Artis 1

Savion Artis

Rhetoric & Civic Life II

Jan Babcock

April 9th, 2021

The Lack Of Fostering In Care

The American foster care system has made many strides in the cultivation of an efficient

and just environment for abandoned children. However, the foster care system has proven to be

highly inefficient in its efforts of protecting and sustaining these children as promised.

Specifically, the major systematic defects that take place within the system entail the horrendous

efforts in effectively safe-keeping children, the inadequate training of foster parents, the lack of

supervision over foster parents, the inattentiveness in tending to childrens’ psychological needs,

and the lowly efforts in providing late-adolescents with the means for living after their

mandatory departure from the system (at 21 years of age). With this being said, youth

homelessness and abuses of all kinds run rampant within the system as a result of a very poor and

ineffective system structure.1 Specifically, under-qualified foster parents and overwhelmed,

negligent, overworked, and/or underpaid social/case workers are factors that allow the tragedies

of abuse and homelessness within the system to occur.

In addition, the psychological needs of foster children across the U.S are often never met;

leaving these children prey to progression in their traumas and mental illness accrued from

before, during, and even after their time in foster care.2 Here, a lack of strategy in providing and

effectively regulating child welfare services is what only contributes to the mass prevalence of

mental illness within the system. This, in turn, ends up putting these kids at a psychological and

1
The Truth About Foster Care In America
2
Foster Care Abuse | Child Abuse In Foster Care
 Artis 2

emotional disadvantage in life early on which ultimately ends up hampering their abilities in

self-sustainment. Overall, the increasingly large number of kids in the American foster care

system who have had to endure many abuses, impending homelessness, and a negligence

towards their mental wellbeing is a testament to the fact that a reform in the policies contained

within the system is of the essence for the warding of such corruption. With this being said, a

systematic reformation in pertinence to factors such as federal appliance, children’s rights, child

healthcare service investments, regulated psychological service, former-foster kid safe-keeping,

foster parent training, and the annual case worker salary will be proposed as potential corrections

to the American foster care system’s flawed approach in effectively safe-keeping children…
3 4

3
COVID-19 could send more foster care kids into homelessness. We're working to stop it
4
Sex Trafficking
 Artis 3

In America, more than 400,000 kids are admitted to foster homes daily with 100,000 kids

anticipating a hopeful adoption.5 From

homelessness to child trafficking, many

children who have been left without

suitable, competent, and willing caretakers

have had to also bear the detriments

inclusive to a system that promised new

beginnings. Instead, the broken policies of

the foster care system ends up causing

them even more suffering and trauma.

Nevertheless, only 53% of primary

caretakers regain custody of their children

according to statistics. This is especially a

devastating feat as many children have to

face the chancy realities that they may

never reunite with their biological or

primary caretaker(s). In addition, there is

an estimated average of only 9 years in age

when kids are initially admitted into the system. Also, these kids can spend up to two years or

more waiting to be adopted from their respective foster home.6

5
6.1: Child Abuse, Neglect, and Foster Care
6
The Current State of Foster Care
 Artis 4

Of course, it does not help when these kids are also being raised in a system that harbors

many deficits in its framework. In particularity, physical abuse in foster homes has been shown

to be three times higher than that of the general public.7 Additionally, sexual abuse in foster care

has been shown to be four times higher than that of the general public; with the relative

frequency increasing the probability of this up to 28 in group homes!8 Group homes are

alternative residences that a group of kids are put in when standard foster homes are not available

(also regulated by the FCS). Foster kids placed in group homes can suffer even worse fates due

to the large amount of potentially troubled/misguided kids that can reside in the same home.

Ultimately, abuses ring heavy in foster homes which only contributes to a child’s incapabilities in

self-sustainment later on. The mass negligence displayed among caseworkers are direct reasons

as to why these tragic realities recur, although the inefficiencies displayed among such workers

can only be enabled from the systematic policies in pertinence to the regulation of social workers

overall.

With regards to youth homelessness, over 20,000 late-adolescents a year age out of the

foster care system and are abruptly left without any financial and emotional support.9 This

statistic backbones the fact that these young individuals are often left completely by the system

to fend for themselves despite all of their setbacks. As a result, an astounding number of these

young adults face homelessness due to the lack of financial, social, and psychological support. In

addition to homelessness, former foster kids have shown a statistical inclination in increased

risks for crime affiliation, and decreased chances of succeeding in education or maintaining

employment.

7
Children in Foster Care Report Higher Rates of Sexual Abuse
8
The Nordic Committee for Human Rights - Foster Care vs. Family Preservation
9
About the children - AdoptUSKids
 Artis 5

In pertinence to the psychological aspects, statistics also show that an overwhelming

amount of the foster youth falls victim to substance (alcohol/drug) dependencies as well as

post-traumatic stress disorder.

These post-tragic effects from their

time before and during foster care

have been shown to be especially

prevalent in comparison to the

general youth population.

Ultimately, all of these statistics

and parameters only elaborate; and

depict a sense of urgency that is

needed to be taken for a

reformation with regards to the

foster care system’s faulty and

ineffective strategies in

safe-keeping pained and

unfortunate children.10

In essence, children and

late-adolescents/young adults who

were and still are in the foster care

system are, specifically and

discernibly, are the central victims of these statistical summaries. With the seriousness, urgency,
10
The Current State of Foster Care
 Artis 6

and severity of this issue being affirmed, we can more closely analyze the specifics in the

American foster care system’s paradoxical influences as they apply to an unfortunate sector of

our youth. With this being said, children in the foster care system face neglect and many abuses

while ultimately worsening in their mental health; with the lowly and tactless efforts by the

system in providing foster kids with adequate and routine psychological services. With the lack

of supervision over unqualified foster parents who have not received an efficient form of training

and the inattentiveness and unprofessionalism displayed among many social workers, many

cases attest to a sickening amount of foster children having been sexually, physically, and

verbally abused by either their foster parents or other foster kids within the same home. Also,

child trafficking is in a heavy positive correlation with foster homes; with roughly 60% of all sex

trafficking victims in America having histories in child welfare services such as the foster care.11

In essence, children’s rights are neglected by the foster care system when these atrocities occur,

and continue to recur.

Furthermore, late-adolescents and young adults that must transition from the support of

the foster care system to financially, psychologically, and emotionally sustaining themselves

have been shown to correlate greatly with impending homelessness. To specify, roughly 50% of

adolescents or young adults aging out of foster care will be homeless within six months

according to the Covenant House Institute.12 Elaborately, this heartbreaking statistic and

correlation is a direct result of these former foster childrens’ unpreparedness in living

independently; an unpreparedness that can only be blamed by the foster care system itself for not

ensuring that these young individuals are at least equipped with the means of surviving on their

11
Sex Trafficking
12
Statistics on Homeless Youth in America.
 Artis 7

own. Only upon such preparedness should a young individual be left to fend for himself/herself,

but this is frequently never the case.

Nonetheless, in order to impose a catalyst for the reform in the foster care system’s

current policies, it is only plausible to fully recognize and understand these policies. With this

being said, we must first know how the foster care system currently operates in order to identify

the flaws and deficits that take place. After a thorough comprehension of the issue at hand, we

would then be able to draw conclusions and suggest potential solutions. This is exactly how I

intend to approach this issue; and I want to do this not only to provide background information

that I feel will be essential to this topic, but to also really assure and highlight the severities of

the issue at hand and how this issue might cease to reside in its current state upon

implementation of the corrections proposed later on in this issue paper. With this, we can start off

with a key question: what is foster care and how does it operate?

Foster care is a system that governs the extraction, reception, and sustainment of children

whose biological or primary caregivers have lost legal rights to their children due to

abandoning/neglecting them, abusing them, or being too psychologically deterred and unfit for

parenthood. Although the government is in charge of regulating how foster care is supposed to

operate, the foster care system is dominantly state-run; in the form of independent, non-profit,

and state-licensed organizations.13 Therefore, each state governs their own foster care unit and

has a varying set of policies in place for the functioning of their own individual system.

Furthermore, this system will assign temporary foster homes to an abandoned, abused, or

neglected child until their primary caregiver can work to legally regain custody of them. If not,

then the child will remain in the system until a suitable parent is willing to adopt them or until

they age out; at 21 years of age. During a child’s time in foster care, they are usually assigned to
13
How Foster Care Works | HowStuffWorks
 Artis 8

many foster homes and can be assigned to any available foster home at any point in time. As one

might deduct, this lack of permanence can further contribute to a foster child’s emotional and

psychological turmoils.

