Preview

Foster Child Adoption Analysis

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2213 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Foster Child Adoption Analysis
The negative effects of the system on foster children prove how the system fails to improve the lives of the kids it pledges to help and how critical it is that the government make an effort to improve foster agencies. No one would argue against how much kids need responsible adults in their lives. Most children, especially foster children many of whom have suffered abuse and neglect, need someone to keep them responsible and in line until they are old enough to mature and develop their own moral code. Several studies found that foster children are at a higher risk of becoming high school dropouts, homeless, incarcerated, or addicted to drugs. In addition, reports link foster children with having 15% lower standardized test scores and …show more content…
The government must focus more on revising this in order to increase the number of adopted children. Typically, prospective parents unable to have biological children are the main people who turn to adoption. Studies found, however, that only 10-25% of all infertile couples actually pursue adoption (Newman). This means that the greater majority choose between seeking expensive infertility treatments and remaining childless. All facts point to the adoption process itself being the reason behind these low numbers. As the years passed and more protocols were installed, adoption agencies became more and more selective on who can adopt. It did this in order to ensure that children would get placed in a suitable home with caring and loving parents, especially since many of these kids already experienced severe abuse from their biological parents. All of these restrictions, however, also cause many to give up partway through the process because they feel both mentally and financially drained and typically still have many years to go before they can bring home their new child. Don Simkovich, the director of church relations at The Child Share Program, Inc., referred to the procedure as “a roller coaster of emotions, paperwork, and love that takes an adventurous spirit to navigate” (qtd. in Newman). Unfortunately, …show more content…
These arguments, however, can all be disputed. Many parents feel an immediate connection to their adopted children and those that have both biological and adopted children vouch that they feel the same level of affection towards all of their kids. John E. B. Myers, a professor of law with a focus on child abuse explains the issue, “We should socialize parents to open their minds to the idea of parenting children born to other parents and racial groups.” (qtd. in Bartholet 186). Instead, society avoids all responsibility and continues to ignore the needs of foster children. The United States’ indifference to adoption and view of the practice as not as rewarding as having biological children hurt foster children’s chances of finding a new home where they can prosper, thus placing these already vulnerable children as lower-class

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Pros And Cons Of Adoption

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Adoption is one of the topics that is discuss all over the country. Many of the topics speak on whether or not adoption is considered the right or wrong thing to do versus natural conception. Adoption is often looked at as a family’s last resort, but in several cases it is the only option for some to have a family. Many families that do go through the process of adoption can explain how it is a process that requires much patience, determination, and money. Adoption can cost anywhere from 4,500 to 40,000 dollars, according to HR magazine (Society for Human Resource Management, 2005) . This often renders many adults from proceeding with the process of adoption. Although adoption can be rigorous and expensive; it does have benefits. In order to…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Adoption has been practiced around the world since the beginning of civilization for orphaned or abandoned children. In the United States adoptions were arranged by individuals and families until the 20th century. Beginning in the mid 1900’s adoption agencies took over in helping place children in suitable homes. Adoption can be a fulfilling adventure for adopted people and their new families. The joys of having a new member or person in your life is an incredible feeling. Being an adopted person is not an identity or a disease. Adoption is the process by which one person joins a family unit that supports development of the whole person. Throughout the past years the amount of foster-care children waiting to be adopted fell from 62,759 in 2011 to 58,587 in 2012. You may hear many people arguing about if they favor or dislike adoption. What are the different mindsets of people on the subject of…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Foster Care Problems

    • 1276 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Unfortunately, abuse in foster care may not be the only challenge these children face but those who age out of the system also face other challenges such as likelihood of ending up homeless. Our foster care system needs enormous mounts of repair in order to truly protect foster children from further…

    • 1276 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Foster Care Abuse

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Introduction There are several reasons why children enter foster care such as abandonment, caregiver’s death, domestic violence, medical neglect, parent’s incarceration, physical abuse, sexual abuse, truancy, and voluntary placement. Sadly, many homes have more than one of the following issues and a child enters the foster care system for numerous reasons. Annually tens of thousands of children in the United States are placed in foster care. These children are often burdened by the unprecedented levels of domestic violence, physical, emotional, and mental abuse in their homes.…

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Foster Care System

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The foster care social service system is designed to ameliorate adverse family and environmental conditions that may interfere with typical child development. Currently, the system provides both interim and longstanding out- of- home placement of children whose biological parents have been deemed unable to provide adequate care. The number of children being placed in the foster care system is increasing annually and unfortunately, most of these children have been the victims of repeated abuse and prolonged neglect. Thus, they have not experienced a nurturing, stable environment during the early years of life. Such experiences are critical in the short and long-term development of a child's brain and the ability to subsequently function soundly…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the U.S., there are two hundred fifty thousand children that are in foster care every year (Moe, 177-192). Foster care is placing a child or children in the temporary care of a family care (Foster Care & Adoption). Children who goes through abusive or negative families had to move to in foster care because of situation. Children that were just born have to be taken away from their mothers because of the drugs she was on, or the abuse in the homes. A family that can’t provide for the child, the state will take away also. Some children are given up to foster care because that not the kind of baby they want in the family or the family just know they real can’t provide for the child. Children who are home alone and start a big problem in…

    • 1711 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Foster Care Research Paper

    • 1391 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The estimated 518,000 American children currently in foster care are among the most at-risk children in American society. Research…

    • 1391 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Children In Foster Care

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages

    When foster parents still cared for their foster kids and the kids run away, then that means that something is wrong. The kids think and see things that most of us are not able to see. So they wanted to look into it more and they found out that studies show foster cause health problems, homelessness, early pregnancy, and arrest. In the U.S. every 45 seconds a kid is being abused or neglected in 2012 there were 3.3 million reports of child abuse and child welfare reported more than 500,000 cases of abuse. This info explains that there was a lot of kids that have been abused or they ran away from home while they were in…

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    If a child had any of the above situations, finding When children who fall under the “special needs,” and cannot find a stable home, can suffer from long-time mental, behavioral, and/or physical health problems. Teenagers who cannot find a stable home and family are more likely to suffer from depression, withdrawal behaviors, somatic behaviors, and anxiety. Close to 27 percent, or 3 in 10, of teenagers ages 11 to 18, had behavioral problems that resulted in some form of clinical assistance. Young adolescents and teenagers are more likely to internalize mental health problems after they are placed into foster care system (Woods, Farineau, & McWey, 2013; Walsh & Mattingly, 2011). With the situations many children who were removed dealt with, mental health issues are something many foster families will have to consider when taking on teenagers and children with mental and physical…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Children in Foster Care

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Due to many children being so displaced and neglected, it is hard to provide for children because foster homes are overcrowded. Due to lack of financial stability roughly 20,000- 100,00 children in the United States are discharged to live on their own while approximately 1,100 young adults are discharged and left to fend for themselves throughout the country.” Having reached the age, they are presumed to be productive, self reliant and fully self sufficient” (Retrieved January 2, 2013, from www.childrenaidsociety.org). Unfortunately, these young adolescents are looked at as a failure before even given a chance in society due to not growing up under the best circumstances. Already troubled by their childhood experiences of neglect, abandonment and abuse, the vast majority of young people leave the system without knowledge, skills, experience, habits and relationships that can engage them in connective and productive programs within their communities. With this in mind, it also stops them from being connected members of society.…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Foster Care Barriers

    • 173 Words
    • 1 Page

    This paper reviews several articles that explore and attempt to explain reasoning and barriers for difficulties regarding foster care children receiving adequate and appropriate health care. Although all similar in context, the articles vary in methods and delivery in addition all of the articles share similar statistics and attempt to maintain recommendations laid out by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Various strategies for fixing the barriers are proposed throughout the readings with the same end goal in mind, to provide better medical care for children in foster care. Key terms used frequently throughout the readings include: placement, referring to a child’s location in foster care, child welfare systems and child protective…

    • 173 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When taking a look at all of the social issues we face in our society, it is child welfare and the foster care system that engrosses me the most. This issue has been near and dear to my heart for a very long time and is the reason I decided to go into social work. Growing up with an Aunt who raised and adopted foster care children allowed me to see a lot of issues that I would not have otherwise seen. One of the first issues is the number of children that are in the foster care system. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that 402,378 children were living in foster care in 2013. Outside of this enormous number the issues that these children face extend a lot deeper. These issues include but are not limited to depression,…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In our reading this week, I discovered some reason why parents want to adopt or become foster parents. One of such reasons is that of infertility, this is one of the major reasons because it affects both men and women. Male for example may have problem with sperm production or the woman may have problem with fertility as the case may be, the couple can decide to go for adoption or to become a foster parent. I found that foster and adopted parent are not similar, foster parents is a means of providing temporary homes to children because they are yet to be re-united with their family, and if re-unification is not possible, such parent may be adopted. This…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Foster Care Challenges

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Every year more that 20,000 children will “age out” of foster care. These youth face extreme obstacles including the expectation that they are now adults and able to self-manage out in the world. Many of us are lucky enough to be raised by supportive parents who we can turn to long after the age of 18 for encouragement, reassurance and direction in our lives. The majority of these children have not finished high school and are unemployed. How can we expect them to go out into the world without the tools they need to succeed? These kids have been dealt a rough hand in life and many times they have no type of family connections or even reliable friends. They end up facing challenges that the majority of youth with families will never know. They have a higher risk of ending up on public assistance, homeless, as young parents or incarcerated.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emerging foster youths need a plan For example, a study conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts of foster youths who age of foster care showed that fifty percent didn’t have a high school degree, and less than three percent went on to graduate college (Smith). Andrew Setterholm, writer for the Post Bulletin, talks about how the placement of children into foster homes causes trauma in the child’s life, resulting in mental health effects (Setterholm), and Sarah Geenan states students who are placed in multiple foster homes end up transferring to multiple schools (Geenan and Powers). Without direct adult support caused by this unstable environment, achieving higher grades is difficult and many youths end up not living up to their potential in school- resulting in many foster youths having a delay in gaining or never gaining at all necessary social skills and are thus blocked from receiving a higher education and a better chance of having a secure job. (Smith). James Koppel, Minnesota state commissioner for child and family services, states that “We cannot let our foster care system fail the very children that we have chosen to take out of homes due to maltreatment. We cannot fail those children in our foster care system”…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays