foster care

Definition

Foster care is full-time substitute care of children outside their own home by people other than their biological or adoptive parents or legal guardians.

Description

Children who are removed from their biological or adoptive parents, or other legal guardians, are placed in foster care in a variety of settings. They may be placed in the care of relatives other than the family members involved in the neglect or abuse (kin placement), non-relatives, therapeutic or treatment foster care, or in an institution or group home.

Children come to foster care for a number of reasons. In many cases, they have suffered physical or sexual abuse, or neglect at home, and are placed in a safe environment. A small percentage of children are in foster care because their parents feel unable to control them, and their behavior may have led to delinquency or fear of harm to others. Some children have been neglected by their parents or legal guardians, or have parents or legal guardians who are unable to take care of them because of substance abuse, incarceration, or mental health problems. These children are placed into custodial care while the parents or guardians receive treatment or counseling, or fulfill their sentences.

In all foster care cases, the child's biological or adoptive parents, or other legal guardians, temporarily give up legal custody of the child. (The guardian gives up custody, but not necessarily legal guardianship.) A child may be placed in foster care with the parents' consent. In a clear case of abuse or neglect, a court can order a child into foster care without the parents' or guardians' consent. Foster care does not necessarily mean care by strangers. If a government agency decides a child must be removed from the home, the child may be placed with relatives or with a family friend. Children may also be placed in a group home, where several foster children live together with a staff of caregivers. Therapeutic or treatment foster care can be in a group home or foster home with a specific structure and treatment focus. Foster homes are the most well-known option. The child temporarily becomes a part of another family, either with other foster children, the family's biological or adoptive children, or alone. State or county social service agencies oversee foster care decisions, although they may also work with private foundations.

Foster parents must be licensed by the agency that handles a specific region's foster care. The foster home must pass an inspection for health and safety and, in most states, the parents must attend training sessions covering issues of x how to deal with problems. When a child is placed, the foster family takes responsibility for feeding and clothing the child, getting the child to school and to appointments, and doing any of the usual things a child's parents or legal guardians might be called to do. The foster parents might also need to meet with the foster child's therapist and will meet regularly with the child's caseworker as well. The foster parent aims to help the foster child develop normally in a safe, family environment.

Foster parents usually receive money for taking in foster children. They are expected to use the money to buy the child's food, clothing, school supplies, and other incidentals. Most of the foster parent's responsibilities toward the foster child are clearly defined in a legal contract. Foster parents do not become the guardians of foster children; legal guardianship remains with the state agency.

Foster placements may last for a single day or several weeks; some continue for years. If the parents give up their rights permanently, or their rights to their child are severed by the court, the foster family may adopt the foster child or the child may be placed for adoption by strangers. Foster parenting is meant to be an in-between stage, while a permanent placement for the child is settled. As such, it is stressful and uncertain, but for many families very necessary.

Federal money supports most foster care programs, and federal law governs foster care policy. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Reform Act of 1980 emphasizes two aims of foster care. One is to preserve the child's family, if at all possible. Children are placed in foster care only after other options have failed, and social service agencies work with the family to resolve its problems so that children can return to their homes. The second aim of the Child Welfare Reform Act is to support the so-called "permanency planning." This means that if a child must be removed from the home, the social service agency handling the case can decide quickly whether or not the child will ever be returned. If it seems likely that parents will not be able to care for their children again, their parental rights may be terminated so that the child is free to be adopted. This policy is articulated in this law in order to prevent children from living too long in an unstable and uncertain situation.

The goal of foster care is the care of the child within the child welfare system, but also is to place all appropriate and available services at the disposal of the parents so that they can create a safe, fit home environment for their children when they are reunited. Children in the child welfare system are also overseen by a multitude of agencies. The caseworker from the state or county social services agency oversees the child's placement and makes regular reports to the court. Others involved in the child's case are private service providers (including foster homes and group homes), welfare agencies, mental health counselors, substance abuse treatment centers (for the child or the parent), and Medicaid (federal medical insurance for seniors and children at risk).

Demographics

In 1980, about 300,000 children in the United States spent some time in foster care placement. By 2001, there were nearly 800,000 children in foster care, with 540,000 children in the system at any given time. The majority of these children were the victims of abuse. The emergence of widespread homelessness, substance abuse (especially crack and methamphetamines), unemployment, increased incarceration rates, street violence, and HIV/AIDS have all impacted poor communities. Children from families with multiple problems flooded the child welfare system. Young children with physical handicaps, mental delays or mental illness, and complex medical conditions have become the fastest-growing foster care population.

