, 2011) the graph below shows the number of children who aged out of the foster care system during 1998 to 2010:

Number of Children Aging out of the Foster Care System.

(McCoy-Roth, DeVoogh & Fletcher, 2011)

As shown in the above figure there was a sharp increase in the number of youth aging out of the foster care system from 1998 to 2007. However, from 2008 the number began to decrease slightly. The rate of increase in the number of children aging out of the United States foster care system from 1998 to 2007 is 71.7%. Whereas the rate declined by 0.71% in the year 2008. In the year 2009, there was again a decline of 0.33%. In the year 2010, the number of children aging out of foster care system declined by 5.4%. It can be concluded from the above figure that there was a significant increase in the number of children aging out of foster care system from the year 1998 to 2007. Whereas, this number started declining from the year 2008 and it is still following a declining trend. (McCoy-Roth, DeVoogh & Fletcher, 2011)

Challenges Faced by the youth aging out of Foster Care System

Children who age out of the foster care system generally face many problems in relation to education, employment, health and residence. According to different studies, the youth aging out of the foster care system faces a number of difficulties. Few of the most significant problems that they face are unemployment, lack of educational and health care facilities and residential issues. (Gardner, 2008)

Educational Problems

Although it is the basic right of all the children to get proper education; it has been indicated by a number of studies that most of the youth aging out of the foster care system face significant disparities in terms of education. According to a study conducted by Midwest, youth aging out of foster care system is two times more likely of not having a college diploma as compared to the youth in care of their families. It was also observed that 53% of the general population, living with their family, had a college diploma. In contrast to that, only 30% of the youth that has aged out of the foster care had a college diploma. The study indicated that the rate of youth completing college education was 14% less than that of general public. (Gardner, 2008)

All the above statistics clearly demonstrate that even though it is the basic right of each and every child to get educated the youth aging out of the foster care system is generally deprived of this right. It can be said that youth residing in foster care system has to face more problems in terms of education as compared to the general population residing with their biological families. (Gardner, 2008)

Residential Problems

When the children age out of the foster care system, housing is one of their immediate concerns. Most of the youth aging out of the foster care system has to realize the harsh reality of a massive gap between their salaries and the cost of housing and therefore, a large number of youth aging out of the foster care system remains homeless.

According to a study, about one third of the youth aging out of the foster care system has lived in three different housing arrangements and about forty percent of this youth has lived in four different housing arrangements. In addition to that about 18% of the youth aging out of the foster care system has been homeless more than twice and about half of the youth who has aged out of the foster care system has been homeless more than once. It was also observed that three out of every ten homeless adults of the United States of America reported that they had been in the foster care system. It was recorded by the North West study that about 25% of the youth aging out of the foster care system has been homeless for at least one year during past 2.5 to 4 years. (Gardner, 2008)

Health Care Problems

Health care issues are also prevalent in the youth who has aged out of the foster care system. It has been indicated that the about 25% of the youth aging out the foster care system suffers from post-traumatic stress whereas, the rate of general public suffering from post traumatic stress is 4%. The children in foster care system are generally being covered by Medicaid but once they age out of the system they are at a risk of losing all the medical facilities. It was reported by the Midwest study that only half of the youth aging out of the foster care system had medical insurance and only 39% of the youth had dental insurance. About one fifth of the youth aging out of the foster care system said that they have not received medical care in the last year. Unavailability of medical insurance was the main reason behind not receiving medical care. It is evident that the youth aging out the foster care system does not have proper access to the health care facilities which is a significant threat to their well being. (Gardner, 2008)

Unemployment

Unemployment is a prominent problem that prevails among the youth that has aged out of the foster care system. According to the Midwest study only 72% of the youth aging out of the foster care system worked for a pay and only 47% of the youth was employed at the time of the survey. The survey also indicated that about 84% of the youth aging out of the foster care system earned less than 9 dollars per hour. In addition to that, about 40% of the youth did not have sufficient amount of money to buy clothes, 20% were not able to pay their house rents and 22% got their phone services disconnected because they were not able to afford them. It was also reported that about 15% of the adults aging out of the foster care system remained hungry because they were not able to afford the food. (Gardner, 2008)

Ineffective Administration of Foster Care System

There are a number of inefficiencies that are prevalent in the foster care system. The major inefficiencies that are present in the current foster care system are the high employee turnover rate and absence of skilled staff and lack of support to foster families. (Chipungu & Bent-Goodley)

High Employee Turnover Rate and Absence of Skilled Staff

The major problem that the foster care system of United States of America is facing these days is the unavailability of skilled and professional staff. The foster care system is not able to recruit, train and retain highly skilled staff. Ninety percent of these organizations face problems in getting and retaining skilled staff. There are many factors that cause hiring problems for these welfare agencies. First of all, the number of cases handled in a given time period is very high which repels the committed staff. Secondly, working conditions in these agencies are poor. In addition to that, the resignation of former employees at a high rate and the poor perception of child welfare organizations in the minds of people inhibit the recruitment process significantly. (Chipungu & Bent-Goodley)

In addition to that, general public is demanding better performance from the foster care system and this demand is evident in the changes that are being made in the policies regarding adoption. As a result of these policy changes, employees of the foster care system are required to spend a lot of time in doing paper work rather than counseling, training and monitoring foster parents. Moreover, only one third of the total workforce employed in the foster care system consists of socially trained people. A study also indicated that the foster care system lacks the funds that are required for the recruitment of professional and trained staff. Proper training, support and compensation of employees can help the foster care system of the United States of America in eliminating this problem from the system. (Chipungu & Bent-Goodley)

Lack of Support to Foster Families

Most of the parents want to adopt foster children because they want to make a difference in the lives of these children. But they are unaware of the biasedness and bureaucracy that prevails in the current system. Their effort to make the lives of these children better makes their own life very difficult because of regular phone calls to government agencies, visits to courts and lengthy paper work. In addition to that, whenever these foster families approach the system to get the support that they need, they are confronted with the fact that the current foster care system is not equipped with proper resources to provide them with the required support and as a result of this environment, about forty to sixty percent of the foster families leave the foster care system within one year. This problem not only weakens the system but it also effects the foster children who were placed with these families and who are now to be placed with new families. (Hancock, 2009)