Where Are The Fixes For a Broken Foster Care System?
The youth incarceration complex exacerbates the problems faced by displaced young people rather than fixing them. This is because there are not a lot of available foster homes or foster parents.
Carrillo | a CLMI at Learn4Life feature
While the American foster care system has been in existence since the late 19th century, there are still major issues and rampant dysfunction existing within that same system to this day. There may be a general perception that children are, indeed, being saved from their broken homes and being permanently placed in loving, stable ones. Some of that feeling may be driven by wanting the problem as “out of sight, out of mind” so to speak. Yet, recent polling suggests the public having mixed feelings on this, as a recent 2023 Bipartisan Policy Center poll discovered …
Though U.S. adults lean slightly more positively (48 percent) than negatively (43 percent) in terms of their perceptions of the current child welfare system in this country, most fall somewhere in the middle.
Notably, 1 in 10 aren’t sure how they feel about the system (9 percet).
In terms of the functionality of the current system, however, at best, most think that the system functions the way that it was designed to operate (38 percent), with a high proportion leaning towards the system being broken and cannot be fixed (53 percent).
The reality is that a high percentage of foster children are being placed into juvenile detention centers, shelters and group homes. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, nearly 50,000 youth are incarcerated per day in some form or fashion, in fact, although that’s actually “progress” as trend lines have shown a drop in youth incarceration …
Still, this youth incarceration complex clearly exacerbates the problems faced by displaced young people rather than fixing them. This is because there are not a lot of available foster homes or foster parents: over half of all states experienced declines in the number of licensed foster care homes in 2022. Sadly, this results in foster children feeling unwanted or misplaced. It also results, as TruthOut reports, in many children being held in detention facilities and other non-housing locations (such as offices or even casinos) because of the system being overwhelmed or with fewer licensed foster parents …
Feeling Unwanted
According to No Place Like Home: The US Foster Care System is Broken, by Kathy Chun …
In 2013 alone, over 4,500 foster youth ran away from group facilities or temporary shelters. When children feel so guilty and unwanted by a system meant to protect them that they end up running away, it is strikingly clear that the system is deeply flawed.
Another challenge with this system is that as soon as children turn 18 they get released out of the system without any supports, leading to a national crisis whereby nearly 400,000 young people who are living in foster care remain at risk. That prompted the current Biden administration to propose a massive $5 billion investment in “… evidence-based foster care prevention services to allow more children to remain safely in their own homes with their own families.”
Without those investments, many foster youth and foster people transitioning into adulthood are left to fend for themselves and to figure out how to navigate life. It’s promising that foster care numbers are declining According to the KIDS COUNT Data Center, children under the age of 18 are in the foster care system because of maltreatment, with neglect as the most common reason, along with physical and sexual abuse. In addition, racial disparities continue to exist with Black and Hispanic children the most disproportionately represented in the foster care system, as the Hispanic and White foster care rates have shown signs of increase ….
Many also exhibit a high risk for gangs or criminal behavior, as some studies have shown. As a 2020 study found …
The current study reaffirmed that there needs to be greater coordination between child welfare and youth justice systems. Youth in care are already a vulnerable population, but the period during which they transition into emerging adulthood while simultaneously transitioning out of support from the child welfare system may be particularly precarious; their pre-existing disadvantages may become amplified relative to other incarcerated youth. Thus, for youth already at the deep end of the justice system, the period of emerging adulthood is crucial in terms of interventions, as this would theoretically be an opportune stage to provide prosocial supports.
Doing More
Communities, policymakers and advocates could do much more collectively to repair the broken foster care and juvenile justice system by making necessary public investments and building support systems for foster youth, foster parents and institutions tasked to help them. This can be done until young people become adults and are able to support themselves. Current investments are not enough and there’s a need for safeguards against corruption within the current framework. According to Corruption Within the Foster Care System, by Rachel Hile …
If someone decides to be a foster parent, they will receive anywhere from $400-$800 per month (depending on the circumstances and state) while the child is in their care. This money is meant to pay for the child’s basic needs, yet many decide to use it for themselves.
This clearly unveils a collapsed system: it risks the creation of foster parents who become foster parents not for the sake of children in need, but for the few extra hundred dollars they receive each month. Ultimately, foster care systems are driven by budgets, and this can result in child neglect. Along with this is the abuse that comes with neglectful parents - as the Ballard Center reports, it is estimated that up to 40 percent of young people in foster care have experienced some form of abuse in foster homes.
In the early 2000’s, my step siblings' natural parents were unable to provide for their children anymore, so they fell into the foster care system. They told me horrible stories of abuse and neglect in each home they were put into, such as being malnourished or drowned repeatedly under a tub full of water if they didn’t comply with forced showering. Eventually, they were returned to their parents because they fought for them in court. That’s not the case for all foster children. Although these step siblings are grown with kids of their own, they are still traumatized by the experience of a broken system. With examples like the above, how do policymakers and advocates ensure mandatory frequent welfare checks on foster parents and facilities to ensure there is no abuse or neglect? How do states find the budgets and how does the federal government make bigger investments? Policy changes could result in an overhaul of a system that’s always needed repair. Currently, it feels ignored with little public conversation pushing it in the right direction.
DAISY CARRILLO is a Fellow with the Civic Literacy and Media Influence Institute at Learn4Life