The foster care population is quite young. About one-fourth of all children entering foster care for the first time are infants. Sixty percent of foster children are under four years old. Teenagers comprise one-third of the foster care population. Minority children comprise most of the foster care population, with the largest groups being African American and American Indian children.

Poor children are more likely to be in foster care than middle-class children because their families have fewer resources. Illness or loss of a job may be devastating to a poor family with no savings and no relatives who can afford to assist them. These children are also more likely to stay in foster care longer or to have been in foster care since infancy. Also, children of alcoholics or drug abusers are at high risk for neglect or abuse, and comprise 75 percent of all placements.

More than half (57 percent) of all children in foster care are returned to their original homes; however, reunification rates have declined in the 1990s and early twenty-first century. Children also spend more time in the system. The average length of stay for a child in foster care is 33 months. However, some spend a very short time in a foster home, and others are there for their entire childhoods, "aging out" at 18 when they become legal adults.

Instead of reunification, more children are being adopted from foster care. Most states doubled, and some tripled, the number of foster care adoptions since 1997. This steady increase is a response to the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 that recommends termination of parental rights and encourages adoption if a child has been in foster care for 15 out of the previous 22 months. This can be waived by the court if the parents are making substantive progress or the caseworker believes that legal guardianship, but not adoption, is in the child's best interests.

Half of all children in foster care live with nonrelative foster caregivers; about one-fourth live with relatives, and this number is growing. ASFA also recognized kinship caregivers as legitimate placements. It was customary for many poor families to take in a child informally when the child's parents or legal guardians were incarcerated, in treatment, or had died, but ASFA allowed relatives to take care of a child legally and receive financial help, and also opened the doors to a number of agencies and services the relatives could not afford.

Common Problems

In most cases, children placed in foster care have been subjected to some form of abuse or neglect, and being removed from familiar surroundings is, in itself, usually highly traumatic. Children in foster care may have nightmares, problems sleeping or eating, and may be depressed, angry, and confused. Many young children in foster care are unable to understand why they have been taken from their parents. Even if a child is in some sense relieved to be out of a home that was dangerous, the child may still miss the parents or legal guardians, and may imagine that there is something he or she must do to get back to them. There is evidence that children from abusive and neglectful homes start to feel better in foster care; however, separation is almost always difficult for children, regardless of the circumstances.

Half of all foster children spend as much as two years in foster care and are moved from placement to placement at least three times. This leads not only to uncertainty and lack of stability in the child's life, but some of these placements may be inappropriate for the child's specific circumstances. This often is due to the lack of qualified, licensed foster caregivers, but it can also occur as a result of inexperienced or overloaded caseworkers trying to get through their caseloads.

Foster care can be difficult for foster parents as well. A child who has been neglected or abused suffers psychological damage that may make him or her withdrawn, immature, aggressive, or otherwise difficult to reach. Children with severe medical and mental problems can tax caregivers. Foster placements sometimes fail because these surrogate parents simply cannot handle the demands of a troubled foster child.

Unfortunately, the number of foster caregivers has been declining since the mid-1980s as the demand for placements has increased. States have responded by licensing responsible adults who were not married (even divorced men and women) and reaching out to seniors and children's relatives. In some areas, single mothers make up a large proportion of foster parents.

In 2002, about 405,000 children were placed in court-appointed kinship care. Caseworkers placed almost 140,000 more in the care of relatives, without court intervention. Many of these kinship caregivers are grandparents or elderly aunts and uncles. Kinship caregivers offer family support and stability, and more frequent contact with parents or legal guardians, and siblings. They also are more apt to get children to talk to them about their problems, and the presence of relatives can help ease the trauma of separation from parents.

Nevertheless, kinship caregivers, especially grandparents, face a number of challenges. Most of the formal and informal kinship caregivers experience economic hardship as they take in one or more of their relative's children. Nearly two-thirds of these placements are with financially strapped families who may not have essentials such as a car seat, crib, or toys. They also may not have adequate medical insurance; however, Medicaid often will cover the foster child in a formal kinship arrangement. Grandparents may not know how to raise a child in today's world, with the amount of freedoms or lack of them that children experience today. They may not be able to help their foster children with homework. Many social service agencies offer counseling, homework help, and even home tutoring for both the child and caregiver.

One other problem inherent in the child welfare system is the teenager who "ages out," or turns 18 and moves out of foster care to live independently. Many teenagers mark time within the system, without adequate preparation for the transition to adulthood. Less than one-fourth of social service agencies provide employment services for teenagers. Only 17 percent provide employment and career assessments, and 16 percent provide job-training. One-fourth offer vocational training. Without help, these teenagers often never go on to college, do not find good jobs if they find jobs at all, and become prey to bad influences on the street. If they have children of their own, these offspring fall back into the child welfare system just as they did. Adequate training, counseling, and preparation can break this cycle.

In addition, children in all types of foster care face more challenges financially, emotionally, and developmentally. A study by the Child Welfare League of America in 2004 showed that children in foster care experienced more health and developmental problems than children who had similar economic circumstances but lived with their parents or legal guardians. Foster children also have more neglect, abuse, family dysfunction, poverty, and emotional problems. This may be a direct result of the reasons for their initial placement, but these conditions continue throughout foster care. Another reason for these results may be that foster children are given more frequent and thorough medical and psychological care than their counterparts.

Parental Concerns

Other foster care placements are made by families who cannot afford medical or psychological services for their children. These children may have multiple disabilities or severe social or mental disorders that have depleted the family's financial and emotional resources. Convinced by social workers that this option is the only one available to them, they give up their parental rights in order to get their children into proper treatment. According to the U.S General Accounting Office, 12,700 children were placed into the child welfare system or the juvenile justice system to receive mental health services in 2001. Despite the noble reasons for placing these children in foster care, the parents' names are placed on state registries as child abusers, and they have to petition the court and prove their fitness to get their children returned to their homes.

See also Child abuse.

Resources

Books

Davies, Nancy Millichap. Foster Care. NY: Franklin Watts, 1994.

Periodicals

Bass, Sandra, et al. "Children, Families, and Foster Care: Analysis and Recommendations." The Future of Children. 14, no. 1 (Winter 2004): 4–30.

Hansen, Robin L., et al. "Comparing the Health Status of Low-Income Children in and out of Foster Care." Child Welfare 83, no. 4 (July-August 2004): 367–81.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. "Children, Families, and Foster Care: Analysis." (Executive Summary) The Future of Children 14, no. 1 (Winter 2004): S1.

Organizations

Foster Care Children. 507 North Sullivan Road Suite A-6. Spokane Valley, WA 99037. (509) 924-3175. Web site: www.fostercarechildren.com.

Web Sites

Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care. Available online at: .

[Article by: Janie Franz A. Woodward]

Approximately three million reports of child maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and abandonment) come to the attention of public child welfare agencies in the United States every year. Hundreds of thousands of these reports are considered serious enough to be investigated, and about one-third are substantiated or proven. Of the cases that are substantiated, approximately 175,000 to 200,000 are placed into foster care.

Health care professionals refer to foster care as the temporary out-of-home placement for abused and neglected children. Typically, such placements are made in the homes of families specifically recruited and trained to care for troubled children or, increasingly, in the homes of relatives. However, about 20 percent of these children are placed in group homes or residential treatment centers. The placements are supposed to be for as short a period of time as possible, with the primary goal being to return the child to his or her birth parent or parents as soon as it is safe to do so. If the child cannot be returned home within a reasonable period of time, other permanent plans must be made for him or her, particularly adoption.

In the United States, foster care programs are usually administered and delivered by state and local public child welfare agencies. However, public child welfare agencies often contract with private not-for-profit and, to a much lesser extent, private for-profit organizations to provide foster care services.

Although public child welfare agencies are creatures of state governments, the federal government has played an increasingly larger role in child welfare. For example, federal laws have been enacted that provide fiscal incentives to states, in order to encourage them to adopt certain child welfare policies and practices. Also, the federal government has made available increasing amounts of funding, usually on a matching basis, for foster care and adoptions services. In addition, the federal government collects, archives, and disseminates child welfare data and information and provides a modest amount of funding for research.

There were two major pieces of federal child welfare legislation enacted in the late twentieth century. The first was the Adoptions Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, more popularly known as P.L. 96-272. This legislation grew out of more than six years of congressional hearings into the problems confronting the child welfare system in the United States. The act placed greater emphasis on strengthening and preserving families and, in fact, placed as much emphasis on this new policy thrust as it did on protecting and caring for abused and neglected children. Consistent with this, one of the major priorities of the legislation was to increase services to prevent the out-of-home placement of children and to reduce the numbers of children being placed into foster care. Lawmakers also hoped that the act would result in shorter lengths of stay in placement, the elimination of foster care "drift" or the "bouncing" of children from one placement to another, improved training and supervision of foster parents, improved training for child welfare workers, and the delivery of more effective services to children in placement.

The law mandated that individualized treatment plans be developed for each child placed into foster care. It required that each child in placement had to have his or her case reviewed every six months to examine the status of the case and to determine whether the placement needed to be continued or if other permanent plans needed to be made.

