Foster Care System Case Study

In this chapter, we learn about children in family foster care. The intent of foster care is to offer children care within a family environment when their homes are temporally unable to do so. Foster care is meant to provide the following; temporary emergency care of a child, relief for a parent when he or she cannot manage stress, time for parent to solve problem, a different home experience or protection for a child, care unit institutional treatment is available, and care until release for adoption is approved. There are also different types of foster homes for different situations. The role of a foster parent can be very stressful; they never know what to expect for example supervised meeting for the birth parents, school attended meetings

Foster care is defined as “the formal and informal custodial care of children whose parents are outside their own biological family home when their parents are unable, unwilling, or prohibited from caring for them”. Informal foster care refers to an arrangement between birth parents and relatives to care for their child and generally unregistered, uncounted and unevaluated. Alternatively, formal foster care is legally authorized by a recognized authority. In general, foster parents are recruited after being assessed and they might have to attend training before they are qualified to foster a child in their own homes. The responsibilities of foster parents concerning the foster child are basically stated in a legal contract. Fostering itself also means “the undertaking by a family to look after someone else’s child for a few days, weeks, months, even sometimes many years, for an allowance or fee.” Accordingly, foster parents are paid with a certain amount of money in return of their job to care for the child and meet his or her needs for a certain period. Notably, foster care is characterized as a full-time care for twenty-four-hour a day outside the child’s own home. Basically, the main purpose of foster care in many countries is to provide substitute care for children who have been abandoned, abused and neglected so that they would have similar opportunities to live in the same way as the other ordinary children within a family setting. It is generally acknowledged

In 1974 the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was established (CAPTA). CAPTA "provides for federal development of prevention and assistance to states to enable the development of prevention and treatment programs for abuse and neglect"(Segal, 2015, p 301). Child Protective Services (CPS) was not fully enforce back in the day. The case of "Little Mary Ellen" led for there to be an act to protect child. They did not have a protect program established for children. "CAPTA act provided grants to states on the condition that they must have a mandatory reporting law requiring professionals to report suspected cases" (Segal,2015,p 309). A mandated reporter should report suspicious things, which includes if he or she believe that a child is

A big problem in the system that they fail to see is abuse. Abuse can be done emotionally, sexually and physically also mistreatment and neglect, all done by these certified state caregivers. Liftingtheevil.org cites the "troubling statistics from one study, claiming that over 28% of the children in state care are abused while in the system"(2017). There are many stories of abuse, and the abuse comes from the foster parents. We expect the children to be placed in safe homes. Instead, these children are being placed in homes that are traumatizing them with a voice not heard. A recent study done by a student at John Hopkins University found the rate of abuse was four times higher than that of the regular population. A foster child Amy stated

I believe the foster care system should be changed for the better of the foster child. The system as many foster kids will say is messed up, and in fact I totally agree. The child feels that if he/she spoke up about what was going on in their “home” whether it 's abuse or other reasons they will be located right back into another home where this can just possibly happen again. The last thing any of these children is abuse and more relocation. Most of these kids just strive to be happy and in a forever home that they want to live in. Obviously, the child could have possibly already came from scary, abusive, or just a bad situation, they don’t want to go right back to this environment. After reading a few foster care stories, this one story about this one boy stood out to me. The website “www.fosterclub.com” had this boy’s

Every year, more than 100,000 children in foster care are available for adoption according to Children’s Action Network. Foster care is a temporary living situation for children whose parents are unable, unwilling, or unfit to care for them. Minors whose need for care has come to the attention, are placed with a state certified caregiver which is arranged through the government or a social service agency. The primary goal of foster care is to reunite children with their parents. With the history and known statistics, this many children entering the system every year, finding the right care becomes increasingly difficult. These problems create many effects on the children that can last a lifetime.

This article is about how the transition into foster care can be hard for a child. Many social workers, psychologists, and therapists analyzed how a child's care and environment could affect their internal and external behavior. The social workers, psychologists, and therapists also studied how children in foster care defined their relationships with his or her foster parents. The researchers then asked foster parents how they defined the relationship between themselves and their foster child. The article ties the two main focus’ together to show how a child’s internal behavior such as depression, anxiety, withdrawn self-esteem; and external behaviors such as incarceration, pregnancy, homelessness, substance abuse, defiance, and running away can be greatly altered based on how he or she is treated in a foster home (Orme & Buehler, 2001).

In the beginning of the 1900s, social agencies started to supervise foster parents. This was the beginning where children’s needs as individuals were considered when placements were made.

For instance emotional disturbance, specific learning disabilities and autism (Hill, 2009). When a social worker takes a child into custody that child has just became a child of the state or some would say basically their child and responsibility. That leaves the social worker taking that child to doctor appointments and make sure the child is in a foster home that is taking care of the child’s need. The funding for this policy comes from the federal government, state systems, and local systems (A legacy training module from NICHCY, 2014). Most children that are in the system are supplied with Medicaid, and sometimes receives a check from the government if they are physically disabled or

Marcus is from Georgiana, Alabama, a small rural community with a population of 1,680 and a rate of 50.8 percent living below the poverty levels (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). After being kicked-out of his home by his conservative Christian parents for coming out as gay, Marcus came to Mobile, Alabama. Marcus believes that his older sister may live in Atlanta, but is not sure and has no way to contact her. With a population of 194,675 and radius of 139.11 square miles, Mobile is the third largest city in Alabama (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). There are a wide range of industries located in Mobile which includes aviation/aerospace, chemical, healthcare, IT/high-tech, logistics/distribution, maritime, oil & gas, steel, and foreign based companies (Industry

In addition to the lack of education attainment among youth in foster care, youth in foster care face a number of different challenges and obstacles. Research suggests that youth in foster care are more likely to be unemployed, and underemployment (Courtney, et al., 2010). In Illinois alone, 30% of former foster youth are unemployed (Harris, et al., 2009). The lack of education attainment can be problematic for youth when they try to seek employment (Courtney, et al.,

The reporting party (RP) stated foster children Gisselle and Perla Vasquez 's aunt Angela Sanchez came into the Sheriff 's Station and reported she gained custody of the children on 12/21/16. On 12/23/16 Perla disclosed she was inappropriately touched by foster mother Debbie Reynolds. The abuse allegation referral #1211-0745-8341-2072794 was generated on 12/25/16 and a complaint was generated on 12/27/16 (#32-CR-20161227135936). The RP stated the aunt disclosed the foster mother hit the foster children while in care. Consequently the RP interviewed the children and Gisselle disclosed the foster mother would slap the children on the arm or hand as a form of discipline. According to the RP there were not marks or bruises as a result of the

Brenda's foster mother is concerned about Brenda's physical safety and the safety of others around Brenda. Brenda has been aggressive towards her younger brother and has verbalized homicidal thoughts towards him. During the interview Brenda recalled a time where she choked her brother because she was angry that he was staring at her. Referral noted that Brenda threatened to kill herself by cutting her throat. Brenda's foster mother is concerned with Brenda putting herself in harms way when she runs away. Brenda has ran away several times from home and school in an attempt to find her biological mother.

Fokus Family Services provides individual with an opportunity to re-construct their lives. The professional staff members are trained in the fields of: mental health, A.O.D.A., individual & family therapy, in home non-medical therapy, parenting assistance, education, home management, job coaching, life skills, anger management, and mentoring. Fokus embraces and seeks to preserve the entire family, while acknowledging adversity that continues to surpass our community, which causes disparity and hopelessness. The curriculum covers all areas and address issues as they are presented. Some issues, but not limited to are as followed: conflict resolution, problem solving, communication, building self-esteem, dealing with stress and discipline,