Foster Care Reform

Foster Care Needs Reform: Inside Private Agencies Foster care needs to be reformed, especially when it comes to private agencies. Many people seem to overlook the issues embedded within the foster care system; all it does is take care of children, right? Wrong. Private agencies pervert the system with the nightmares they create. Foster children already feel unwanted and neglected because of the abandonment from their birth parents; private agencies provide them with conditions that further solidify their disbelief of care and love. Money comes first in the eyes of these agencies, followed by the need of control. This “control” can easily become abuse. It would only be sensible for a higher authority to intervene and put an end to these profound

Isaiah Sais and Shawna Adams both admit that they had been verbally and physically abused; Shawna was even sexually abused. NBC Universal conducted an investigation and fount that there were more than 127 recorded abuse cases in the state of Florida within a two-month period. There are also several children that spoke to reporters about the abuse they were exposed to. Stephanie says that her mother signed her into foster care because Stephanie and the mother’s boyfriend were always fighting. The Calizaire sisters told about two instances they were abused. Sophia Calizaire, referring to her foster mother, said, “She took a belt, she started beating me with the belt, picked up a hanger, she started beating me with the hanger, picked up a heel, and started beating me with the heel.” She also says that one foster parent made the children eat dog food. Sophia tells about one incident with that foster mother and says, “She told me to eat in front of my sister while she watched and my sister was hungry.” That same foster mother also punished her by holding her head underwater until she almost drowned. Apparently, harsh punishments are quite common. Alexandria Hill was also punished for “misbehaving”. She was found in a corner of a dark room, and was not allowed to speak to anyone. She was being punished for waking up earlier than her foster mother and getting food and water from the kitchen. Not only are the parents abusive, but the other children can be extremely abusive as well. Princess Calizaire says that she once stayed in a foster home where one of the boys used to try to rape her every night before she would go to sleep, which actually made her terrified to go to sleep at night. Mez Pierre was also abused by other kids in one of his foster homes. Mez says, “I was a little kid, they knew they could take advantage of me and I couldn’t fight back. But I did tell, I did tell