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Many children in foster/group care never receive the encouragement and "life training" that most of us take for granted because we were raised in a different environment. Children in this system can be
moved from home to home, never developing a sense of belonging and family. Schools and neighbors can change overnight. Many older children end up in these homes because people seeking to adopt a child generally prefer
to adopt babies and younger children. The absence of mentoring and family structure and questions about one's self worth are frequently reflected in poor academic performance and anti-social behavior. A sense of
community is often found in gangs, and escape found in drug abuse. What is wrong with "the system"? Both the foster care and welfare systems were created with the best of intents. They were designed to help
individuals through temporary hard times, a "bridge" to carry one over the hard times until one could care for one's self. Unfortunately, many of those crossing this bridge are getting to the end of it only to find
themselves woefully unprepared for what they find on the other side. |
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Excerpts From Readers Digest Special Report
May 1998 Issue |
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"Each year Americans spend some $12 billion to support a system that deprives children of hope, happiness and love. Their
possessions sometimes amount to what they can carry in a garbage bag. They may have a hard time recalling how many homes they've lived in. Or what it's like to celebrate a birthday with anyone who
cares. They are foster children, typically removed from their biological parents because of abuse or neglect. What brought them to the system is bad enough, but the real tragedy is what happens after they
enter a system rife with bureaucratic indifference. Failure to protect, failure to provide stability in a child's life, and a failure to offer children realistic hope are just some of the inadequacies of our current
foster care system. |
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"FOSTER KIDS ARE JUST KIDS, WHO ARE CAPABLE OF GREAT SUCCESS IF GIVEN HALF A CHANCE AND LOVE" |
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Some of these children were abused, neglected or abandoned by their birthparents. In other cases, both of their parents have died. Often, personal and family problems made it
impossible for their parents to maintain a home for them. Some of the older children ('older' means 6 years old and over) have been shuffled from foster home to foster
home and have been waiting years for permanent parents. An increasing number of infants come from birthmothers who cannot care for them because they are addicted to drugs. Their grandparents, who might
traditionally have been the ones to take the children, in many cases, have not been able to help." |
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Did You Know? |
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- More than 650,000 American children will spend all or part of 1997 in government-run foster care.
- California alone spends at least $635 million a year on foster care.
- The nation will spend more than $12 billion on public agency child welfare this year.
- The Child Welfare League of America estimated in 1994 that the annual per-child cost for group home care was $36,500.
- Some 15,000 youngsters will reach the age of majority (18 years) this year and leave foster care without a permanent family.
- The American Public Welfare Association reports that 70% of foster children enter the system because of abuse, neglect, or "parental conditions" including drug addiction, incarceration, illness of
death.
- The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) reports that 1 in 10 foster children remains in state care longer than 7.4 years. At least 40,600 foster children have been in care for 5 years or longer and
another 51,300 have been in care between 3 and 5 years.
- The ACLU also reports that every year 15,000 children "graduate" from foster care by turning age 18 with no permanent family. 40% of all foster children leaving the system end up on welfare.
- More than 50,000 foster children were legally free to be adopted at the start of fiscal 1997, yet still remain in the foster care system.
- According to the Children's Defense Fund, African-American children tend to stay in foster care far longer than do Caucasian children. Almost one-third of the African-American children in foster care have
been there for 5 years. 15% of all chldren in America are black, but 40% of the children in foster care are black.
- By most accounts, the government-run foster care system is failing.
- Fewer children are leaving foster care than are coming in.
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