Jump to content

Foster care: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 5: Line 5:


'''Foster care''' is the [[colloquial]] term used for a system in which a [[underage|minor]] who has been made a [[ward (law)|ward]] is placed in the private home of a state [[certified]] caregiver referred to as a "[[foster parent]]".
'''Foster care''' is the [[colloquial]] term used for a system in which a [[underage|minor]] who has been made a [[ward (law)|ward]] is placed in the private home of a state [[certified]] caregiver referred to as a "[[foster parent]]".
The state via the [[family court]] and [[child welfare]] agency stand [[in loco parentis]] to the minor making all legal decisions, while the foster parent is responsible for the day to day care of said minor. The foster parent is [[renumeration|renumerated]] by the state for their services.
The state via the [[family court]] and [[child welfare]] agency stand [[in loco parentis]] to the minor making all legal decisions, while the foster parent is responsible for the day to day care of said minor. The foster parent is [[remuneration|remunerated]] by the state for their services.
Foster care is intended to be a short term situation until a permanent placement can be made:<ref name="dorsey">Dorsey et Al. ''Current status and evidence base of training for foster and treatment foster parents''</ref>
Foster care is intended to be a short term situation until a permanent placement can be made:<ref name="dorsey">Dorsey et Al. ''Current status and evidence base of training for foster and treatment foster parents''</ref>
*Reunification with the biological parent(s)
*Reunification with the biological parent(s)

Revision as of 02:08, 12 December 2009

This article is about the modern child welfare system of placing children in state custody in the homes of temporary caregivers. For the social practice of children being raised by families not their own, see Fosterage.

Template:Globalize/North America

Family law
Family
Marriage and other unions and status
Validity of marriages
Dissolution of marriages
Children's issues
Private international law
Family and criminal code
(or criminal law)

Foster care is the colloquial term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent". The state via the family court and child welfare agency stand in loco parentis to the minor making all legal decisions, while the foster parent is responsible for the day to day care of said minor. The foster parent is remunerated by the state for their services. Foster care is intended to be a short term situation until a permanent placement can be made:[1]

  • Reunification with the biological parent(s)
    • When it is deemed in the child's best interest.
  • Adoption
  • Permanent transfer of guardianship

Foster Care Placement

Children may enter foster care via voluntary or involuntary means. Voluntary placement occurs may be occur in when a biological parent or lawful guardian is unable or unwilling to care for a child. Involuntary placement occurs when a child is removed from their biological parent or lawful guardian due to the risk or actual occurence of physical or psychological harm.

Policy

The policies regarding foster care as well as the criteria to be met in order to become a foster parent vary according to legal juristiction.

United States

Regulation, administration, and oversight

In the United States, foster home licensing requirements vary from state to state but are generally overseen by each state's Department of Social Services or Human Services. In some states, counties have this responsibility. Each state's services are monitored by the federal Department of Health and Human Services through reviews such as Child and Family Services Reviews, Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Reviews, Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System and Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System Assessment Reviews.[2]

Children found to be unable to function in a foster home may be placed in Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs) or other such group homes. In theory, the focus of treatment in such facilities is to prepare the child for a return to a foster home, to an adoptive home, or to the birth parents when applicable. But two major reviews of the scholarly literature have questioned these facilities' effectiveness.[3]

Funding and system incentives

A law passed by Congress in 1961 allowed AFDC (welfare) payments to pay for foster care which was previously made only to children in their own homes. This made aided funding foster care for states and localities, facilitating rapid growth In some cases, the state of Texas paid mental treatment centers as much as $101,105 a year per child. Observers of the growth trend note that a county will only continue to receive funding while it keeps the child in its care. This may create a "perverse financial incentive" to place and retain children in foster care rather than leave them with their parents, and incentives are sometimes set up for maximum intervention. A National Coalition for Child Protection Reform issue paper states "children often are removed from their families `prematurely or unnecessarily' because federal aid formulas give states `a strong financial incentive' to do so rather than provide services to keep families together."[4]

There are some children in foster care who are difficult to place in permanent homes through the normal adoption process. These children are often said to require “special-needs adoption.” In this context, "special needs" can include situations where children have specific chronic medical problems, mental health issues, behavioral problems, and learning disabilities. Governments offer a variety of incentives and services to facilitate this class of adoptions.[5]

Recent United States foster care legislation

In 1997, President Bill Clinton signed a new foster care law, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA),[6]) which reduced the time children are allowed to remain in foster care before being available for adoption. The new law requires state child welfare agencies to identify cases where "aggravated circumstances" make permanent separation of child from the birth family the best option for the safety and well-being of the child. One of the main components of ASFA is the imposition of stricter time limits on reunification efforts. Proponents of ASFA claimed that before the law was passed, the lack of such legislation was the reason it was common for children to languish in care for years with no permanent living situation identified. They often were moved from placement to placement with no real plan for a permanent home.

