Issues in the Foster Care System
The issues with Foster Care vary state-to-state. Many systems are privatized and unregulated, but experts propose a focus on reunification.
50 States: 50 Systems
As of September 2019, there were 423,997 children in foster care across the United States. Though foster care laws and institutions differ from state to state, there is a national debate over the universal shortcomings in the foster care system.
The conditions children in foster care face, the long term goals of foster care, and which institutions hold power over the foster care system have all come under scrutiny through the last several decades as the number of children in foster care began to rise in the 1990’s when the number of children in the foster care system peaked at 567,000.
Today, critics of the Foster Care Systems across the United States emphasize that many states have programs that are underfunded, privatized, and at worst can act as unregulated agencies that do not prioritize reinstatement or finding a permanent home for children in the system In many private programs, for-profit consultants and agencies charge commission fees which often increase budgets without tangibly helping the vulnerable children within the system.
With a plethora of issues facing young people within the system, this blog series will catalog the issues within foster care and how they vary across different states. This article will provide new readers with a macro perspective on the broader foster care system, its faults, and possible solutions.
PREVENTATIVE MEASURES
There are a number of preventative measures in place meant to keep children from separating with their families: though services differ from state to state, most state governments offer some form of mediatory services through child protection services (CPS) and social workers who work on a one-on-one basis with families prior to separation.
In New York, families are evaluated on a number of social and economic criteria to assess risk; poverty, mental illness, traumatic experiences, developmental disabilities, and incarcerated parents are all taken into account when CPS intervenes on behalf of at-risk children.
In New York City, economic intervention for families, such as increasing SNAP benefits and giving parents free education on how to parent developmentally challenged children have led to a decrease in children entering the foster care system.
ENTERING FOSTER CARE
The vast majority of children (63%) who enter the foster care system are “neglected” children. “Neglected” is defined as children whose parents regularly leave them without supervision for extended periods of time, to a point considered a danger to the child. Many other children enter the system because of parents who suffer from substance addiction (34%). The circumstances surrounding a child’s removal from their parents are not mutually exclusive; a child may be considered neglected and have parents who suffer from drug addiction or are victims of physical abuse.
Other significant factors of separation include unsafe housing (10%), child behavior problems (8%), and abandonment (5%). In rare cases, the death of a parent, a child’s disability or a parent’s voluntary relinquishment result in a child’s placement in foster care.
DEMOGRAPHICS OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE
The children placed into the foster care system are disproportionately children of color; in 2019, 21% of children placed into the foster care system identified as of Hispanic descent, and another 21% identified as Black or African American; whereas, nationally only 20% of children in the United States identified as Black or African American only
Of children newly placed into foster care in 2019, the median age was 6.2 years old. The majority of newly placed children entered into either a foster care home with relatives (32%) or a foster care home with non-relatives (46%). A small minority of children are placed into group homes, pre-adoptive homes or institutions based on their mental and physical state and based on whether they are considered a risk to other children or potential families.
CASE PLAN GOALS
Through the process of collaboration with case workers while in foster care, children establish Case Plan Goals, or their long-term plans for placement after leaving the foster care system. The majority of children in foster care (55%) are working towards reunification with their family, and nearly a third (28%) are working towards adoption. Fourteen percent of children with established Case Plan Goals are working towards either placement with relatives, long term foster care, emancipation, or guardianship.
While many foster care advocates push for reunification as the best-case goal for foster care, many working in and covering foster care believe reunification is the most difficult Case Plan Goal to achieve. A report from the Child Welfare Information Gateway & Children’s Bureau found that as of 2019:
47% were reunited with parent(s) or primary caretaker(s).
26% were adopted.
11% went to live with a guardian.
8% were emancipated.
6% went to live with another relative.
1% had other outcomes.
DISCRIMINATION IN ADOPTION
Atop issues in reunification, qualified foster parents have historically been turned away with discriminatory practices. An ACLU report documented cases in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri wherein qualified LGBTQ+ couples were denied the ability to adopt children based on their sexuality. While a 2016 Obama administration law attempted to block federal funding for any state agencies who continued these actions, HRC reported a series of state laws across 13 states seeking to get past federal anti-discriminatory policies. In 2019, Out Magazine reported the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed changes to allow discriminatory in these 13 states citing faith as the reason for these practices. Given that many of the 13 states have privatized, non-profit, and church-run foster care systems, it is likely these practices will maintain, albeit less overt as they were in the initial 2006 ACLU report.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
States that aim towards reunification with loved ones have seen wider success in their efforts to find foster children a home. In many states, however, reunification is often not prioritized. A Kansas study found that, nationally, the United States spends vastly more money each year, around $30 billion, into investigating families without preventative or interventional measures: “More dollars are spent on investigating families than trying to keep them together.”
In our next blog, we will focus on the issues of Placement in Foster Care.
ClearPath is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that helps homeless young adults or aging out of foster care find the resources and organizations that can help them.
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