The Typical Progression a Child Makes through a State Welfare System
The paper and diagram below describe the typical progression a child makes through a state welfare system. Each figure in the diagram below links to a specific decision point described in the paper, which begins immediately after the diagram.
This chart provides a model, which highlights typical decision points on a child's journey through the current foster care system. Although the format is based on federal and common state law and practice, nevertheless it is only a model. Laws vary across states, as does the capacity and practices of child welfare agencies and courts to manage their caseloads.
This paper describes the typical progression a child makes through a state's child welfare system. Each state's child welfare agency is responsible for ensuring the safety and well being of children. Child welfare systems have several chief components:
· Foster care ? full-time substitute care for children removed from their parents or guardians and for whom the state has responsibility. Foster care provides food and housing to meet the physical needs of children who are removed from their homes.
· Child protective services (CPS) ? generally a division within the child welfare agency that administers a more narrow set of services, such as receiving and responding to child abuse and neglect allegations and providing initial services to stabilize a family.
· Juvenile and family courts ? courts with specific jurisdiction over child maltreatment and child protection cases including foster care and adoption cases. In jurisdictions without a designated family court, general trial courts hear child welfare cases along with other civil and criminal matters.
· Other child welfare services ? in combination with the above, these services address the complex family problems associated with child abuse and neglect. They include family preservation, family reunification, adoption, guardianship, and independent living.
· ?While 542,000 children were in foster care on September 30, 2001, 805,000 spent some time in care over the course of that year.?1
· ?Children in care in 2001 had been in foster care for an average of 33 months. More than 17 percent (91,217) of the children had been in care for 5 or more years.?1
Once a child is known to the child welfare agency, ...
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...ip Care Families - Frequently Asked Questions (Spring 2000) and Federal Register, Vol.65, No. 16, (January 25, 2000), pp. 4032-4033.
11U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children & Families, National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information, Foster Care National Statistics April 2001.
12U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Child Maltreatment 1999: Annual Report (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2001). Some states may include settings with fewer than seven children as group homes.
13U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration for Children, Youth and Families, Program Instruction, ACYF-PI-89-09 (October 1989).
14Foster Care National Statistics April 2001 (2000b).
15Steve Christian, A Place to Call Home Adoption and Guardianship for Children in Foster Care, p.28 (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2000)
16State of Tennessee, Comptroller of the Treasury, Foster Care Independent Living Programs (1998).
171994 Green Book (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1994).
For class we read “The Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf and “The Death of a Moth” by Annie Dillard. This was the first time I had read either of these essays and I have found a new respect for their style of writing. I think that the amount of detail that they put into the two essays was astonishing. But, what impressed me the most was the difference between the types of detail.
(June 2011). The AFCARS Report Preliminary FY 2010 Estimates as of June 2011 (18). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System.
Social agency and the court authorizing the placement, and caregivers are responsible for the continuing monitoring to ensure that the child in placement receives adequate care and supervision (Downs, Moore and McFadden, 2009, p.275). Services for children in foster care are a teamwork effort of the different parties involved (Downs, Moore and McFadden, 2009). Unfortunately in Antowne’s situation the agency and the court system failed him because although he was removed from his mother, the abuse and neglect continued. The systems involved did not provide the safety net Antwone needed.
Though foster care was originally established to help children who were orphaned, abandoned, neglected or abused, it has also caused problems for children. Agencies often have difficulty providing adequate, accessible, and appropriate services for the families in their care. (Chipungu and Goodley, pp. 76, 2004) This paper will examine the negative impact of foster care on children as a social problem and how it is viewed and understood. Also this paper would point out the key figures and groups that are affected by problem. This paper would analyze past attempts to better the foster care system and current policies that exist to face this problem. Throughout this paper the goals and objectives of the current polices would be addressed.
There is nearly 400,000 children in out-of-home care in the United States right now (Children’s Right). Just about every day children are being shipped in and out of foster homes and group homes. Most people want the best for children in foster care and decide to take care of them until their parents can possibly recover. The foster care system can have both a negative or positive effect on children, foster parents, and biological parents because of the gaps in the system. Foster cannot not be avoided but the some aspects of the foster care system can be avoided if the missing gaps were filled.
The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was as a response to growing concerns about “foster care drift”; that is, children experiencing multiple, unstable foster care placements over extended periods, children virtually lost within the child welfare system (Rockhill, 2007). The ASFA has become a very important and much needed policy that helped with placement and safet...
