The broken foster care system in America. Accepted (1/4/04) for publication in the July/August 2004 issue of Fostering Families Today Magazine.

I ask the aformentioned question as a survivor of the
foster care system of the 1950s and 1960s.

How many more children need be lost, abused, killed or
languish within the foster care system? How long
before America wakes up and realizes the system is
broken and demand changes?

One would think with all the progress we as a society
have made in so many areas we would have improved a
system that has been failing youth for decades.

I was placed within the foster care system at birth
due to being a child of an unwed mother during a time
when such things were kept under wraps. The purpose
was to place me for adoption.

By the time I was two years old rather than being
adopted I was placed within two institutions and four
foster homes. When I reached my eleventh birthday this
had increased to a total of four institutions and
eleven foster homes. No, I was not a special needs
child nor was I a youth in trouble.

Fortunately, the system made one wise choice for me by
sending me to Boys Town, Nebraska at age eleven. This
was to be my home for the next seven years. It was
here I gained my education and the other tools that
would be necessary to make it in this world.

I aged out of the system at age eighteen. That is, I
was now considered an adult and out of  the system and
on my own, ready or not.

The supposed goal of foster care is to be a temporary
guardian of a child with the intent to return one to
their natural family, or if not possible, place with
an adopted family.

The system failed me in both goals. One foster family
attempted to adopt me, not once or twice, but three
times only to have the system say no. This, despite the
fact that they placed me in this home three different
times totaling six and a half years. They were good enough
to be my foster family but not good enough to provide
me a permanent home as they wished.

We move forward over forty years and see the system is
no better today than in the past. Some would say,
myself included, that it has even worsened.

Please note, this is the system not the foster
parents. The overwhelming number of foster parents are
kind, caring people willing to take into their homes
children not their own. They many times do this at
additional emotional and financial expense to
themselves. Most don't do fostering for the money,
they do it for the love of the child. They should not
go bankrupt in the process. They often feel as
abandoned by the system as do many kids within the
system.

The system today continues to move children from one
home to another with no apparent  reason. This does
not take into account the emotional costs to
the child of being raised in a non-stable environment.
They separate siblings, often allowing no contact
between those siblings.

You can quote the Adoption and Family Safety Act of
1997 and get a totally blank look from the people who
are supposed to be in charge of enforcing the act.
They need to get "all their ducks in a row" and follow
the intent of the act which is "the best interest of
the child is uppermost". As it stands now, it's the
rights of the parents.  Their "civil rights" have to
be protected no matter how much further damage is done
to the children already scarred by the placement in
the system.

How many times do we have to pick up the newspaper,
hear on the radio or see on television of another
foster child being abused, neglected, lost or lanquishing within the system until they are aged out or worse yet...killed.

We have all heard of the cases in Florida, Michigan,
Illinois and so many others. Just recently I even read
in the New York Times of the New Jersey system
allowing foster kids to languish in the state
hospital mental wards because they say they have no
other place to place them.

How do we expect most kids within the system, for
whatever reason, to make it in life with such
instability throughout their most formative years?

We say, "children are our most valuable asset" but our
actions do not show it. The current phrase today is,
"leave no child behind." Yet thousands are left behind
within the foster care system each and every year.

In too many ways it seems to me that our "real"
national attitude towards children was summed up long
ago, when W. C.  Fields uttered that classic line, "Go
away, kid--you bother me!" Kids in need can be such a
bother, can't they? So much easier to stuff them away
in mental wards and the like where the public doesn't
have to see, hear or deal with them! If they start to
act out--if they start to become troublesome
delinquents as they grow older--why, let's label them
as the criminals they obviously are and throw them
into the prison system where they belong.

I am grateful the system gave up on me at age eleven
and allowed me to go to Nebraska as it gave me an
opportunity to make it. Thousands have not been as
lucky as I.

I wonder how many men and women within our prison
systems or cemeteries today started life within the
foster care system. Yes, as adults we are each
responsible for the decisions in life that we make.
However, children look to adults to provide the tools
necessary for making the right decisions. In many
cases the system fail these young people in
supplying those tools and we have seen the
results of that failure.

We as a nation can no longer afford to allow the
foster care system  to continue on its present course.
We cannot allow thousands of lives to be discarded
into the dumpster of failure. We have a moral
obligation to make "leave no child behind" a reality.

The foster system needs to be overhauled. Red tape
must be removed for willing families to adopt.
Families can and should include single parents. Yes,
it would be nice if every child had a two parent
home...but it is more important that each child have a
home full of love, nurturing and caring. This type of
family should also include willing gay/lesbian
couples.

Better monitoring of case workers needs to be
established. Too many case worker reports we are
finding out are untrue or not written at all. Too many
case workers are more concerned about protecting their
jobs rather than protecting the children placed within
their care. I recognize there are also many good case
workers in the field. They, unfortunately, in many
cases are overwhelmed by the number of cases they are
responsible for. The brightest and the best usually
leave the system themselves after a few years either
burned out or recognizing the ever exceeding failures
of the system.

Children and their best interest must be made a
priority within the system. If we as a society
continue to allow the foster care system to fail the
children within their care then we can bear the cost
in both physical as well as monetary terms. We will
have no one to blame but ourselves.

I consider the treatment of youth within today's
foster care system to be intolerable.

When will those responsible for the actions of the
foster care system be held accountable for their
actions or inaction's?

Would it be different for children caught up in the
foster care system merry go round if they had the
right to vote? Would politicians be less likely to
ignore the needs of those stuck in the laughably named
"child welfare system" if children were a militant
political constituency? Who knows! As it is, it's
entirely too easy for needs of kids to be ignored.

We all need to become involved and demand our
legislators, community leaders and the foster care
system itself provide the best opportunity possible
for each and every child to make it rather than lead
them to failure. If we don't...then we have no cause
to complain with the results. We can pay nor or pay
even more later!

If action is not taken it may be time for those failed
by the system to sue those very systems for the damage
done to them. Maybe if they were forced to pay for
their failures they might concentrate more on
providing the best possible care in the very best
interest of the child placed within their care...it's
a thought!


© 2003 Lawrence P. Adams
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED