Foster Children In The Foster Care System

In the John Burton Policy Brief on AB 12 the realities of education for foster youth are highlighted, “The rate at which foster youth complete high school (50 percent) is significantly lower than the rate at which their peers complete high school (70 percent),” (2011, p. 2). This affects chances for higher education including college degrees. This has a significant impact on the community as “aged-out” youth without services have more chance of risk for: homelessness, poverty, unemployment, going to jail, prostitution, substance abuse, early parenthood and untreated health conditions. Samuels and Pryce state that foster care has not always been a positive, developmentally appropriate experience. Youth who are

The outlook for children in foster care in the U.S. is cause for alarm (Zetlin, MacLeod, & Kimm, 2012). Disruptive school changes, social stigma and isolation, lack of educational supports, disproportionately high rates of special education services, and exclusionary disciplinary actions have led this population to becoming one of the most at risk populations in areas such as physical and emotional health, juvenile delinquencies and dropping out of school (Gallegos & White, 2013). Foster youth experts (FYEs) recognize these risks. As a result, interventions have been developed to alleviate some of the difficulties that inhibit foster youth from reaching their education goal. One such program is the Gaurdian Scholars Program (GSP) at Los

Residence for children who have been a victim to abuse, neglect or other matters in their family that put them in harms way. This is what the foster care system was designed for. It keeps these children safe and provides a temporary home until the parents get their life together and prove themselves or they do not, and the children get adopted by loving families.

Many foster children are facing an increased risk of behavior and mental problems (“Perceived Mental Health, 1). Foster children are vulnerable to neurocognitive delays that can hinder them from developing at the average rate of a child in a permanent home, such as poor memory skills, poor visuospatial process, and small language capacity (Leve, 1). These psychological problems are found in approximately half of the children that are adopted or released from the foster system (Lawrence, 3). How does placing children in foster care affect their mental development and behavior? This study will analyze the psychological effects that children face when they are placed in foster care.

Foster families provide a substitute family life experience to children who have been displaced from their parents for a variety of circumstances. In the foster environment the purpose is to provide a healthy, safe home for the child while the circumstances of their placement in foster care are being resolved, it is intended to be a temporary solution until the child can either be reunited with his or her family, or placed in an adoptive family. Foster parents must be willing to give the child unconditional love and a safe environment to enhance the healing process of the

Foster care has a lot of problems. Some problems are, ”Critics of the foster care system believe that children's needs are not properly met through the current system and that reform is necessary” If critics think this then they should fix it. Also, foster parents should not be able to send foster children back into the system. Another reason is i'm thankful that i'm not a foster kid no more because i was adopted right out of the hospital, and I want other kids to be the same way if more people would adopt kids there would be less problems in foster care because there would be less children to make the problems. Also, there should be more help for the children in foster care like if they come from an Abusive family and Neglect

Krebs, Betsy, et al. “Education for Foster Care Teens.” Beyond the foster care system: the future for teens, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 2006, pp. 27–51.

With no parent to discipline, support, or encourage the youth in school, the foster youth are more likely to make wrong choices. These problems are

When kids go off to college, most kids who don't come from foster backgrounds, when they go off to college, in the summer time, they go back to their parents so they've have a safety net. Foster kids don't have that. At age 18 children living in intact families are thinking about graduating from high school or where they want to go to college. These 18-year-old foster children are wondering if they will have a roof over their heads and if they can afford to eat. College and career plans disappear in an avalanche of short-term survival

Education is a crucial element in developing one’s full potential and a good predictor of future success in life. However, it should be noted that many children do not enter the school system on a level playing field. For example, approximately 75% of foster children are not performing on grade-level in comparison to children who are not in foster care, with some states reporting lower reading and math scores (Colker, Waterstone, Cannon, Rinaldi, Canty, Wettach, Berlin, Rosen Valverde, 2011). The majority of America’s 460,000 foster children enter the school system having an automatic disadvantage, facing many barriers to success that are not experienced by their fellow peers (Institute for Research on Poverty, 2015). Their educational journey is influenced by a number of external factors beyond their control. Failing to recognize the plight of these children by addressing their individual needs helps perpetuate a vicious cycle within this vulnerable population. Many will continue to suffer from poor self-esteem with little motivation to improve themselves. This can lead to a variety of circumstances such as poverty, homelessness, and unemployment, thus helping to create self-fulfilling prophecies (Colker et al., 2011). Without the proper interventions, many of these children will go on to indulge in risky criminal behaviors thereby