Nevertheless, before aspiring foster parents can get the chance to potentially ruin a child’s

life even more, they must first meet the basic qualifications for becoming a foster parent and then

undergo a 10-week training course; that is merely informational with no examination. This

training is called the Model Approach to Partnership in Parenting (MAPP) which is the standard

and current most popular course curriculum for aspiring foster parents.14 This training is

scheduled by social/case workers; which are licensed practitioners who are in charge of

extracting kids from corrupted homes and working with a state court to place them in suitable

foster homes.15 After a ‘qualified’ foster parent has ‘successfully’ completed their 10-week

training, social workers must facilitate home studies which entail scheduled visitations to the

foster parent’s residence to first assess whether the foster parent’s domain is a suitable

environment for children and then secondly, the parent’s capabilities in tending to their

respective foster child.16 Essentially, these caseworkers must work with the biological/primary

caregivers, the foster parents, and the child to ensure that the primary caregivers are working

towards regaining custody of their child, the foster parents are raising the child appropriately, and

that the child’s psychological needs are being met.

Overall, social workers carry a great responsibility when it comes to the child’s wellbeing

since it is their job to supervise foster parents and effectively identify and determine the child’s

psychological state of condition despite many of them simply not having such a caliber in

14
Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting (MAPP).
15
Foster Care Social Worker: Salary and Career Facts
16
Job Description of a Foster Care Caseworker
 Artis 9

expertise for doing so.17 Specifically, many social workers don’t obtain caseworker-related

degrees in alignment with the identification of potential mental illnesses among children that

may deviate from the “expected” psychological deficits (in the FCS) into an ailment much more

severe. A degree in psychology would possibly make a social worker qualified for such

observations, but even then, professionally identifying severe mental illness is a clinical practice;

one that social workers do not dabble in during their education. Nevertheless, as foster children

age into late-adolescents and essentially near their departure from the system, it is also a social

worker’s duty to maintain and provide support to these young adults; even after they “age out.” 18

With all of these responsibilities, a social worker’s annual salary is only a mere estimate of

$46,000.19

In order to ensure a generous reduction in the amount of homelessness, abuse, and overall

corruption that prevails within the American foster care system, essential reformations need to be

made to the policies that are currently in place. With a decent understanding in the American

foster care system’s workings, an appliance of this knowledge can now be implemented when

contemplating sound solutions to the issues of the system. Elaboratively, I will now propose

seven key changes that must be made in order for the corruptions within the system to be greatly

reduced. In other words, I will now resurface the essential systematic reformations that I spoke

of earlier; entailing federal appliance, child healthcare service investments, children’s freedom of

speech, regulated psychological service, former-foster kid safe-keeping, foster parent training,

and the annual caseworker salary.

With that being said, the first policy change that I want to enforce is a governmental

shifting of the foster care system from mere state-by-state regulation to more of a federal

17
Most States Fail to Meet the Mental Health Needs of Foster Children - National Center for Youth Law
18
Foster Care Social Worker: Salary and Career Facts
19
Job Description of a Foster Care Caseworker
 Artis 10

regulation in that the federal government has a conspicuous and dominant hand in the workings

of the system. In essence, the laws in pertinence to the current state-run approach in applying

foster care services must be shifted in that the overarching federal government is primarily or at

least mostly responsible in directly ensuring that each state is meeting the child welfare service

standards; and essentially carrying out foster children’s rights. This will in turn, hold the state

more accountable rather than having each state operate individually and independently. In

addition, this will also create a uniformity in any laws that is in reverence to the foster care

system that the federal government might impose, so that no state is doing significantly better or

worse than the other in upholding federal expectations. Ultimately, state structure to federal

structure is my first recommendation as this will ward the lazy or ineffective approaches that

many states take in their individual foster care organizations.

