The Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (hereafter referred to as the Midwest Study) originated in response to interest by policy makers regarding the success of state child welfare services receiving federal funds and the well-being of former foster youths age 18 to 21 throughout their first eight years of independent living. The study focused on foster youths, typically considered high risk due to the factors that led to foster care placement, transitioning to adulthood who are discharged from foster care at age 18 in most states (Courtney, Terao, & Bost , 2004, p. 3). The limited available research suggests that these youths “have limited education and employment experience, relatively poor mental and physical health, and a relatively high likelihood of experiencing unwanted outcomes such as homelessness, incarceration, and non-marital pregnancy (Collins, 2001; McDonald , Allen, Westerfelt, & Piliavin, 1996, (as quoted by Courtney, Terao, & Bost , 2004, p.3)). By 2008, federal funding to states for transitioning foster youth included post-secondary education and training vouchers, reimbursement for foster care maintenance for eligible youths until age 21, and mandates to assist these youth in developing a self-directed transition plan during the 90 days prior to exiting care. These changes to federal policy were due, in part, to findings from the Midwest Study (Courtney et al., 2011). Although these changes appeared promising, the $140 billion translated into only about $1400 per youth, hardly enough to pay for the services needed (Courtney, 2005). Social problems addressed by the study The 20,000 adolescents leaving the foster care system each year, must attempt to live independently, and... ... middle of paper ... ...itiative. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from http://www.jimcaseyyouth.org/filedownload/331 The Pew Charitable Trusts. (2007, May) Time for Reform: Aging Out and On Their Own. St. Louis, MO: Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative. Retrieved February 18, 2012 from http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=26082. Samuels, Gina (2008) A Reason, a Season, or a Lifetime: Relational Permanence Among Youth Adults with Foster Care Backgrounds. Chicago: Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. Retrieved February 8, 2012 from http://www.chapinhall.org/sites/default/files/old_reports/415.pdf Secret, Mosi (2011, October 20). A Deal To Help Foster Youths Find Housing. New York Times, N.Y./Region. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/nyregion/nyc-agrees-to-find-housing-for-ex-foster-youths.html?_r=1&ref=fostercare (accessed on February 22, 2012).
“About two-thirds of children admitted to public care have experienced abuse and neglect, and many have potentially been exposed to domestic violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse” (Dregan and Gulliford). These children are being placed into foster care so that they can get away from home abuse, not so they can move closer towards it. The foster children’s varied outcomes of what their adult lives are is because of the different experiences they grew up with in their foster homes. The one-third of those other foster children usually has a better outcome in adult life than the other two-thirds, which is a big problem considering the high percentage of children being abused in their foster homes. Although, the foster care system has most definitely allowed children to experience the positive home atmosphere that they need there is still an existed kind of abusive system in the foster care program that is unofficial but seems to be very popular. Foster care focuses on helping children in need of a temporary stable environment; however, foster care can have negative impacts to the children and the people around them concerning the foster child going through the transition, the parents of the foster child, a new sibling relationship, and problems that arrive later influencing the foster child long-term.
The concept of aging out of foster care is referred to those children who are within the state foster care system and who are still in the system upon reaching the age of eighteen, twenty-one or have graduated from high school (Craft, 2014). The causes of children aging out of the foster care system is usually due to the children not finding a permanent home with an adoptive family, or the state for some reason has not reunited the child with his or her birth family before turning of age. Each state has a different regulation on what the age should be when a child ages out of the system. Many children are not ready to make the transition of being out on their own, therefore, some states have moved the age up to 21 years instead of 18 years (Craft, 2014). If the foster parents or parent chooses to keep caring for the child after he or she ages out, then the child is able to stay in their foster home until he or she is ready to make that step and move out. According to Cunningham and Diversi, many of the difficulties that foster youth face during their transition are known and read about in academic literature, but those who go through the process of aging out of foster care are largely missing from the academic literature (Cunningham & Diversi, 2013). Many children who are in the foste...
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.
Addressing the needs of children in foster care has been an issue that has tried to be addressed in many ways. In 2001, approximately 300,000 children entered the foster care system, with the average time spent in placement equaling 33 months (Bass Shields, & Behrman, n.d.). Statistically, the longer a child is in the foster care system, the greater number of placements they will have, and instability increases each year (Bass Shields, & Behrman, n.d). I recently read a novel by a girl who was placed into the system at age two, and by age 12 she had already experienced 14 different placements (Rhodes-Courter, 2007). Stories such as this one are not uncommon in the foster care system, especially if the child is a member of a sibling group or
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...
Low educational achievement for foster youth was a pressing concern. A study completed by Ehrle and Geen (2002) using a phone survey of 44,000 foster care providers across the United States found that 55% of voluntary kinship care providers did not have a high school degree, this indicated that may care providers lack the knowledge and understanding to help foster youth be prepared academically. After studying over 1000 foster youth Pecora et al (2006) found, about one third of all foster youth repeated a grade in school. In addition, Vacca (2007) identified reasons that foster youth struggled in the school setting. “Foster youth will typically not have any consistent parent advocacy or representative in the creation and implementation of the educational plan for graduation” (p. 67). With primary and secondary education a struggle for foster youth, it was no surprise that higher education was not something foster youth had been prepared for. In a combination survey and interview study titled “Pathways to College for Former Foster Youth: Understanding Factors That Contribute to Educational Success” Merdinger, Hines, Osterling, and Wyatt (2005) studied more than 200 former foster youth and found that “overall 63.8 percent [of former foster youth] reported that the foster care system did not prepare them very well for college” (p.
Scannapieco, Maria, Kelli Connell-Carrick, and Kirstin Painter. "In Their Own Words: Challenges Facing Youth Aging Out Of Foster Care." Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal 24.5 (2007): 423-435. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Jan. 2014.
The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (No. 16, 2007) states that about one third of children put into foster care for maltreatment are eventually reunified with the biological parent. This survey also found that African American’s were less likely to be reunified, and in children age seven months to ten years, boys are more likely to be reunified than girls (NSCAW No. 16, 2007). Many studies have been done of reunification of foster care cases and many show slower rates for African American families when compared to Anglo
From the Orphan trains to the Children’s Bureau, foster care has been well researched topic in the United States. With hundreds of children entering the foster care system,The Orphan trains gave children the opportunity to be chosen by a family and to be accepted into another home nonetheless is difficult. Being placed into the Foster Care system is done so with the intention that in the future, permanent placement can be established for the foster child; however, many cases have proved that the transition from home to home has left adolescents ill prepared for the adequate challenges into adulthood. for example in the article "Balancing permanency and stability for youth in foster care" by Tonia Stott and Nora Gustavsson, an experiment was conducted to see if the multiple placements may have an effect on the success of the youths once they have aged out of the
As family structure changes children pay the biggest price. They may lose the luxury of a stable home or school to call their own, when parent are no longer in the picture either. This is an issue that is largely ignored by society and most importantly the government. Without the foster system, children would be left abandoned and forgotten by all. The foster system provides thousands of homes for foster children each year, with parents that can give them what they need. But, foster care in America is inadequate for all American foster children and needs to be improved. Improvements are critical in bettering American foster systems, these improvements include, creating programs, finding more stable homes, and starting mentoring programs for all foster children.
As of 2014, there were over 415,000 children in the foster care system. Foster care is the raising and supervision of children in a private home, group home, or institution, by individuals engaged and paid by a social service agency (Legal Dictionary, 2016). Care givers can be of kin relationship to the child, or may not know the child at all. Group homes are run by a social worker and can house multiple children at a time. These homes are usually regulated by the state and/or government. Children of all ages go through many emotions when their lives revolve in foster care. This paper will discuss the emotions children deal with regarding separation from birth family, the effects of abuse, and the possibility of having to transition out of
The foster system intends to place children in homes where they will remain until they can find permanent residence with an adoptive family. Sadly, this is often not the case with children placed privatized homes and they end up bouncing from home to home until they eventually age out of the system forced to enter into adulthood with no permanent family ties. Over the past decade the number of teenagers aging out of the system without a permanent family has risen from 19,000 to 23,000 per year. These teenages enter into the world without emotional, relational, or financial support and therefore possess a greater risk of poverty as well as low academic achievement. This causes many of these teenagers to rely on government benefits during their adult lives which places a heavier burden on taxpayers. The National Council for Adoption reported that the 29,000 teenagers that aged out of the system in 2007 will cost over one billion dollars per year in public assistance and support. These teenagers who age out are also found to be at greater risk of concerning behaviors, such as: creating disciplinary problems in school, dropping out of school, becoming unemployed and homeless, becoming teenage parents, abusing alcohol and drugs, and committing crimes. The privatized system does not have the best interest of the children in mind and
There is a high percentage of foster care youth that have been in contact with the law after they turned 18. A study shows that “one-third of the former foster care children who were tracked in three Midwest states suffered a “high level” of involvement with the criminal justice system” (What Percentage). California carried out a state survey with the help of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the California Senate Office of Research (SOR); they surveyed 2,564 inmates. Fourteen percent of the inmates said that they have been in foster care at some point in their life. There are many options for foster children to live; they can live with a relative, family friend, foster family, or in a group home. From the inmates surveyed, fifty-one percent of them lived in a group home and two percent lives with his/her family friend. Forty percent of them were in foster care for one to five years while twenty-five percent of the surveyed inmates were in foster care less than a year. When the prisoners left foster care most left when they were prreteens or teenagers. Fifty percent were between the age of thirteen and seventeen years old while eight percent was released when they were under the age of six. But there are many reasons why they left foster care. Some reasons why they leave is because they go live with family friends, they are adopted, reunified with family, sent to a
In order for a possible successful future to take place, an appropriate selection of the caregiver must take place (Blythe et. al 88). Whenever an inappropriate foster parent is given responsibility over a child, all sorts of issues for the parent and child are created that could have been easily avoided. Foster care agencies must select foster parents that are completely capable to care for the health and safety of their new kids (Blythe et. al 88). This means that the foster parents must be able to supply all of the child’s essential needs so that they may be a valuable citizen in society one day. Research has discovered that foster parents will experience more anxiety and stress when compared to adults in their surrounding communities (Blythe et al. 88). This is directly because the foster parent was incapable of being a sufficient parent for the foster child. Since every child is special and unique in their own way it makes sense that the foster p...
Okpych, : Nathanael. "Policy Framework Supporting Youth Aging-out of Foster Care through College."Children Youth Service Review (2012): n. pag. Science Direct. Web.