Foster Care System, Essay Example

This paper examines the Foster Care system in the USA. It addresses the question of how efficient is the Foster Care System in the USA and does this adequately address the needs of the requirement for fostering today?  Fostering is somewhat of a controversial subject and research has indicated that children are better to stay with troubled family parents than move into fostered homes. Fostering does not have a good reputation in terms of children staying away from drugs and other criminal behaviour patterns “Studies, including those by Mark Courtney while at the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall Center for Children, show that the 500,000 children in U.S. foster care are more likely than other kids to drop out of school, commit crimes, abuse drugs and become teen parents.” (Koch, 2007).

There is a general feeling of failure in the foster care system and government research statistics are not encouraging “teens are less likely to finish high school, and more likely to go to prison or become homeless. Census data show that fewer than 3% earn college degrees, compared with 28% of the population.” (Koch, 2007).  One of the big problems seems to be the way kids in foster care are shuffled around between different families and schools. This constant state of disruption leaves them in a state of confusion and a feeling of non-belonging to any specific family.  This can lead to the feeling of becoming an outcast and subsequent alienation of the foster parents. This is a slippery slope where solace often resides in creating friends in gangs and involvement with drugs. “Tyler Bacon, 22, knows. He says after his mother told a judge she didn’t want him when he was 13, he lived in 12 foster homes. At 18, he moved to a homeless shelter.” (Koch, 2007)

The bottom line is that the system is failing and is in urgent need of re-evaluation in terms of process and how this can be improved for the foster children placed in care.  It’s the concept of finding a safe permanent family for their childhood upbringing without moving them around.

Works Cited

Koch, W. (2007, 5 24). Study: Troubled homes better than foster care. Retrieved 11 6, 2010, from USA today: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm