Is The Foster Care Program Broken?
@DeborahDiane (40843)
Laguna Woods, California
October 6, 2016 10:35am CST
I have to confess that I have had very little contact with the foster care program. Years ago, I had a friend who fostered newborn babies prior to their adoption. Other than that, I never thought much about the program.
Consequently, I was horrified yesterday to hear two key statistics on the evening news:
Within 18 months of aging out of the foster care program (when they turn age 18), 36% of former foster kids are homeless!
Amazingly, the reason some of the remaining kids are not homeless is because they are in prison. Approximately 70% of the people in the California prison system are former foster kids!
These statistics came out because a group in California has purchased a home where a half-dozen former foster girls can live for a few years while they go to community college and get on their feet. The group hopes to buy another house to provide temporary housing for boys.
That sounds nice ... but will only take care of about a dozen foster kids at a time. That's not even a drop in the bucket!
Obviously, something needs to be done on a major scale. We need to create outrage in our states and communities until more programs are created to provide support for kids as they age out of foster care. This would not only help them, but society as a whole.
Dumping foster kids on the street only endangers their lives and increases drug addiction and crime.
This situation makes me mad. What about you? 
17 people like this
17 responses
@LadyDuck (502190)
• Italy
6 Oct 16
I have to say that I have never fully understood this "foster care program", this is something that does not exist in the countries where I was born and I lived. Kids are given for adoption, or they stay in an institute, but they do not stay in one family to move away when they are grown up. This sounds pretty bad to me.
5 people like this
@PatZAnthony (14749)
• Charlotte, North Carolina
6 Oct 16
The point of letting children be with a family is to allow them a normal life. An institution can't do this. The kids are not guilty of anything.
6 people like this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
6 Oct 16
@LadyDuck - I think the point of the foster care program was that officials thought kids would be better off living in families than in institutions. However, I wonder now if that is true. If the kids are ending up homeless or in jail, it doesn't sound to me that most of the foster parents are able to do a good job raising the kids, and they are not staying in touch to help them after they become adults. If foster parents do not want to continue a relationship with the kids after the government stops paying for their care, the foster parents are probably doing it for money, not for love.
6 people like this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
6 Oct 16
@PatZAnthony - I agree that the kids are not guilty of anything, which makes this even more tragic. Now I wonder if institutions could do any worse. If the kids are ending up homeless or in jail, it doesn't sound to me that most of the foster parents are able to do a good job raising the kids, and they are not staying in touch to help them after they become adults. If foster parents do not want to continue a relationship with the kids after the government stops paying for their care, the foster parents are probably doing it for money, not for love.
2 people like this
@mom210 (9170)
• United States
7 Oct 16
I am not sure if it is this way everywhere but I do know that here they get paid for taking these kids in. There are people who use it as a source of income. That does not seem right to me. I know that there is expense with taking care of extra kids, I am just not sure that people should be able to use it as an income. Seems like the people who want the income are not the people that should be helping to raise some of these kids. It needs to be people with a big heart and who want to help the kids excel in life. Finding the right people to help these kids may be the answer to keeping them from being homeless and getting in prison.
3 people like this
@mom210 (9170)
• United States
8 Oct 16
@DeborahDiane I am curious, have you investigated what other countries do in these situations?
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Oct 16
@mom210 - I agree that money is probably the reason many of these families take in kids ... and the kids probably realize it pretty quickly. We are destroying this kids, and there has to be a better system.
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (97912)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
6 Oct 16
That's not fair at all. Time for those with major wallets to open up and do some good where it is really needed.
2 people like this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
6 Oct 16
@RasmaSandra - It certainly is not fair to put these kids into a system that seems to set them up for failure. I agree that some people need to open up their wallets and do some real good.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238268)
• Walnut Creek, California
15 Oct 16
As you know, I've been working close to this system for two decades. I do not have a solution. Everything we do is one kid at a time. Why do so many kids wind up in foster care in the first place? The issue lies with the sperm and egg donors. But how do we help/educate them? And the questions go on and on.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Oct 16
It is shameful to take these troubled kids, raise them in a (hopefully) structured and loving environment and then, as you say, dump them.
3 people like this
@PatZAnthony (14749)
• Charlotte, North Carolina
6 Oct 16
Often the teens want to get away from the structured environment. Some see those trying to help as the ones that caused the problem that resulted in their parents losing custody.
3 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Oct 16
@DeborahDiane How awful that is!
