Foster care - good or evil?

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About three years ago my son's baby momma left his kids with her younger brother while she traveled to where he was because she thought he had money and that he should be giving to her. while she was away from her kids she got arrested and spent some time in jail so she couldn't get right back. Things were not going so well for this younger brother and as a result someone reported that the children were being neglected. Unfortunately, when the department of family and children services showed up they apparently found enough reason to remove the children from the home. We tried to get the kids placed in our care but we were working across state lines and state governments don't like to cooperate very much with each other. So, I sent my son back to where the kids were so he could follow up there. When their mom was released she went home too and they worked together to provide a home adequate to satisfy the department but the department kept dragging their heels. Eventually the mom fell off the wagon and stopped cooperating with the department. The fact that they didn't have transportation and every appointment they needed to attend was in a neighboring town it made it really difficult. The department was almost to the point of severing the mothers rights completely and for some reason could not read the paternity papers properly to rule that my son was indeed their father. So I came down and to help. I quickly figured out where the problem was. Two of the children were born out of state and that states paternity papers were written up differently. So, I took the papers, turned to the relevant passage that proved paternity and showed each one to the district attorney and the children's attorney. Then they understood them and that barrier was removed. It didn't take long for the judge to decide that my son was indeed a fit parent and awarded him custody. During all this time we were getting glowing reports of what good foster homes they were in and how well they were doing, I expected their would be some transition problems moving them back home even though the kids maintained all along they wanted to come home. I figured the first few weeks to a couple of months it would take some effort to acclimatize them to living at home and to reassure them that this would be the last change of adults in their lives. But I was totally unprepared for the behavior patterns they have developed in the last three plus years. For one thing I have concluded that the glowing reports I got were highly doctored. They had the two oldest kids 7 and 6 on amphetamines claiming they were ADHD. They had the youngest one on some type of allergy medicine that probably worked in a similar way. I immediately stopped the meds and took them to our family doctor who was shocked that they would do that. They also said the oldest was asthmatic. She is not and they are not ADHD either. What I think happened was they picked up on the behavior of a child in one of the homes that was ADHD and saw how much attention that behavior got him so they adopted the same behavior to get their share of the attention. I have also been told that foster parents are not allowed leeway to discipline the children in their care so if a child is acting out (and which one wouldn't after being snatched from everyone they knew and placed with strangers) they medicate them to maintain control. A lot of what did go on in the homes they were placed in has come to light from school papers that were given me showing discipline problems. One even had a note from the foster mother in reply that said that the child was acting this way at school and at her home because she wanted to go home with their daddy. Tell me kids ain't smart. So, now, after three plus years in foster care with no discipline and inappropriate medication I have my work cut out for me to modify their behavior. But like I keep telling my son, they didn't get like this overnight and we are not going to be able to fix it overnight.