Unfortunately, despite the hopes and expectations of reformers, the law had relatively little impact on the child welfare system. Beginning in the mid-1980s, the numbers and rates of children placed into foster care increased dramatically. This trend continued well into the 1990s. In fact, the best available data suggests the foster care population more than doubled between 1985 and 1999. Although significant amounts of money were spent on placement prevention services, there is virtually no credible scientific evidence that they had the desired impact. Even more disturbing is the fact that many class action lawsuits were filed against state and local public child welfare systems for abusive, unprofessional, and unconstitutional practices after P.L. 96-272 was passed. This statistic suggests that many public child welfare systems may have deteriorated during this period when policymakers and reformers expected them to improve.

In 1997 Congress passed the Adoptions and Safe Families Act, or ASFA. In sharp contrast to P.L. 96-272, this legislation places more emphasis on protecting children and makes it easier to remove them from dangerous home environments. The legislation calls for placing more of the burden on abusive and neglectful parents to demonstrate that they can properly care for their children before they will be returned to them. It also reduces the amount of time children have to stay in foster care from eighteen months to twelve months before permanent plans have to be made for them.

By 2002 most child welfare officials felt it was too soon to make any definitive statements about the impact of ASFA. Preliminary data suggest that increasing numbers of children are being adopted, although the numbers may be leveling off. Also, there are signs that the size of the foster care population may be stabilizing, or even declining. However, the length of stay in foster care for children awaiting adoption continues to average three years. For these children it can be said that the state has virtually become their parent, even if by default.

Bibliography

Schwartz, Ira M., and Gideon Fishman. Kids Raised by the Government. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999.

United States Department of Health and Human Services. The AFCARS Report. Washington, D.C.: Administration for Children and Families, 2000.

—Ira M. Schwartz

This article is about the modern child welfare system of placing children in state custody in the homes of temporary caregivers. For the (sometimes historical) social practice of children being raised by families not their own, see Fosterage.

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with North America and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page.

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (September 2008)

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v • d • e

Foster care is a system by which a certified, stand-in "parent(s)" cares for minor children or young people who have been removed from their birth parents or other custodial adults by state authority.

Responsibility for the young person is assumed by the relevant governmental authority and a placement with another family found. There can be voluntary placements by a parent of a child into foster care. Foster care is just a short term alternative while on the way to determining one of the three permanent plans for the child. According to Dorsey et al.. ^[1], the three permanent plans are:

“Reunification with the biological parent, conversion of the foster home to a legally-permanent guardianship or adoption, or placement of the child into another legally permanent family” (p. 1404).

Foster placements are monitored until the birth family can provide appropriate care or the rights of the birth parents are terminated and the child is adopted. A third option, guardianship, is sometimes utilized in certain cases where a child cannot be reunified with their birth family and adoption is not right for them.

Contents 1 Aspects 1.1 Reunification 1.2 Voluntary foster care 1.3 Involuntary foster care 2 Requirements 2.1 Qualities of a good foster parent 2.2 Legal Requirements 2.3 Purpose 2.4 Adolescents and foster care 3 United States 3.1 Regulation, administration, and oversight 3.1.1 Funding and system incentives 3.1.2 Recent United States foster care legislation 3.2 Problems within the United States Foster Care System 3.2.1 Inadequate foster homes 3.2.2 Foster children not being prepared for adulthood 3.2.3 Agency and Housing disregard for human rights of Foster children 3.2.4 Example: NYC foster care 3.2.5 Example: Texas YFZ Ranch Raid 3.2.6 Research on effects of foster care 4 Australia 4.1 Nature and Purpose 4.2 Philosophy of administration 4.3 Noted successes 5 Effects of chronic maltreatment and treatment in Foster Care systems (Intl) 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading

Aspects

Reunification

Reunification with a biological parent is when the child was temporarily removed from the home then reunited back with the biological parent when the state decides the conditions are suitable. This generally includes some older foster children who may be strongly bonded to their family of origin and unwilling to pursue adoption. It also may include cases where children are placed with grandparents or other relatives, where the placement is likely to be permanent but those relatives don't want to fight the birth parents in court.

Voluntary foster care

Voluntary foster care may be utilized in circumstances where a parent is unable or unwilling to care for a child. For instance, a child may have behavioral problems requiring specialized treatment or the parent might have a problem which results in a temporary or permanent inability to care for the child(ren).

Involuntary foster care

Involuntary foster care may be implemented when a child is removed from their caregiver because it is believed such removal is necessary for his/her own safety. A foster parent receives monetary reimbursement from the placement agency for each child while the child is in his/her home to help cover the cost of meeting the child's needs. The amount of financial assistance typically varies from state to state and even city to city.

