Do Foster Children Have A Fighting Chance

Abstract

Over 500,000 children in the U.S. currently reside in some form of foster care. Placement

in Foster care has dramatically increased. Despite the increasing numbers of children in foster care and foster parent these children often lack needed support and resources. There Has been Several Studies done on The Foster Care System Short comings; however none of this studies have seem to touch the core of the Problem in why foster children fair far worst in a multitulde of life areas. Some Areas in which These children

Need improvements are Education, mental health, employment, and Housing. All of these areas can show improvement with establishing stable living environment.

20,000 children emancipate from the system every year with issues and problems that have not been corrected or addressed. These children removed from their home are now being victimized by the system because of lack of resources. The effect of our present foster care system is disastrous. Children are moved from one foster home to another, their school attendance is disrupted and health care needs often go unmet. Developing and implementing a Plan that will allow foster Children to be placed in appropriate homes this will minimize multiple foster home placements as result will have better foster care outcomes.

The Proposal begins by incorporating past studies which dealt with problem in the foster care system. Lack of resources which cause poor school performance and achievements, mental health, employment, and housing issue will be discussed in this paper . Along with those issues a proposed method in which all of these problems should show improvement will be discussed in depth.

Foster care is intended to protect children from neglect and abuse at the hands of parents and other family

members, yet all too often it becomes an equally cruel form of neglect and abuse by the state. This neglect comes from a lack of resources and education which leaves the children ill prepared for their future. What happen to "No Child Left Behind" which is the Act passed by the federal government in 2002 to deal with inadequate public education system. Foster Children must be an exception to that, According to Representative George Miller of the US Congress 7th district only 20% of foster children graduate from High school or receive their GED and even fewer went on to college. "There is no question that foster care children are more likely to get left behind than other children "(Miller 2004). The main goal of the child welfare system is to ensure children safety, permanence, and well -being. Concern of meeting these children educational needs fall clearly within social service domain of child well- being, yet is the school system that is ultimately responsible for ensuring that all children receive appropriate education. Both these social systems are responsible for the education of foster children. Ideally these two systems could work together. In reality both systems have complex sets of rules and regulations.

Unfortunately the complexity of these systems may create multiple problems for foster children and evidence suggests many of these children perform poorly in math, reading in vocabulary (Zima ,Bussing, Freeman, Yang Belin ,Forness 2000).

During the Zima study the results indicated that these children with academic problems also had some behavior problems in which foster care placement was only some time related. Another studied took an analytical approach that views behavior problems as both a cause an as a consequence of placement disruption. Children who do not have evident behavior problems may in fact constitute a neglected population that responds to multiple disruptions of their primary relationships with increasingly self-defeating behaviors (Newton, Litrownik, Landsverk 2000). This is a problem that keeps feeding itself. Multiple placements have been shown to increase undesired behaviors (Courtney, Pilivalin (2001) a placement then fails and the child is moved. The More placements the child has the less likely that child will have developed a strong bond with a caregiver. A stable placement should be the focus for these children no matter where they are living (not if abuse is

present). When a child moves homes he most likely will also be changing schools. When a child changes schools too much he will fall behind in school. This study is closely related to my proposal however the Courtney studied focus more on the child and how to treat them instead looking at the bigger picture, the social welfare system, the placement issues. If proper placements were made it would minimize placement disruption. Low placement change facilitates the enduring positive relationships with adults which have been identified in the Courtney study as a strong predictor of positive Adult outcome. Having fewer placements may allow youths to develop better social support. This proposal defers from the Courtney study in that the focus will be on fixing a specific problem that will in turn minimize all the other issues and help these children in their adult lives. However both recognize foster care placement is a contributing factor to some of the hardships foster children face.

The proportion of children with emotional and behavioral disturbances within the foster care system in the United States is continuing to increase. Many of these

children experience numerous placement changes each year. (lee, Clarke, prange, mcdonald 2005) . With multiple placements it is not hard to see how a foster child could develop attachment disorder or any number of the already existing mental health problems can become worsen. " Children in long-term foster- care have experienced a range of early adversities which continue to affect their self-esteem, self -efficacy and capacity to cope with developmental challenges(Schofield, Beek 2005)" This explains the low self esteem, and lack of self worth, and certain