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
6 Oct 16
@JamesHxstatic - Apparently, most of these kids are not being raised in a structured and loving environment. They are often sent from home to home. It is so sad. I agree they they should not be dumped when they turn 18. It makes it impossible for them to get a college education, job training or even have family to visit for holidays. So sad.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
6 Oct 16
As a nation, we really don't give a flying F--- about children. This is proof. Foster children are given a full ride to college, but not a place to live. What the heck is up with that? A person/nation is judged by how they treat the weakest of them. We fail.
2 people like this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Oct 16
@ElizabethWallace - I was stunned recently to discover that a large number of Cal State students throughout the state of California are homeless ... either couch surfing or sleeping in their cars. How can any student expect to do well under those circumstances?
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
10 Oct 16
@ElizabethWallace - I agree! There's got to be a way to give these kids a better start!
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
9 Oct 16
@DeborahDiane Makes no sense to me either. There should be low cost dorms available.
1 person likes this
@1hopefulman (45111)
• Canada
12 Oct 16
I try not ton get upset over anything as it seems that whatever man touches leads to poor results. We are simply unable to find real solutions. We need God's kingdom! If things continue the way they are going between the USA and Russia, we might be close to a real solution. See Daniel 2:44
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
13 Oct 16
@1homefulman - I hope that Trump does not destroy the world ... although many people believe he could, if he got into power. Let's hope that God leads people in a different direction.
1 person likes this
@crazyhorseladycx (39503)
• United States
8 Oct 16
sadly many folks're doin' foster care jest fer the tax free money, with not much care to those they're 'pposed to be tendin'. i find those stats most heartbreakin' :(
1 person likes this
@crazyhorseladycx (39503)
• United States
10 Oct 16
@DeborahDiane yes ma'am, one'd think so - sadly such aint true :( i feel fer 'em horribly.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Oct 16
@crazyhorseladycx - I find these statistics to be heartbreaking, too. Surely we can do better by these kids.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
11 Oct 16
@crazyhorseladycx - I agree. I feel horribly for these foster kids, too.
1 person likes this
@DianneN (254949)
• United States
9 Oct 16
I think your report is abominable! I've had foster care children in my classrooms in a few schools when I taught. Most were a sorry lot then. I bought them winter coats, hats, mittens, and a few of them boots. The foster parents treated them so badly. I'm not surprised, but disgusted.
1 person likes this
@just4him (323168)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
7 Oct 16
That is so sad. We can put money in all kinds of different projects, it's time we put money in places that will help our kids, not hurt them. It's senseless to think that once they are out of foster care that homelessness and prison are the only answers for them.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Oct 16
@just4him - I agree. It broke my heart when I realized how many of these foster kids will end up either homeless or in jail. There has to be a better way to create a program that would work for more of them.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Oct 16
@JudyEv - Yes, kids who have grown up in foster homes should be given the opportunity to spend some time in safe housing when they reach adulthood ... and not just dumped out of the program.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Oct 16
@paigea - Yes, I have heard wonderful stories about foster parents who continued to have a relationship with their former foster kids for years. Sadly, that does not happen nearly enough.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
6 Oct 16
It if helps to change a few minds, I will have achieved my goal.
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Oct 16
@Yadah04 - I agree that the government should do something about this problem.
@BelleStarr (61463)
• United States
7 Oct 16
Especially these days when even the best equipped kid isn't ready to support themselves at 18, it makes no sense to do this to the most vulnerable.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Oct 16
@BelleStarr - I agree that starting out is hard enough for even a well education kid from a loving family. Throwing these vulnerable kids out of their homes only sets them up to fail.
1 person likes this
@PatZAnthony (14749)
• Charlotte, North Carolina
6 Oct 16
It has been broken for years. However, there are programs there to help, but many young people want to 'run' as fast as they can away the system. We have had several foster children and know their thoughts on this. Things should change, but they won't.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
6 Oct 16
@PatZAnthony - God bless you and your family for having taken in foster children. I'm sure you did a good job, from what I know about you online. Sadly, not everyone seems to do a good job. I'm sure many young people want to run away from the system .... but there needs to be some kind of safety net to help them get on their feet. Perhaps they should receive a small allowance and the flexibility to choose to stay in dorms, hostels or "half-way" houses for a couple of years until they get job training or finish college. That would probably be far cheaper than letting them go to prison. The fact that over 1/3 of them end up homeless and many of the others end up in prison is dreadful.
@Morleyhunt (21741)
• Canada
6 Oct 16
I see too many foster parents who shouldn't be foster parents. What is the solution? I really don't know. I've seen kids thrive in foster care. I've also seen the opposite.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40843)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Oct 16
@Morleyhunt - Yes, I am sure that some kids thrive when they are in a stable foster care situation. However, it sounds as if a huge number of them are not doing well.
1 person likes this
