Essay On Foster Care Home

Foster care is something that America has put a lot of time and effort into to get right. Foster care will be defined as any place where a child is taken from their family of residence or who has no able guardian at birth. These are included but not limited to foster parents, group homes, residentials, and emergency shelters (5). Though we have put time, effort, and money into getting things right, foster care is still a dangerous and traumatizing place for children. Foster care has long been considered a “National Disgrace” due to the influx of missing children, complaints of maltreatment, and even deaths (5). Sometimes, a child being placed into a foster care facility or home can be a death sentence. Common issues that lead to children

Going AWOL consists of one or more kids running away from their placement. Usually the term AWOL is used in group homes and residential facilities. Typically, depending on state jurisdiction, law enforcement will be called if the minor is gone for a specified amount of time; depending on the state these times can be anywhere from 1 hour to twenty-four hours. Running away from placements can result in criminal activities such as drug use, sexual abuse, human trafficking, truancy from school, and trespassing(5). Staff are severely under trained in residential and foster care facilities, so some don’t even know when to call the police to report a child missing(5). On top of that, staff’s regulation of the kids is important to prevent them from going AWOL in the first place. Oftentimes, when kids go missing they are only gone for short periods of time, but sometimes the children end up going to shelters or living on the streets. These challenging behaviors can lead to placement disruptions, sometimes a child can be kept longer in the place that they were running away from rather than going back to their parents or to a suitable foster family. A kid with enough behavioral issues who is in the foster care system for a long time can sometimes end up being what is essentially raised in their facility. Kids with severe disabilities can have a lot more placement changes than other children their same age(5). This is the same for people with mental health issues, children previously living in poverty, and African American children(1). Children with many placement changes often end up being returned back to their foster care facility and typically acquire delinquency charges later in life(5). Children in foster care can also be influenced by those around them, just like any other kid. Foster care can force kids, who aren’t ready, to grow up far too quickly(3). When surrounded by children their age AWOL-ing, doing