Project #2: Foster Families/ Foster Care Institution Analysis

Yue Yue Wu
Professor Mozzini
Sociology 1
24 July 2016

History of the Foster Care System

The notion of foster care traces back to the Torah, Bible, and the Quran. Early
Christian church records show parentless children being taken under the wing
of widows.
English Poor Laws in the 1500s made it legal for orphaned children to work as
indentured servants to their new parents, in exchange for clothes, shelter, and
food. This system made it easy for the parents to exploit the children. Child
abuse was socially accepted and legal back then, so all of the children in the
system have deceased parents.
Charles Loring Brace established the Childrens Aid Society in New York City
in 1853 because he was concerned of the growing number of parentless
children living on the streets. Back then, the focus was just to get the children
off the streets; the system did not care that there were abusive caretakers.

The Foster Care System in the U.S. Today

As of January 2000, there are 520,000 children in the foster care system in the
United States today. Numbers are growing each and every year since.
The foster system today works under the belief that children are better off
emotionally and psychologically under the care of attentive parents in stable home
environments.
Foster care is different than adoption because it only serves as a temporary home
for children. The ultimate goal is to get them to reconnect with their biological
parents. Foster care is only supposed to last a matter of a few days or few
months.

The government dictates how foster care agencies operate, but the agencies
usually do all of the work of relocating a child to a new home.
Most foster care agencies are independent, non-profit organizations (licensed by
the state). They depend on a combination of government funds and monetary
donations. Americans pay $12 million in taxes to fund publicly funded systems.
The Administration for Children and Families decides how to budget the money in
both cases.
Both government and foster agencies make sure that foster parents have licences
and that there is a record detailing each individual childs needs.
There are three types of foster care. The single foster family is one in which a
foster child is raised in a house with their foster parents and siblings. The group
homes are places where all foster children live and dorm together. With a lack of
eligible foster parents today, many kids find themselves in group homes. Kids with
special needs also live in group homes, as they need professional care. The
kinship care system is that which the foster child is placed with his or her blood
relatives.

How Children End Up in the System

Physical Abuse: This means intentionally inflicting physical pain on a child. It can also
mean restraining a child or locking him in a closed or outer space. Each state and county
has its own specific definition of physical abuse.
Sexual Abuse: This can mean anywhere between making a child watch pornography or live
sex and actually forcing the child into having sex.
Neglect: A parent neglects their child when they fail to satisfy his hunger, need for a clean
living environment, or emotional needs.
Medical Neglect: This means failing to seek necessary and appropriate medical aid for a
child, either out of religious beliefs or plain thoughtlessness.
Incarceration: The parent is sentenced to jail, and there is no one left to care for the child.
Truancy: This occurs when a parent fails to get their child to school on time. This can also
be the childs thought, when he intentionally skips school.
Death: Both parents have passed away, and thus they are not able to care for the child.

Psychological Effects of Being in the

System

Being placed in a foster home, even good and safe ones, can take a toll on a childs emotional and
behavioral development. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
30% of foster children suffer some kind of emotional or behavioral issue.
Attachment Issues: The more times a child is moved from home to home, the more likely he is to
develop attachment issues, which can hinder his ability to thrive, make him susceptible to mental
health issues, like depression and separation anxiety, and make it hard for him to bond with
caregivers.
Mental Illness: It is uncertain whether the cause is from the system itself or genetics and early
childhood environments, but one thing is for sure is that children in the system have higher cases of
mental illness than children not in the system. Mental illness can range from post traumatic
disorder, depression, and anxiety.
Developmental Delays: Because of neglect and/or abuse from biological parents, foster children
tend to suffer from developmental delays, which can include difficulty socializing and excelling
academically.

Role of Foster Parents and Foster

Children: Bonding
Bonding is probably the most important element of any foster parent-child relationship.
Bonding during childhood is what helps a child grow up to be a loving and self-sufficient
adult. It is what keeps him safe and feel loved. When bonding is disrupted, as is the case
when birth parents rise to contest the potential adoption of the foster child, so too do the
emotional and psychological developments of the child. This is because a bond that has
been created is permanent, according to psychologist John Bolby of New York
University.

Bonding is not simply being together or sharing one memorable moment together.
Bonding is a lifetime commitment of one person to another. Thus, when a foster parent
decides to adopt his or her foster child, he has shown that such bond does in fact exists
between the two.
Bonding is not just satisfaction of basic needs, like food or shelter. Bonding occurs when
a parent continually fosters the childs self-esteem and self-actualization.
Bonding is not generic nor genetic. Just because a child bonds well
with one caregiver does not mean he will bond well with another. He
bonds to a specific person and to a specific place.

Stigma of Foster Families: Against the

Children
Society sees youths in foster care as troubled, hardened, aggressive, delinquent,
irresponsible, and even dangerous. In reality, though, children in foster care are good
kids. They are unfortunately given the wrong set of cards in life. They are responsible
and expect a lot out of themselves. It takes the support of the public and the
caseworkers to positively influence their lives.
The public also thinks that most kids are put into the system because of neglect or
abuse. Although these two are viable reasons, in 2002, of the 3 million child abuse
cases, 900,000 were confirmed victims, but only a fifth of them were placed into foster
homes. Most cases were deemed unnecessary for foster care involvement.
Also, contrary to popular belief that most kids receive governmental aid, only 40% of
children and their caretakers in the system get financial aid from the government. Even
then, it is not enough to sustain the individual child.

Stigma of Foster Families: Against the

Parents
A common misconception of foster parents is that they foster for the
money from government. In reality, governmental aid does not nearly
cover enough basic expenses for the children. The average monthly
financial aid the government gives for a 9 year old is $420. However, the
parents find the monthly living expenses to be at around $780 for the
same child. Foster parents usually foster because of the reward they get
for helping someone in need out.
The other myth is that foster parents usually do not adopt their foster
kids. In reality, in 2001, 61% of foster parents went on to adopt their
foster children.
The belief that there is abuse in foster households is also incorrect.
Although 80% of the children who enter the system were abused, less
than 1% of foster parents actually abuse their foster children.

Biological and Adoptive/ Foster Parents Partnership

Getting acquainted with biological parents does not undermine
the adoptive parents. In fact, in an unconditionally loving and
safe environment, both groups of parents can form healthy
attachments with their children, positively shaping and
influencing their identities. Both groups of parents can co-parent
the child together. Although it is difficult, it is important not to
judge the birth parents for their setbacks and previous failures to
their own children. It is rather important to get them emotionally
healthy enough to support their birth children.

Inequalities in the Foster Care

System
Native Americans and African Americans, seeing as though they constitute the poorest races in America,
are the largest demographics in foster care, relative to their demographics in the country as a whole. In
2013, there were 13% of African American children in the country, but 26% of them in the system.
Similarly, Native American children made up 0.9% in society but 2% in the system.

It is a long held belief that the poorer the family of the child is, the more likely the child will face
maltreatment. When comparing a family with $30,000 annual income to a family with $15,000 annual
income, abuse was 22 times more likely to occur in the latters household. It is important to note that
abuse in the foster care system is synonymous with poverty. Thus, social workers tend to discriminate
against the Native Americans and African Americans, taking their children away on the basis of money,
whether or not actual physical, developmental, or emotional abuse exists.
Of course, poverty is likely to elicit actual abuse, as the neighborhood environment or the household
environment is actually not safe for children.
Some psychologists and sociologists point to unconscious racial bias for the disproportionate number of
blacks and Native Americans in the system. The powerful white, who control the foster care system, have
an unconscious racial bias against these minorities.

How to Fix the Foster System?

Strengthening the tie between a child and his birth family is important. There are parents that truly want to