Requirements

“Foster parents are responsible, law-abiding, people who will take good care of foster children. Foster parents can be a married couple or a single or divorced person. They can be young or old, with jobs outside the home or not. They can have young children of their own, grown up kids, or none at all” (Foster Families, p. 1).

Qualities of a good foster parent

A caring foster parent needs to be willing to take on the difficulties and responsibilities that would be expected of any parent. Enjoyment with being with children, ability to handle change and manage stress, having a sense of humor, and flexibility are some characteristics of people who would make good foster parents. Providing children with structure and helping them with emotional and behavioral problems is the main focus of a foster care provider. Sometimes the foster parent is also asked to help redevelop the relationship between the child and their birth parent. (Child and Family Services, p. 1).

Legal Requirements

Legal requirements to be a foster parent vary by nation and local jurisdiction, as do monetary reimbursement and other benefits foster families may receive.

Purpose

Foster care is intended to be a temporary living situation for children and adolescents. The goal of foster care is to provide support and care for the young person to facilitate either reunification with parent(s) or other family members or another suitable permanent living arrangement. This may include an adoptive home, guardianship, or placement with a relative. At times, the bond that develops during foster care will lead to the foster parents adopting the child. In some instances, children may be placed in a long-term foster placement.

Adolescents and foster care

For older adolescents, a foster care program may offer education and resources to prepare for a transition to independent living. That is not to say that older adolescents would not benefit from family placement, however, it is more difficult to recruit foster and adoptive parents for teens due to the stigma that is often attached to adolescents in foster care.

United States

Regulation, administration, and oversight

In the United States, foster home licensing requirements vary from state to state but are generally overseen by each state's Department of Social Services or Human Services. In some states, counties have this responsibility. Each state's services are monitored by the federal Department of Health and Human Services through reviews such as Child and Family Services Reviews, Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Reviews, Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System and Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System Assessment Reviews.^[2]

Children found to be unable to function in a foster home may be placed in Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs) or other such group homes. In theory, the focus of treatment in such facilities is to prepare the child for a return to a foster home, to an adoptive home, or to the birth parents when applicable. But two major reviews of the scholarly literature have questioned these facilities' effectiveness.^[3]

Funding and system incentives

A law passed by Congress in 1961 allowed AFDC (welfare) payments to pay for foster care which was previously made only to children in their own homes. This made aided funding foster care for states and localities, facilitating rapid growth In some cases, the state of Texas paid mental treatment centers as much as $101,105 a year per child. Observers of the growth trend note that a county will only continue to receive funding while it keeps the child in its care. This may create a "perverse financial incentive" to place and retain children in foster care rather than leave them with their parents, and incentives are sometimes set up for maximum intervention. A National Coalition for Child Protection Reform issue paper states "children often are removed from their families `prematurely or unnecessarily' because federal aid formulas give states `a strong financial incentive' to do so rather than provide services to keep families together."^[4]

There are some children in foster care who are difficult to place in permanent homes through the normal adoption process. These children are often said to require “special-needs adoption.” In this context, "special needs" can include situations where children have specific chronic medical problems, mental health issues, behavioral problems, and learning disabilities. Governments offer a variety of incentives and services to facilitate this class of adoptions.^[5]

Recent United States foster care legislation

In 1997, President Bill Clinton signed a new foster care law, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), written by Dr. Cassie Statuto Bevan,^[6]) which reduced the time children are allowed to remain in foster care before being available for adoption. The new law requires state child welfare agencies to identify cases where "aggravated circumstances" make permanent separation of child from the birth family the best option for the safety and well-being of the child. One of the main components of ASFA is the imposition of stricter time limits on reunification efforts. Proponents of ASFA claimed that before the law was passed, the lack of such legislation was the reason it was common for children to languish in care for years with no permanent living situation identified. They often were moved from placement to placement with no real plan for a permanent home.

Time limits were in federal legislation as early as 1980, but they were never enforced. ASFA requires that the state identify a permanent plan for children who enter foster care.

Opponents of ASFA argued that the real reason children languished in foster care was that too many were taken needlessly from their parents in the first place. Since ASFA did not address this, opponents said, it would not accomplish its goals, and would only slow a decline in the foster care population that should have occurred anyway because of a decline in reported child abuse.^[7]

Ten years after ASFA became law, the number of children in foster care on any given day is only about 7,000 fewer than when ASFA was passed^[8] Children continue to languish in care and to be moved from placement to placement.