Opponents of ASFA argued that the real reason children languished in foster care was that too many were taken needlessly from their parents in the first place. Since ASFA did not address this, opponents said, it would not accomplish its goals, and would only slow a decline in the foster care population that should have occurred anyway because of a decline in reported child abuse.[7]

Ten years after ASFA became law, the number of children in foster care on any given day is only about 7,000 fewer than when ASFA was passed[8]

The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999, helps foster youth who are aging out of care to achieve self-sufficiency. The U.S. government has also funded the Education and Training Voucher Program in recent years in order to help youth who age out of care to obtain college or vocational training at a free or reduced cost. Chafee and ETV money is administered by each state as they see fit.

The Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 is the most recent piece of major federal legislation addressing the foster care system. This bill extended various benefits and funding for foster children between the age of 18 and 21 and for Indian children in tribal areas. The legislation also strengthens requirements for states in their treatment of siblings and introduces mechanisms to provide financial incentives for guardianship and adoption.[9][10]

Problems within the United States Foster Care System

Foster children not being prepared for adulthood

Nearly half of foster kids in the U.S. become homeless when they turn 18.[11][12] According to William Dudley, most foster care childen should be placed in adoptive homes. "One of every 10 foster children stays in foster care longer than seven years, and each year about 15,000 reach the age of majority and leave foster care with out a permanent family—many to join the ranks of the homeless or to commit crimes and be imprisoned.[13]

Drug Testing

Throughout the 1990s, experimental HIV drugs had been tested on HIV foster children at Incarnation Children’s Center (ICC) in Harlem. "Since then, ACS has been under fire from charges of inappropriately enrolling as many as 465 foster children in HIV clinical trials. The agency has also been accused of racism, some comparing the trials to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, as 98 percent of children in foster care in New York City are persons of color.[14]

Research on effects of foster care

A recent study by Dr. Joseph J. Doyle, Jr., suggests that, in America, foster care placements are detrimental to children who are near the margin of needing to be placed out of home. These children, especially when they are older, seem to fare better with their birth parents.[15][16]

Australia

Nature and Purpose

Home-based care, which includes foster care, is provided to children who are in need of care and protection. Children and young people are provided with alternative accommodation while they are unable to live with their parents. As well as foster care, this can include placements with relatives or kin, and residential care. In most cases, children in home-based care are also on a care and protection order.[17]

In some cases children are placed in home-based care following a child protection substantiation and where they are found to be in need of a safer and more stable environment. In other situations parents may be incapable of providing adequate care for the child, or accommodation may be needed during times of family conflict or crisis.[17] In the significant number of cases substance abuse is a major contributing factor.

Respite care is a type of foster care that is used to provide short-term (and often regular) accommodation for children whose parents are ill or unable to care for them on a temporary basis.[17] It is also used to provide a break for the parent or primary carer to hopefully decrease the chances of the situation escalating to one which would lead to the removal of the child(ren).

As with the majority of child protection services, states and territories are responsible for funding home-based care. Non-government organizations are widely used, however, to provide these services.[17]

Philosophy of administration

There is strong emphasis in current Australian policy and practice to keep children with their families wherever possible. In the event that children are placed in home-based care, every effort is made to reunite children with their families wherever possible.[17]

In the case of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in particular, but not exclusively, placing the child within the wider family or community is preferred[17] This is consistent with the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.[18]

Relation to Disorganized Attachment

A study by Dante Cicchetti found that 80% of abused and maltreated infants in his study exhibited symptoms of disorganized attachment.[19][20] Children with histories of maltreatment, such as physical and psychological neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, are at risk of developing psychiatric problems.[21][22][23][24] These children may be described as experiencing trauma as the result of abuse or neglect, inflicted by a primary caregiver, which disrupts the normal development of secure attachment. Such children are at risk of developing a disorganized attachment.[23][25][26] Disorganized attachment is associated with a number of developmental problems, including dissociative symptoms,[27] as well as depressive, anxiety, and acting-out symptoms.[28][29]