raise their children, but they just are not able to due to alcoholism, drug abuse, or emotional problems that
lead to violence. What the government can do is start spending money on family-strengthening services.
Of course, it should also take account of the needs of the child and the condition of home life first.
Sometimes keeping a child with his birth parents can do more harm than good, and in such case, foster
care is more appropriate. But even if foster care is necessary, the system and the foster parents should
keep the birth parents in the loop, if they are emotionally healthy and stable enough, that is. The system
also needs to better train caseworkers to competently handle complex and unpredictable cases. In
addition, the system should also not overwork them too much. It is not fair that they are out there taking
care of other families, when they do not even have time to pick their own kids up from school. More
money should be allocated to quality mental health services, too. This is crucial because someone needs
to help a child cope with the grief of leaving his birth parents. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of
1997 rushes the foster child adoption way too quickly, as it attempts to give the child a permanent home. It
fails to recognize that the child needs time to deal with his own grief of leaving behind his birth parents.
Such grief is more complicated than grieving for dead parents because the latter is indeed permanent and
the child can come to an eventual closure. So long as the birth parents is still alive, though, the child will
find it problematic to accept the reality of leaving them. He therefore acts out behaviorally, talking back to
teachers and skipping school. Furthermore, the system can de-stigmatize foster care by monitoring the
conversation from the news media and politicians about foster care, making sure that nothing
inappropriate is said. And when it is said, it should find a way to speak out to or about them. It can also destigmatize the system by educating the public about foster care. Lastly, the last slide said that one of the
major inequality issues of the foster care system is that it employs an unconscious racial discrimination,
keeping minorities a large demographic in the system. The best way to solve the issue is for the
government to pass anti-discrimination laws in the foster care system, as it does in the work force.

Foster Care Portrayed in the Media: The Fosters

The Fosters is one of the few mainstream television shows that

depicts the dynamics of a foster family. It stars two interracial moms
raising a biological son, Brandon, and two sets of foster siblings,
Mariana and Jesus and Callie and Jude. Mariana and Jesuss
biological mother, a drug addict, gave them up as children, as she
saw herself unfit to be their caregiver. Callie and Judes biological
father killed their mother, while driving under the influence. After
going from house to house, both sets of siblings ended up getting
adopted into the loving and permanent Addams-Fosters household.
The show explores many profound sociological issues, such as the
roles of the biological and adoptive members of a family and what
makes up a family.

How Accurate is The Fosters ?

NPR went inside a foster family in Washington D.C. to get their reaction to the show, when it first came out.
A journalist asked if the show is realistic, and Jamie Smith, an 18-year-old foster child, gave an affirmative
answer. Her two foster moms, Meg Gibbon and Angela Pelletier, thought so, too. They liked the way the
show depicts the mixed feelings of a foster childs adoptive parents. It also realistically shows the frustration
of navigating a new house, not knowing where to sleep or even, sometimes, dealing with abuse
Surely enough, Joanna Johnson is the one who managed the show. She is part of a biracial, lesbian couple
raising two biracial, adoptive children.
With the 2009 movie Orphan, it seems as though television and movies only depict parentless children
disparagingly. The Fosters is different in that it seeks to portray all the different nuances of teenagers in
foster care. The show is important, and there should be more like it, because it de-stigmatizes the way
society perceives foster care. (The stigma of foster care was detailed in slide #7.)
Why are there not more shows that showcases the foster system?
"I think it's hard for us as a culture to look at the ways that we're failing," reflects one of the show's creators,
Peter Paige. "We're failing some kids. There are kids without homes. How is that okay?"

Functionalist Perspective
The functionalist perspective, headed by
sociologist Emilie Durkheim, believes that each
and every societal institution is interdependent
of one another and works together to preserve
balance and social equilibrium. Every action
taken by one institution affects all other
institutions. And if one institution fails to work,
the other institutions must figure out a way to
adapt to its void. The functionalist perspective
would see that the foster families help ease the
effects of failing biologically connected families,
so that society would not have to suffer their
fallouts. Foster families are designed to help
foster kids learn to trust and be self-sufficient,
skills necessary to be successful members of
the general society.

Conflict Perspective
The conflict perspective views society as composed of different groups and
interests competing for power and resources. The conflict perspective explains
various aspects of our social world by looking at which groups have power and
benefit from a particular social arrangement. The ones with the power would try to
maintain their power by influencing the poor to agree with such arrangement
through use of media or religion. The conflict perspective would argue that certain
whites seem to get to be the first ones to be picked by potential foster parents
because they have higher social status than minorities. What is more, they have
the resources, money, to avoid getting put into the foster system, to begin with.
Money leads to security in the household and neighborhood environments, so that
those who have it are less likely to enter the foster care system.

Bibliography/ Websites Used

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http://family.findlaw.com/foster-care/foster-care-background-and-history.html
http://adoption.about.com/od/fostering/f/why_are_children_in_foster_care.htm
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