The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999, also created by Dr.Bevan, in association with members of Congress, AKA The Chafee Program, helps foster youth who are aging out of care to achieve self-sufficiency. The U.S. government has also funded the Education and Training Voucher Program in recent years in order to help youth who age out of care to obtain college or vocational training at a free or reduced cost. Chafee and ETV money is administered by each state as they see fit.

The Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 is the most recent piece of major federal legislation addressing the foster care system. This bill extended various benefits and funding for foster children between the age of 18 and 21 and for Indian children in tribal areas. The legislation also strengthens requirements for states in their treatment of siblings (e.g., it requires states to make a reasonable effort to place siblings together) and introduces mechanisms to financially incent guardianship and adoption, among other things.^[9][10]

Problems within the United States Foster Care System

Inadequate foster homes

Based on data provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services submitted as of January 16, 2008, there are more than 500,000 children in the foster care systems throughout the United States (1). Currently the trend is showing more children entering the system than exiting, which is also known as aging out. Among the children who are currently placed, there are approximately 20,000 children who will emancipate or age out of the system this year (1).

This is quite a frightening thought for these youths, who essentially have not been able to adapt a permanent and stable structure that would have prepared them for the challenges they would be facing as adults. One solution to this problem is the rise of residential education programs, which provide an alternative to foster care by giving foster children a community-based setting in which they live and learn.^[11]

Foster children not being prepared for adulthood

Nearly half of foster kids in the U.S. become homeless when they turn 18.^[12][13]

According to William Dudley, most foster care childen should be placed in adoptive homes. "One of every 10 foster children stays in foster care longer than seven years, and each year about 15,000 reach the age of majority and leave foster care with out a permanent family—many to join the ranks of the homeless or to commit crimes and be imprisoned. Current Controversies: Issues in Adoption. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004.

Agency and Housing disregard for human rights of Foster children

Although foster care is one solution to protecting children from abuse, it is an imperfect system which is also associated with relatively high rates of abuse and risks. In Texas, the Family and Protective Services Crisis Management Team was created by executive order after the critical report Forgotten Children of 2004. Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn made a statement in 2006 about the Texas foster care system.^[14] In Fiscal 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively 30, 38 and 48 foster children died in the state's care. The number of foster children in the state's care increased 24 percent to 32,474 in Fiscal 2005, while the number of deaths increased 60 percent. Compared to the general population, a child is four times more likely to die in the Texas foster care system. In 2004, about 100 children were treated for poisoning from medications; 63 were treated for rape that occurred while under state care including four-year old twin boys, and 142 children gave birth.

The report stated that children were being unnecessarily neglected and abused and dying. A 12-year-old boy died in December 2005, suffocated while being restrained from behind by an employee of the facility. Another died May 30, after drowning in a creek during a bicycle outing. A three-year old was treated for poisoning from an atypical, mind-altering antipsychotic drug.

According to liftingtheveil.org, 28% of children in state care were abused in Baltimore. 21% of abuse or neglect cases involved foster homes In Louisiana. 57% of those in Missouri placed in foster care settings in 1981 were at a high risk of abuse or neglect. 25% of children in Kansas City foster care were the subject of abuse or inappropriate punishment. In Arizona, over 500 of an estimated 4,000 foster children, a figure representing at least 12.5 percent of the state's foster care population, have been sexually abused while in state care.

In the Wenatchee sex ring of the mid 1990s, a foster child who accused nearly every adult she knew sparked the one of history’s most extensive child sex abuse investigations. The investigations later fell apart with accusations of abuses by police and state social workers, and false confessions, child witnesses, and the discredited “recovered memory” theory.

Example: NYC foster care

Throughout the 1990s experimental HIV drugs had been tested on HIV foster children at Incarnation Children’s Center (ICC) in Harlem. "Since then, ACS has been under fire from charges of inappropriately enrolling as many as 465 foster children in HIV clinical trials. The agency has also been accused of racism, some comparing the trials to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, as 98 percent of children in foster care in New York City are persons of color."^[15]

Example: Texas YFZ Ranch Raid

This section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since May 2008. Its neutrality is disputed. Tagged since June 2008.