Furthermore, the second policy change that I want to enforce is the restructuring of the

Model Approach to Partnership in Parenting (MAPP), the 30 hour, 10-week training course that

prospective foster parents have to undergo. To elaborate, this short training course is merely

informational in that although it introduces aspiring foster parents to a wide-range of information

in relation to effectively caring for children, there is no method in place for testing these

individual’s proficiency and comprehension of the content. In other words, there is no

examination in this training course. This is especially troublesome in that aspiring foster parents

really only have to meet the basic age, literacy, competency, and home requirements to become a

parent to children that may not be easy to tend to as a result of their tattered upbringings. With no

examination in the training course, or a way to essentially gauge whether or not an individual

would be a suitable and psychologically sound parent, how can we be sure that potential child
 Artis 11

abusers are not edging their way to foster-parental legality? Without a more rigorous method of

training, we cannot be.

By implementing a more extensive, substantial, and rigorous training for especially

taking care of kids that have experienced wicked tragedies, less unqualified (and potentially

malignant) individuals will be able to become foster parents. This can be done by implementing

multiple exams throughout the training course to assure an aspiring parent’s comprehension of

foster parenting. Also, the training should span on for at least 100-200 hours as opposed to the

standard 30 hour training. These individuals will be dealing with children. It is one thing for

these individuals to pass the criminal record screening process and have a decent and appropriate

home, but this does nothing to attest to whether an aspiring foster parent is actually

psychologically sound enough to care for a child. Training is key to the prevention of potential

parent abusers.

Nevertheless, the third policy change that I want to enforce is in pertinence to the

enabling of foster children’s right to freedom of speech. To elaborate on this, many foster

children who undergo abuse from their foster parent(s) behind closed doors are almost always

too afraid to speak up. This lack of confession is a psychologically known (and prevalent) factor

accredited by the American Psychological Association. However, the foster care system as a

whole still fails to accommodate this psychological impediment; with social workers only ever

being required to visit, observe, and question a foster child’s experience and comfortability with

the foster parent while still within the foster home (with the foster parent)! By doing this, the

system is not allowing for these children’s freedom of speech; for anything the child would want

to confess to his/her caseworker will likely be inhibited out of fear and hopelessness.
 Artis 12

With this, the foster care system should allow for these children to more likely voice their

foster-experiences by mandating that social workers are only to question a child outside of the

foster home and in the absence of the foster parent. As a result of doing this, children will feel

less primed and more free to speak their experience with his/her foster parent or even their

experience with any other foster children that may reside in the same home. However, in order

for this policy change to be a possibility, case/social workers need to be professionally operating

at a caliber that is in alignment with this proposal; and this leads into my next policy change;

increasing the annual salary of case/social workers.

Essentially, social workers receive an annual salary that is roughly $46,000. Given all the

responsibilities that a social worker has to uphold, especially when in relations to the foster care

system, this salary is extremely miniscule! Specifically, a caseworker is responsible for working

with primary caregivers to support reunification as well as foster parents to provide aid. They are

burdened with the task of physically extracting kids from the homes of unsuitable primary

caregivers. They must also tend to the foster child and assure that his/her mental state is being

accounted for and that the child is not being neglected or abused while with her/his assigned

foster parent. On top of this, these workers must facilitate home studies, and schedule

prospective foster parents’ training courses.

Since many social workers find themselves overwhelmed with so many foster families to

supervise and tend to, a viable option would be to increase their annual salary to at least $66,000.

This would be a more fair salary given the horrors social workers themselves have to bear in

mental health clinics, nursing homes, and foster care functions. These are not easy environments

to work in. In essence, my fourth suggested policy change; entailing the increase in the annual

salary of social workers could potentially motivate a mass willingness in more individuals for
 Artis 13

becoming social workers and thus gradually allow for a more equal distribution of family cases

per caseworker. With this, social workers will be better able and motivated to perform more

efficiently. However, there are still aspects of the system that social workers cannot control.

Elaboratively, this includes the lack of mental health services available for foster

children. To specify, one of the biggest reasons that there is always a mass unavailability in

psychological services is because not enough money is being put into it; yet multi-million dollar

reality TV and game shows exist. In essence, mental health services are not being prioritized

enough. Investments for a cause as integral as mental illness should be made with no problems at

all; especially for kids in foster care where mental illness runs rampant as a result of the abuses,

traumas, and neglect that these individuals have to endure.This also includes the crippling effects

that the lack of permanence in familial relationships elicit. By investing more into this cause,

more foster kids will be able to access the psychological services that they crucially need; and

this is my fifth proposed policy change.

