The foster care system in the US is a highly dis-functional institution. They are solely responsible for their problems and resulting results. Did you know, that foster care pays people, people who are not the child's parent, to care for kids in the system? Yet they will not give a dime to at risk family's.
They are solely responsible for their problems and resulting results. ----------------------------- If a kid ends up in the foster care system because parents were dealing drugs, did the foster care system create that problem? No. If the kid deals drugs (learned this from their parent(s)) while in the foster care system and ends up in jail, did the foster care system create this problem? No. Statistics state: this kid is in jail and in foster care.
Suppose we have a kid, a truant, ends up in a youth facility for deliquents. He was arrested while living with his biological parents. He is sent away for 6 months. At the end of the six months, his biological parents do not want him back. He is released to a foster home. Subsequently, he runs away, is arrested and put in jail. Stats state: Kid is in jail and in foster care. Is the foster care system dysfunctional? Would you like 71 more examples?
Suppose you have a severely sexually abused 16 year old boy. He confides in his school counselor, who then reports it to CPS. The boy is removed from the biological home and put in a foster home. In his new foster home, he sexually abuses the foster parents biological 6 year old son. The boy is arrested and put in jail. Stats state: child is in jail and in foster care.
On his 18 birthday, the foster kid checks out of the system. His dad is in jail and his mother lives with her boyfriend. The son moves in with his mom. The mothers boyfriend gets into an arguement with the mother and hits her. The son intervenes in the arguement. The boyfriend says to the mother "Either he goes or I go" The mother chooses the boyfriend. The boy must leave. To where? Stats state: Kid in foster care lives on the street.
This type of logic is silly. I could say If a parent is accused of being a drug dealer, does that make it true? No Same questions for sex abuse, spanking abuse, child care abuse, and so on. When folks are assumed guilty over an accusation, only bad things can happen. Waving the deeds of one parent in the faces thousands, as a justification for destroying families, is just plain wrong. And last, if the foster system can do no better than a troubled family at raising the kid(s), what the hell good are they?
And last, if the foster system can do no better than a troubled family at raising the kid(s), what the hell good are they? ---------------------------------------------- I'm pretty sure the only standards are to keep the kids safe, fed and generally cared for, ie clean clothes, attending school, med attention if needed.
It sounds that we can all agree on one thing: This is a no-win situation. I can attest to one thing with foster care. A few years back, my in-laws went through the process to become foster parents. They spent a lot of time and money to do this - my mother-in-law stayed home, foregoing a paycheck, to be constant support for a foster child. They're good people living in a decent-sized house in the suburbs. Wanna know what happened? No one sent any kids to them!! They very briefly had a couple of boys in a short-term situation, and that was it. My mother-in-law checked in constantly, and it was always the same. "We don't have anyone right now." Here they were, good parents, a safe house, well provided for, and nothing. They gave up. This is why the system sucks - good, trustworthy people aren't considered to take in kids. Ridiculous.