In the largest action of its kind, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in 2008 entered the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas with armed police. Although the search warrant was based on a tip that is believed to be fraudulent, enough evidence was gathered for a judge to rule that every child of the single shared residence was either a victim of or at risk of abuse in danger of eventually becoming or marrying child "spiritual brides". Over 400 children were ordered to be forcibly removed to shelters, and many separated from their parents, pending placement in the Texas foster care system. Legal barriers for child protection were much lower than for criminal cases as mothers and children were interrogated without lawyers, and the removal of every child under CPS procedures which classify a complex community of 700 as a single household has been compared to arresting every child in a town and placing them in a makeshift prison camp. Family members were separated and isolated from one another, communications and in many cases visitation rights were forbidden. No charges or arrests were made against any adults, though CPS later admitted they had taken an adult, because she appeared to be a minor, under custody of the state. The Texas foster care system has recorded a number of poisonings, deaths, rapes and pregnancy among children under its care in state reports since 2004, with a death rate four times the general population of children. While there was much public support and legal justification for the action, one witness who attested at the shelter testified that "wonderful loving women and children are being treated like convicts in a concentration camp by the state of Texas".^[16]

Research on effects of foster care

A recent study by Dr. Joseph J. Doyle, Jr., suggests that, in America, foster care placements are detrimental to children who are near the margin of needing to be placed out of home. These children, especially when they are older, seem to fare better with their birth parents.^[17][18]

Australia

Nature and Purpose

Home-based care, which includes foster care, is provided to children who are in need of care and protection. Children and young people are provided with alternative accommodation while they are unable to live with their parents. As well as foster care, this can include placements with relatives or kin, and residential care. In most cases, children in home-based care are also on a care and protection order.^[19]

In some cases children are placed in home-based care following a child protection substantiation and where they are found to be in need of a safer and more stable environment. In other situations parents may be incapable of providing adequate care for the child, or accommodation may be needed during times of family conflict or crisis.^[19] In the significant number of cases substance abuse is a major contributing factor.

Respite care is a type of foster care that is used to provide short-term (and often regular) accommodation for children whose parents are ill or unable to care for them on a temporary basis.^[19] It is also used to provide a break for the parent or primary carer to hopefully decrease the chances of the situation escalating to one which would lead to the removal of the child(ren).

As with the majority of child protection services, states and territories are responsible for funding home-based care. Non-government organizations are widely used, however, to provide these services.^[19]

Philosophy of administration

There is strong emphasis in current Australian policy and practice to keep children with their families wherever possible. In the event that children are placed in home-based care, every effort is made to reunite children with their families wherever possible.^[19]

In the case of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in particular, but not exclusively, placing the child within the wider family or community is preferred^[19] This is consistent with the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.^[20]

Noted successes

The Centre For Excellence In Child & Family Welfare has found that in Victoria the number of foster carers is declining while the number of children in care is increasing.^{[citation needed]} This is putting a great strain on the foster care system of the state.

In Victoria, the largest provider of foster care is Anglicare Victoria, providing respite, emergency, long term and short term foster care, disability foster care and teenage foster care for children and youth up to age 18. Anglicare Victoria is currently involved in the Victorian Government’s pilot program in a move towards therapeutic approaches to foster care.

Effects of chronic maltreatment and treatment in Foster Care systems (Intl)

A study by Dante Cicchetti found that 80% of abused and maltreated infants in his study exhibited symptoms of disorganized attachment.^[21][22] Children with histories of maltreatment, such as physical and psychological neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, are at risk of developing psychiatric problems.^{[23][24][25][26]} These children may be described as experiencing trauma as the result of abuse or neglect, inflicted by a primary caregiver, which disrupts the normal development of secure attachment. Such children are at risk of developing a disorganized attachment.^[25][27][28] Disorganized attachment is associated with a number of developmental problems, including dissociative symptoms,^[29] as well as depressive, anxiety, and acting-out symptoms.^[30][31]

The effects of early chronic maltreatment are seen in various domains which may require a multi-modal approach that directly addresses the underlying causative trauma and which seeks to build healthy and secure relationships with permanent caregivers. These children may require specialized treatment.

See also

• Adoption and Safe Families Act
• Attachment theory
• Child Welfare
• Crown ward
• Complex post-traumatic stress disorder
• Elevate (organization)
• Foster care adoption
• Legal guardian
• Reactive attachment disorder
• Residential education
• Aging out
• Fosterage
• Travis Lloyd A foster care alumnus who advocates through inspirational hip-hop music and motivational speaking
• Pound Pup Legacy

