Most people today do not know what foster care is. They may have heard the term, and may associate it with child welfare, but few people have a real understanding what it is. They do not know what over half a million children in the United States have to go through. They do not know that even some celebrities, such as a former Miss America, have been in the foster care system. Child Welfare is a good example of a problem hiding “right under your nose”. Here is what the government does not want the public to know about the foster care system.
In 1562, poor children in England were placed into indentured service until they reached legal age. The United States adopted this practice, which became the start of foster care. Indentured service sometimes brought about abuse, and it continued until the first decade of this century. In the early 1900’s, social agencies began to supervise foster parents, and services began to be provided to enable children to return to their biological parents. This may sound to you like a noble cause, making you wonder what all the fuss about today’s child welfare system is about. Now we get to the real story.
Of the over half a million children in America’s child welfare system, a majority have been taken from their parents without any legal excuse. Says psychologist Dr. Seth Farber, “Only a small minority of these children have been separated from parents who are dangerous to them. The overwhelming majority have been separated from loving and responsible parents.” There are reports that show that child welfare workers have, on occasion, performed random sweeps of homes late at night, without having search warrants. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services removes over 1,000 children per month from their homes. Are they all really in such danger from their parents?
Over half the children in foster care have been placed there due to poverty, not abuse or neglect. Illinois Department head Peter Digre explained, “It gets down to those very specific issues about a place to live, food on the table, medical care, and things like that. About half of the families are not physical abusers, not sexual abusers, not people with propensities to violence, but simply people who are struggling to keep ends pulled together and are eminently salvageable.” Congressman Herger replied, “Evidently, it is your department’s practice to remove children from families in about 50 percent of the cases because they don’t have enough money.”
The rising number of children in foster care today reflects the economy, not the moral values of the American people. The child welfare system does not seem interested in providing in-home services to needy families to prevent children from being removed from the home. The federal government spends eight times more on foster care children than on services to keep children out of foster care. A recent Los Angeles Grand Jury investigation shows that it costs $10,000 a month to take care of one child in the emergency shelter.
Part of the problem causing safe children to be removed is the fact that the child abuse laws are very vague. Some agencies require proof of maltreatment, such as bruises, cuts, etc, while some do not. Some agencies think children of certain ages can be left unsupervised, while others call this neglect. Some agencies rarely find a caregiver guilty of causing psychological damage to children, while others often, and sometimes without a psychiatric diagnosis, remove children based on psychological issues.
Once in the child welfare system, it is very difficult for a child to leave the system. Many children enter as infants or small children, and remain until they “age out”. This could mean at age 18, or, for others, as old as 21. Foster children have the option to sign themselves back into the system, although most do not. Children with developmental problems or disabilities are most always automatically signed back into the system.
All too often a child remains in the system simply because the child welfare system does not want to take the blame if the parents are abusers, and the parents cannot prove they are innocent. Yet, all too often, children are released back to abusive homes, after which they are either returned back to the system, or, in some cases, killed.
Child welfare workers’ word seems to have become very valuable. A child can be removed for the smallest things. Even more appalling, some of the charges filed will never have to be proved in court. Broken furniture, messy homes, empty cupboards can all get a child removed from their home. Even the abuse is not always a factor in removal. A study of abused and neglected children entering an emergency room showed that the severity of a physical injury actually decreased the likelihood of removal. The study also found that a greater factor in removal was not the extent of an injury, but whether or not the family was eligible for Medicaid.
The Philadelphia Daily News showed findings from a study sponsored by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation that indicated that out of every 1,000 children in child welfare, only 30 were victims of actual abuse. The saddest part is that the majority of children who are actually abused are either placed in custody and then returned home, or never removed from the home, even if child welfare workers received complaints of abuse.