Nevertheless and as said before, there are many social/case workers that are not

professionally qualified to pinpoint whether a foster child is in need of psychological/psychiatric

evaluation. Elaborately, many do not have a bachelors in psychology; and even if they did, a

higher level of education is usually required for those clinical dealings. Ultimately, this

requirement imposed upon caseworkers should be replaced with my sixth recommended policy

change, mandatory and routine psychological services. Ultimately, this will allow for foster

children to receive some form of psychological treatment void of their social worker’s input (or

lack of input). This treatment would be mandatory in that it is absolutely required and routine in

that these children would be treated without all of the restrictions that the initiation process

ensues. In turn, social workers would not have to bear the burden of trying to identify foster kids
 Artis 14

that warrant more extensive psychological treatment. This is not in their field of expertise and it

shows when a lot of them attempt to carry out this feat to no avail.

Another feat that many caseworkers seem to carry to no avail is the supporting of former

foster kids. With this, I propose my last proposed policy change; the systematic and mandatory

safe-keeping of former foster children. Specifically, once a late adolescent has ‘aged out’ of the

system, policies should gear towards these young individuals ceasing to be unsupported by the

system until they are fully equipped with the necessary means for survival. These means would

include a high school diploma, special services to support early parenthood, priority access to

psychological services, opportunities for an expunged juvenile record, and employment. Only

when these individuals have these necessities should they be considered “prepared” enough to

sustain themselves. Ultimately, this policy would ensure that young adults with prior experience

in the foster care system are prepared before they are dropped from the system completely.

Conclusively, The American foster care system has come a long way from what it used to

be when concerning its efficiency and effectiveness in providing a safe haven for unfortunate

children who have been done wrong by the world. Even so, the system still has deficits and

detriments that are tragically etched within the minds of countless kids. This includes the neglect,

youth homelessness, and many abuses that persist significantly; and continue to persist. These

occurrences are due to the major systemic defects that take place within the system for which

include the tactless efforts in effectively safe-keeping children, the inadequate training of foster

parents, the lack of supervision over foster parents, the inattentiveness in tending to children’s’

psychological needs, and the lowly efforts in providing late-adolescents with the means for living

after their mandatory departure from the system (at 21 years of age).
 Artis 15

Ultimately, by implementing my seven key proposals in the reformation of the American

foster care system’s current policies, the corruption that takes place would drastically be reduced

as each proposal attempts to resolve each key impediment committed by the system. Specifically,

by incorporating federal accountability in the foster care system’s functions, appealing to foster

children’ right to freedom of speech, increasing the annual caseworker salary, investing in mental

health services while offering mandatory, routine availability, and offering systematic support to

young adults who have aged out of the system, the overtly ‘corrupt’ reputation of the American

foster system can potentially be absolved. Overall, the increasingly large number of kids in the

American foster care system who have to endure many abuses, impending homelessness, and a

negligence towards their mental wellbeing are testaments to the fact that a reform in the policies

contained within the system is of the essence for the warding of such corruption. The proposed

policy changes contained within this issue paper offer potential solutions in pertinence to the

ineffective policies of the foster care system that are currently in place.
 Artis 16

Footnote Links

● Homeless Former Foster Kids

○ Too many foster care kids end up homeless. We're working to stop that

(azcentral.com)

○ Most States Fail to Meet the Mental Health Needs of Foster Children - National

Center for Youth Law

○ Statistics on Homeless Youth in America | Covenant House

○ About the children in the foster care system.

● Abuse In the Foster Care System

○ 6.1: Child Abuse, Neglect, and Foster Care - Social Sci LibreTexts

○ Foster Care Abuse | Child Abuse In Foster Care (fuchsberg.com)

○ Children in Foster Care Report Higher Rates of Sexual Abuse

○ Sex Trafficking

● Foster Parent Training

○ Being trained - AdoptUSKids

○ Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting (MAPP)

● Mental Health of Foster Kids

○ National Center for Youth Law | Most States Fail to Meet the Mental Health

Needs of Foster Children - National Center for Youth Law

● How The Foster Care System Operates

○ The Organization - How Foster Care Works | HowStuffWorks

○ Foster Care Social Worker: Salary and Career Facts

○ Job Description of a Foster Care Caseworker (study.com)

 Artis 17

● Infographics:

○ The Current State of Foster Care