References

1. ^ Dorsey et Al. Current status and evidence base of training for foster and treatment foster parents
2. ^ Children's Bureau Website - Child Welfare Monitoring
3. ^ Richard Barth, Institutions vs. Foster Homes, the Empirical Base for a Century of Action (University of North Carolina, Jordan Institute for Families, February 17, 2002; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Report of the Surgeon General's Conference on children's mental health: A national action agenda. Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 2000.USGPO
4. ^ Child Abuse is Child Protection is Mental Health Treatment is Drugging Children
5. ^ http://www.jstor.org/pss/1602402 Judith K. McKenzie Adoption of Children with Special Needs, Brookings Institution: The Future of Children, Vol. 3, No. 1, Adoption (Spring, 1993), pp. 62-76
6. ^ Children's Bureau Express Online Digest:
7. ^ U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Child Maltreatment, 2004, Figure 3-2, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm04/figure3_2.htm
8. ^ As of March, 1998, four months after ASFA became law, there were 520,000 children in foster care, (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AFCARS Report #1, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report1/ar0199.htm). It took until September 30, 2005, for the number to fall to 513,000 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Trends in Foster Care and Adoption, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/trends.htm.
9. ^ Children's Defense Fund, Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act: Overview, http://www.childrensdefense.org/helping-americas-children/child-welfare/fostering-connection-success-increasing-adoptions-act-overview.html.
10. ^ National Conference of State Legislatures, NCSL Summary: Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, http://www.ncsl.org/statefed/humserv/SummaryHR6893.htm.
11. ^ Coalition for Residential Education
12. ^ Pasadena Weekly - Throwaway kids
13. ^ Saving foster kids from the streets / As the nation faces a new wave of homeless children, Larkin youth center helps provide a transition to adulthood
14. ^ Comptroller Strayhorn Statement On Foster Care Abuse June 23, 2006
15. ^ The Indypendent » Incarnation Controversy Simmers: City’s Agency Handling of HIV Kids Still Questioned by Foster Parents
16. ^ mnginteractive.com: written testimony
17. ^ Microsoft Word - doyle_fosterlt_march07.doc
18. ^ Study: Troubled homes better than foster care - USATODAY.com
19. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Microsoft Word - 071108 Child protection 05-06 printers copy.doc
20. ^ Lawlink NSW: Research Report 7 (1997) - The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle
21. ^ Carlson, V., Cicchetti, D., Barnett, D., & Braunwald, K. (1995). Finding order in disorganization: Lessons from research on maltreated infants’ attachments to their caregivers. In D. Cicchetti & V. Carlson (Eds), Child Maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect (pp. 135-157). NY: Cambridge University Press.
22. ^ Cicchetti, D., Cummings, E.M., Greenberg, M.T., & Marvin, R.S. (1990). An organizational perspective on attachment beyond infancy. In M. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & M. Cummings (Eds), Attachment in the Preschool Years (pp. 3-50). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
23. ^ Gauthier, L., Stollak, G., Messe, L., & Arnoff, J. (1996). Recall of childhood neglect and physical abuse as differential predictors of current psychological functioning. Child Abuse and Neglect 20, 549-559
24. ^ Malinosky-Rummell, R. & Hansen, D.J. (1993) Long term consequences of childhood physical abuse. Psychological Bulletin 114, 68-69
25. ^ ^{a b} Lyons-Ruth K. & Jacobvitz, D. (1999) Attachment disorganization: unresolved loss, relational violence and lapses in behavioral and attentional strategies. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.) Handbook of Attachment. (pp. 520-554). NY: Guilford Press
26. ^ Greenberg, M. (1999). Attachment and Psychopathology in Childhood. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.). Handbook of Attachment (pp.469-496). NY: Guilford Press
27. ^ Solomon, J. & George, C. (Eds.) (1999). Attachment Disorganization. NY: Guilford Press
28. ^ Main, M. & Hesse, E. (1990) Parents’ Unresolved Traumatic Experiences are related to infant disorganized attachment status. In M.T. Greenberg, D. Ciccehetti, & E.M. Cummings (Eds), Attachment in the Preschool Years: Theory, Research, and Intervention (pp161-184). Chicago: University of Chicago Press
29. ^ Carlson, E.A. (1988). A prospective longitudinal study of disorganized/disoriented attachment. Child Development 69, 1107-1128
30. ^ Lyons-Ruth, K. (1996). Attachment relationships among children with aggressive behavior problems: The role of disorganized early attachment patterns. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 64, 64-73
31. ^ Lyons-Ruth, K., Alpern, L., & Repacholi, B. (1993). Disorganized infant attachment classification and maternal psychosocial problems as predictors of hostile-aggressive behavior in the preschool classroom. Child Development 64, 572-585

Further reading

• Hurley, Kendra (2002). "Almost Home" Retrieved Jun. 27, 2006.
• Carlson, E.A. (1998). A prospective longitudinal study of disorganized/disoriented attachment. Child Development 69, 1107-1128
• Knowlton, Paul E. (2001). "The Original Foster Care Survival Guide"; A first person account directed to successfully aging out of the foster care.

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