1. What can we do to fix foster care and what can we do to make foster care easier in the world? What can we teach children that are in the foster care system before they age out?
Yes foster care is an essential system used to provide loving homes to children, but unfortunately these systems have become broken and can no longer keep kids safe under their care. Everyday children are being placed in foster homes facing abuse, unloving parents, and even death. The system has only progressively gotten worse leaving behind children traumatized to a point where no amount of love or therapy can fix them.
6 years ago my cousin, Payton, came to stay with us. At the time we didn 't think anything would be permanent. Now, six long years later, I couldn 't imagine what my life would be like without my brother.
We all end up lucky or unfortunate. We get lucky with the parents that love and care for us, and unfortunate with the ones who do not want us, or don’t care for us. For foster kids, they go through several houses with several different families. Sometimes these families are not the ideal family, and there is abuse and neglect in these homes. Foster kids never really get a break until they are adopted by a loving family. Sadly, they usually are more unfortunate than lucky. Treating foster kids poorly and placing them in bad homes just to get your job done is not okay. The foster care system is failing kids badly, because they are more emotional, scared, and most have developmental issues because of what they have been through. According to many authors the statement about foster care systems failing is true.
Every year, 2 million children come into contact with the child welfare system due to investigations of parental abuse or neglect (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004). A recent policy implemented by Anytown’s Department of Job and Family Services pertains to the issue of child endangerment. It states that, “any household having one or more documented offenses of domestic violence, child abuse, or drug or alcohol related offenses committed by the mother, father, guardian, and/ or caregiver, will result in the removal of any child or children from the home.” The child will be placed in the care of the state until documentation can be provided on the offender, whereas they are “offense free” for a period of no less than six
The foster care system shatters like broken glass and there is no repair for broken glass. Permanent damage can only be fixed with drastic solutions, redesigning the system is the method to follow. Foster parents go through hardships and trials while trying to adopt children. Children need stability and the parents willing to give them that they cannot be with forever. A reason for a shattered system is the result of a shattered admissions process. There are no various perspectives within the admissions decisions or after. Moreover, becoming a foster parent is too simple. Basic background checks and home visits are not enough for today’s society. Taking a natural parent's right away directly when their children are taken away is a solution.
There has always been a way for children to be cared for in the United States. In the early 1800s orphan asylums were the most popular way for homeless children to be taken care of. Then institutional care came around, where children were taught to grow up as quickly as possible. Placing-out was then created in the 1850s to use instead of the institutions. This form of foster care sent children to the western states to live in rural homes. Soon after, child placement became favored over placing-out. This was where private agencies started making payments to families to foster the kids nearby. “Over the course of the twentieth century, boarding out developed into the modem family foster care system”(Hasci 162). This made it so special needs
Ralph Flynn is a California man who has recently filed a lawsuit against his parents for using him as a sex slave after adopting him at nine years old from a Russian orphanage. Ralph and Carolyn have been arrested for several months and their trial will shed light on the many abuses faced by Ralph during his childhood and teenage years. Adoption is a very selective process but international adoption may be less so. Every parent in the United States seeking to adopt a child must go through many tests and surveys before being approved as financially, mentally, and physically fit to adopt a young child; this process is to ensure that every adopted child has a good home. However, this process and its extreme rigor may change due to the relevance of this crime. Ralph Flynn’s impact may be huge, and his effect will change the adoption process, child protection, and people’s perspective of abuse.
Have you ever thought about how it feels to be ripped out of the only place that you know as home? To get no explanation of why your parents just did not want you anymore? Not a lot of people think about this. Usually, the only people that do think about this is children that are experiencing or have experienced this problem. The children’s rights website stated that, “On any given day, there are nearly 428,000 children in foster care in the United States.”() All of those children have to be reminded daily that the foster care system has a lot of problems in it. Most of these children are put in some of the most unbearable situations. The foster system has numerous problems that I think can and should be solved. This includes: children not having an education, foster parents and children not having a connection, children facing both sexual and physical abuse, financial problems, and children aging out of the system. There are many more problems with the foster care system but I think that these are the main problems that should be addressed and solved.
Another way to improve the foster system is to have background checks, making sure that the people they hire, and foster parents aren’t abusive and horrible to the kids. The background checks for foster parents or caretakers could save abuse for the kids, and maybe even death, they can help determine whether or not if this is a person they want the kids around. This is shown in an article named, “U.S. Foster Care a Flawed Solution that leads to more Long-Term Problems”, they explain the lives of kids who have experienced awful people they were sent to live with. The author wrote, “Removed from the home of a mentally ill parent… Within months, the mother’s condition deteriorated and the child was killed,” (Stone, 2014). This portrays, how they
After a series of experiments in the California area, evidence has shown that children who are
The pro-choice/pro-life is a major argument in politics in the United States today. However it is not so simple as pro-choice and pro-life. Pro-choice has been coined to mean that women should have the right to choose abortion and it should be a legal option. Pro-life has been connected with the banning of abortion and looking at a fetus as a life so abortion is basically murder. However this pro-life view has gotten very convoluted. Often times recently people who believe in pro-life do not care about the child after they are born. Their lives are not cared for past birth. Pro-birth is a new term has been made for people who believe in the banning of abortion but not any of the legal aid to help the children and their families after the child is born. With the introduction of the term “pro-birth” pro-life’s meaning is slowly evolving. It is not only pro-life but “pro-woman, pro-adoption,
Adoption is a way for children who cannot be cared for by their birth parents to become members of another family.
Transracial adoption (TRA) occurs when the parents and their adopted child are of different races. TRA has been a controversial issue as it is said to affect the child’s racial identity formation and development. Most TRA studies are done in the United States of America (USA) where there is an increasing trend of TRAs. The demand by Caucasian couples for babies is increasing but the babies available for adoption mainly come from African-American or Asian families. In the USA, from 1999 to 2013, the total number children adopted from China and South Korea is 91,002, comprising roughly 36% of the adoptions (Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. State Department, 2013). Thus, it is important to investigate the factors that aid (protective factors) or inhibit (risk factors) transracial adoptees in developing a healthy and positive racial identity so as to ensure the children’s welfare.
Harry Harlow, an American psychologist who is best known for his maternal separation experiment, proved that children need love and affection. In orphanages, infants and children do not receive the affection and attention needed to ensure the best developmental growth. This is what leads me to think that more people should adopt both within the United States and outside of the United States. There are millions of children sitting in orphanages waiting to be picked and taken to a home where they are shown love and affection. By adopting, children would be given a chance to become something, instead of spending their lives in an orphanage.