Foster Care
By: Isha Chande
Introduction
Imagine a child sitting on a curb lonely, and scared to go home because they don’t have a family who loves and protects them. That child is one of the 397,122 kids in America who are in the foster system. The foster system was established to help solve the problems of child neglect and abuse. Although, the foster system was set up for a good cause, it was taken advantage of. Many foster homes used children for labor and a way to vent anger. Social workers developed a safer environment to communicate thoughts and feelings effectively to help solve the problem.
Problem
To begin with, the foster system has faced many problems such as child neglect and child abuse. When you’re applying to be a foster parent, a social worker performs a background check and conducts an inspection of the new home. This means that there has to be some kind of flaw in the system because abusive people are getting past the inspection. In the section written by The Health Reference Center, Foster Care Disruptions stated, it states “ These moves may have nothing to do with the child, and instead, usually may be caused by such factors as the foster family deciding to retire, moving to another state, becoming ill, and so forth.” This shows that the children have no say in what is happening, but yet they are the ones being affected from it. Another problem problem that occurs during foster care is child abuse. In the book by Youth Communications, The Heart Knows Something Different: Teenage Voices from the Foster Care System a 17 year kid old shares her story, “My foster mother abused me and I take some of the blame. I just wish I could have been a better child.” This shows that the children blame themselves for the problems in their foster home because they are so used to feeling lonely that it becomes a habit to just blame themselves for everything.
Solution
Furthermore, the foster system has many problems and they have very unique ways of solving them. For example, the social workers would deal with the problem by relocating the child and they would send the foster parent/s to therapy to help manage their anger. In the section written by The Health Reference Center, Foster Care Disruptions stated, “These moves may have nothing to do with the child, and instead, usually may be caused by such factors as the foster family deciding to retire, moving to another state, becoming ill, and so forth.” This shows that the solutions that were made by the foster system haven’t really been as useful as they thought it would have been. Another solution they use to help deal with the problem is relocating the kid. In the section written by The Health Reference Center, Foster Care Disruptions stated , “Some children in foster care are transferred from family to family, which can be very traumatic for the child, who must often change schools as well.” This shows that the kids don’t have much options when it comes to relocation, and that they are always moving, and it’s almost impossible for a child to settle down.
Conclusion
In the end, the foster system hasn’t changed and isn’t going to any time soon and kids are paying for it every day. The foster system was created to help children get the love and attention they needed but it turned out to be the exact opposite. Ultimately, the foster care system was a great idea, and it still is, but it needs some fixing.