Imagine waking up everyday in a home where there is nobody you can call mom or dad. Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent". The placement of the child is usually arranged through the government or a social-service agency. The institution, group home or foster parent is compensated for expenses. The state will inform through the family court and child protection 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 the minor throughout the time the child is in the system.
CPS workers ought to do an adequate amount of work to keep the child in a safe and protected environment. CPS workers are missing vital signs throughout their investigations, which may possibly prevent fatalities amongst children due to abuse and neglect. This is why it is extremely important to keep track of how many fatalities occur which are based on abuse and neglect, which CPS workers determined there is not a substantial amount of harm that can endanger the child and put him or her in an unsafe environment, and learn from these experiences to attempt to prevent these
“I believe the best service to the child is the service closest to the child, and children who are victims of neglect, abuse, or abandonment must not also be victims of bureaucracy. They deserve our devoted attention, not our divided attention.” these are the words of the 27th governor of nevada (Kenny Guin). The world we now resign in is the outcome of the decisions man has made. A system in which were made to help those in need is now the obstacle preventing their success. In the article “American foster care system needs work” the authors state “On any given day, there are nearly 397,000 American children in foster care, according to a report conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That's enough to fill Tiger Stadium
Many reasons exist as to why the foster system is failing and a major one is the number of children in the program. Although the number of children in the foster care system has decreased about 11% since 2002, “…experts worry that the trend might now go into reverse” (Protecting 47). “In 2008 there were 463,000 children in the foster care system” (47), due to the actions of parents such as abuse, neglect and the use of drugs and/or alcohol can cause a child to be placed in foster care. These actions cause the number of children in the system to increase. In order for this number to decrease dramatically programs must be put in place to help find enough, stable homes for foster children. As a result of the economy, many states have “considered cutting down on child-welfare services, such as benefits for foster parents and the number of social workers they employ” (47). If there is a lack of social workers, it is less likely that a child will be placed in a home quickly. Wi...
and agencies designed to meet the physical, intellectual, and social-emotional needs of individuals and families.” . As a Child Protective worker, my responsibilities are to assess safety (immediate),risk (future harm), abuse and maltreatment, make a
Foster care is an agency that takes in more than 250,000 children EVERY year. With this many children entering the system every year; the amount of problems on finding the right caregiver for the child increases tremendously. When these problems are created there are many effects that can happen to the child that can last short-term and unfortunately long-term. Fortunately, there are multiple solutions for these problems that everyone can do so that everyone's position is improved. Foster care agencies can create negative situations due to the selection of the caregiver and the plethora, deluge, profusion, surplus, vast, prodigious, immense of problems that are created; however, there are several pathways that either party can take to improve the unpleasant situation and its effects.
According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting system, in 2011 there were 104, 236 children waiting to be adopted in the United States (p. 4). Adoption is the legal process an individual or family goes through to gain legal custody of a child in foster care. This child’s parents have lost custody of their child because they have been deemed unfit to raise the child, either because of neglect or abuse. After the child is removed from the horrible situation, he or she is taken by child services and placed in a foster home or with a family member. This system is in place to protect children from further abuse, neglect and trauma. Today, children in foster care are in the system for a very short period of time; there is a push to getting them out of a foster home and transition into a safe, loving and permanent environment. The foster care system is run the way it is because of the implementation of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.
Funding is awarded to support ongoing research programs to identify, prevent and treat child abuse and neglect and to collect and distribute data. Projects that are currently funded are Child Welfare Information Gateway website, the National Resource Center for Child Protective Services, National Quality Improvement Center on Differential Response, annual publication of Child Maltreatment and the initiative on Supporting Evidence-Based Home Visitation to Prevent Child Maltreatment.
Child welfare ensures “that children are safe and protected from any harm” (Berg-Weger, 2013). Social workers in this field “protect vulnerable children and help families in need of assistance”, “intervene when children are in danger of neglect or abuse”, and some even arrange “adoptions, locate foster families, or work to get families back together” (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). This is the second largest area of social work, especially for those with a bachelor’s degree in social work (Berg-Weger, 2013). The primary purpose of child welfare is to keep children protected and safe from harm (Whitaker, Reich, Reid, Williams, & Woodside, 2004). The secondary purpose is to “provide necessary services to the families of children at risk, to improve conditions in their homes and bring stability to their family units” (Whitaker et al., 2004). According to the National Association of Social Workers, “this system includes both public and private agencies, and works in close partnership with – and relies on – many other community systems, such ...