The author used several research studies to direct and focus the research. According to one study, many foster care youths have a history of instability, neglect and trauma which leads to behavioral issues as well as academic skill deficits Bums et al.,

Youth who emancipate from the foster care system face disproportionately higher rates of homelessness, unemployment, lower educational levels, substance use, mental illness and other high-risk behaviors (Calvin, 2010). Foster youth are unintentionally damaged by the systems that are meant to care for them and that is why they require additional services, in order to be able to overcome the obstacles they might face when transitioning out of foster care and into independent living. Transitional age youth may benefit from taking part in services that will help them gain the skills necessary to be self-sufficient, overcome their traumas and manage their depression symptoms. The ACE’s study identified a correlation between children who have experienced numerous adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse and neglect, and the negative effects they have on health, social well being and the development of risk factors for disease (Larkin,Feliti & Anda, 2014). This exemplifies how these youth need treatments that focus on promoting resiliency, as this is a skill that would benefit them throughout their life, in that it can help them overcome their traumas and manage any future stressors without the use of maladaptive coping skills.

Throughout the United States, only about half of all foster children graduate from high school by age eighteen, well below the U.S. rate of 83 percent. According to the advocacy group, Children’s Rights, students in the foster care system also miss about five weeks of school a year on average, and just 4 percent graduate from a four-year college by the age 26 (Eaton-Robb). Foster care is a government-base program, temporary system for children and adolescents whose biological parents are either unwilling or unable to parent and support the needs of their child. Students in the foster care system struggle to get the education they deserve. Often students in foster care struggle to meet educational standards in society and have a difficult time trying to keep up with everyone else in their life who were able to get a more advanced education without the interruptions of the foster care system. Students in foster care are often moved from placement to placement and are denied immediate enrollment in another school because they need the transfer of credits and proof of where they live. They often struggle in an academic environment because of IEPs and their past traumatic experiences that can cause behavioral and emotional problems for the students. An IEP is a document that is developed for each public school child who needs special education. Students in foster care face challenges in regard to their education due to

In an effort to gain some clarity on what additional sources are needed for a successful transition for youth, Scannapieco et al conducted a study addressing three major themes. According to Scannapieco et al (2007, pg 424), “the purpose of this paper is three-fold. First, a review of the empirical literature on the short- and long-term outcome for youth who have experienced foster care in adolescence will be presented. Second, results from focus groups representing foster youth in care, youth who have aged our of care, foster parents fostering adolescents, and social workers working with youth in foster care will be presented. Third, implication for policy and practice will be discussed”. The number of youth in foster care makes up 40% of the 1.4 million children that do not live with either parent or grandparent. The article displayed the racial disparities among children in foster care youth which included African Americans being overrepresented among children entering

The concept of providing a service like Maximum Potential to assist foster parents with positioning their youth for academic success is vital to our community. The transition to adulthood is often difficult for youth in foster care and those who have aged-out of care. The many challenges seem insurmountable and the costs to society are tremendous. The costs of intervening early and with the right kinds of support those that build and strengthen families, are developmentally appropriate for children and youth, and ensure that their education, employment, and family connections goals are met seem small by comparison. The likelihood of reaching educational milestones is slim and are less likely to be employed, and more likely to rely on public benefit programs. Much can be done to prevent the hardships that aging out of foster care often brings, so that all are “connected by 25” and achieve their educational objectives, establish connections to employment, and have strong family relationships, stable housing, with the goal that every young person in foster care will develop and reach their full potential. These youth can be helped with effective programs that take a comprehensive approach, using a strategic combination of services, job training, and employment, along with alternative education options and skills training. Such programs exist, but there are not enough of them, and they lack funding, even though they demonstrate success and represent significant saving over the