See also

References

  1. ^ Dorsey et Al. Current status and evidence base of training for foster and treatment foster parents
  2. ^ Children's Bureau Website - Child Welfare Monitoring
  3. ^ Richard Barth, Institutions vs. Foster Homes, the Empirical Base for a Century of Action (University of North Carolina, Jordan Institute for Families, February 17, 2002; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Report of the Surgeon General's Conference on children's mental health: A national action agenda. Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 2000.USGPO
  4. ^ Child Abuse is Child Protection is Mental Health Treatment is Drugging Children
  5. ^ http://www.jstor.org/pss/1602402 Judith K. McKenzie Adoption of Children with Special Needs, Brookings Institution: The Future of Children, Vol. 3, No. 1, Adoption (Spring, 1993), pp. 62-76
  6. ^ Children's Bureau Express Online Digest:
  7. ^ U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Child Maltreatment, 2004, Figure 3-2, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm04/figure3_2.htm
  8. ^ As of March, 1998, four months after ASFA became law, there were 520,000 children in foster care, (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AFCARS Report #1, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report1/ar0199.htm). It took until September 30, 2005, for the number to fall to 513,000 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Trends in Foster Care and Adoption, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/trends.htm.
  9. ^ Children's Defense Fund, Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act: Overview, http://www.childrensdefense.org/helping-americas-children/child-welfare/fostering-connection-success-increasing-adoptions-act-overview.html.
  10. ^ National Conference of State Legislatures, NCSL Summary: Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, http://www.ncsl.org/statefed/humserv/SummaryHR6893.htm.
  11. ^ Pasadena Weekly - Throwaway kids
  12. ^ Saving foster kids from the streets / As the nation faces a new wave of homeless children, Larkin youth center helps provide a transition to adulthood
  13. ^ Current Controversies: Issues in Adoption. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004.
  14. ^ The Indypendent » Incarnation Controversy Simmers: City’s Agency Handling of HIV Kids Still Questioned by Foster Parents
  15. ^ Microsoft Word - doyle_fosterlt_march07.doc
  16. ^ Study: Troubled homes better than foster care - USATODAY.com
  17. ^ a b c d e f Microsoft Word - 071108 Child protection 05-06 printers copy.doc
  18. ^ Lawlink NSW: Research Report 7 (1997) - The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle
  19. ^ Carlson, V., Cicchetti, D., Barnett, D., & Braunwald, K. (1995). Finding order in disorganization: Lessons from research on maltreated infants’ attachments to their caregivers. In D. Cicchetti & V. Carlson (Eds), Child Maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect (pp. 135-157). NY: Cambridge University Press.
  20. ^ Cicchetti, D., Cummings, E.M., Greenberg, M.T., & Marvin, R.S. (1990). An organizational perspective on attachment beyond infancy. In M. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & M. Cummings (Eds), Attachment in the Preschool Years (pp. 3-50). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  21. ^ Gauthier, L., Stollak, G., Messe, L., & Arnoff, J. (1996). Recall of childhood neglect and physical abuse as differential predictors of current psychological functioning. Child Abuse and Neglect 20, 549-559
  22. ^ Malinosky-Rummell, R. & Hansen, D.J. (1993) Long term consequences of childhood physical abuse. Psychological Bulletin 114, 68-69
  23. ^ a b Lyons-Ruth K. & Jacobvitz, D. (1999) Attachment disorganization: unresolved loss, relational violence and lapses in behavioral and attentional strategies. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.) Handbook of Attachment. (pp. 520-554). NY: Guilford Press
  24. ^ Greenberg, M. (1999). Attachment and Psychopathology in Childhood. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.). Handbook of Attachment (pp.469-496). NY: Guilford Press
  25. ^ Solomon, J. & George, C. (Eds.) (1999). Attachment Disorganization. NY: Guilford Press
  26. ^ Main, M. & Hesse, E. (1990) Parents’ Unresolved Traumatic Experiences are related to infant disorganized attachment status. In M.T. Greenberg, D. Ciccehetti, & E.M. Cummings (Eds), Attachment in the Preschool Years: Theory, Research, and Intervention (pp161-184). Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  27. ^ Carlson, E.A. (1988). A prospective longitudinal study of disorganized/disoriented attachment. Child Development 69, 1107-1128
  28. ^ Lyons-Ruth, K. (1996). Attachment relationships among children with aggressive behavior problems: The role of disorganized early attachment patterns. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 64, 64-73
  29. ^ Lyons-Ruth, K., Alpern, L., & Repacholi, B. (1993). Disorganized infant attachment classification and maternal psychosocial problems as predictors of hostile-aggressive behavior in the preschool classroom. Child Development 64, 572-585

Further reading

  • Hurley, Kendra (2002). "Almost Home" Retrieved Jun. 27, 2006.
  • Carlson, E.A. (1998). A prospective longitudinal study of disorganized/disoriented attachment. Child Development 69, 1107-1128
  • Knowlton, Paul E. (2001). "The Original Foster Care Survival Guide"; A first person account directed to successfully aging out of the foster care.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Foster_care&oldid=331194944"