So what happens to foster children after they leave the system? Do they get jobs, marry, have kids, and lead “normal” lives? The reality is, most do not. A nationwide study of runaways revealed that one-third or more had been in foster care in the previous year. Dennis Lepak of the Contra Costa County Probation Department told a 1998 Congressional subcommittee, “Children are put in inappropriate placements, not designed to offer family counseling, psychiatric treatment, or drug treatment. Children are not prepared to return to families, nor are they provided with specialized educational and vocational training they need to survive after they become eighteen.” As a result, Lepak says, “They become the new homeless.”
A study by the Institute for Children and Poverty shows that families whose head of household grew up in foster care are at greatest risk of dissolution. Also, those adults who grew up in foster care are 30 percent more likely to be substance abusers and 50 percent more likely to be a part of domestic violence. Twice as many of these heads of households have already lost at least one child to foster care. A federal study of former foster care wards conducted in 1991 revealed that one-fourth had been homeless, 40 percent were on public assistance, and half were unemployed.
Studies found that 75 percent of Connecticut youths in the criminal justice system were once in foster care, while 80 percent of Illinois prisoners had once been in foster care. According to the Youth Law Center, lack of stability causes an extraordinarily high incidence of substance abuse, homelessness, and psychological problems in former foster children.
Westat, Inc. conducted two studies in 1992. The results of the first survey stated that former foster care youths’ status two and a half to four years after their discharge is less than adequate. The second survey’s results were not much better, stating that 54 percent had completed high school, 49 percent were employed, 38 percent had a steady job for at least a year, 40 percent were a cost to the community in some way (on welfare, incarcerated, etc.), 60 percent of young women had given birth to a child, 25 percent had been homeless for at least one night, their median weekly salary was $205, and only 17 percent were completely self-supporting.
Jean Adnopoz, a psychologist, says children who spend years drifting between foster care homes “can not be expected to come out in any way that would appear to be healthy.” She adds, “If you have a child with no psychological parents, essentially adrift in the world, you are headed toward all sorts of bad outcomes.” What does she think one of those outcomes is? “We as a society are going to pay and pay and pay for it.” Children’s Rights Project attorney Marcia Robinson agrees, stating, “Foster care systems established and funded to save children are failing, producing only more damaged graduates who will go on to produce new generations of damaged children, who will continue to lead unspeakably tragic lives and who will increasingly tax our public resources.”
Even a former First Lady agrees that the child welfare system is severely lacking. Passages from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s book It Takes a Village: and Other Lessons Children Teach Us as much as confirm the worst. One passage even says, “In the terrible times when no adequate parenting is available and the village itself must act in place of the parents, it accepts these responsibilities in all our names through the authority we vest in government. That means our city, county, and state social services… intervene in families to protect children on our behalf. And by any fair assessment of our foster care and adoption system, we are not doing a good job taking care of our children.”
As a former foster child myself, I can vouch for the inconsistencies of the child welfare system. However, that is another story entirely. To read more about my story, please visit my website dedicated to changing the outcome of foster children. Visit the link here at http://www.geocities.com/stadwo/CTFCSU.html.
Is there a solution to the inadequate foster care system? Like the homeless, abused and neglected children in America seem to be a problem that everyone agrees is horrible, but somehow no one, no politicians, no Presidents, no citizens can come up with a reasonable and possible solution. Even foster children themselves seem to be at a loss for a good solution. However, another passage from Clinton’s book may offer hope in our war against abuse and neglect of America’s children.
“The village can take it further. We could set a goal of reducing our foster care and adoption rolls by 100,000 children each year for the next five years by moving children either back home or into adoptive families, whichever is in their best interests. We could be willing to terminate parental rights more quickly whenever physical or sexual abuse is involved. We could recruit qualified citizens to share with overworked social workers, lawyers, and judges the burden of moving children’s cases through the courts… In these and other ways, we can see to it that considerations like regulations, money, skin color, and even parental rights and adult prerogatives take a back seat to the love and security children so desperately need.”
 
Works Cited

Books
Author: Joseph Falke
Title: Everything You Need To Know About Living in a Foster Home
Place of Publication: New York, NY
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
Copyright: 1995- The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

Author: Hillary Rodham Clinton
Title: It Takes a Village: and Other Lessons Children Teach Us
Place of Publication: New York, NY
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 1996- Simon & Schuster

Websites

URL: www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9691/fpg2.html
Date: 03/30/03

URL: www.liftingtheveil.org
Date: 03/20/03

©2003 Janettee Story

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