There are nine people in my immediate family, including myself. I have one dad, one mom, four sisters and two brothers. I know you’re probably confused and wondering why on earth am I telling you this. Well, out of the nine, three are different from the rest. They are not different in a bad way, nor a good way, they only have a different life story tell. My little sisters Adriana and Sophia, they’re adopted. My younger brother Carter, he’s a foster child. 

I can remember in grade school my parents would always talk about becoming certified foster care givers. At the time, I had no idea what this meant or the extensive amount of time and effort that would be put into the process. They discussed taking six hour long classes every week for months, being interviewed by several different social workers, and even talked about getting background checks done for our whole family. As a young girl, I was oblivious to why all of these steps were being followed to become foster parents. What did fostering a child mean? What did adopting a child mean? These questions rattled my brain for years. I tried to comprehend the depth of the situation, slowly gaining an understanding and appreciation for what my parents were doing. With that being said, I don’t think I fully understood the process until my little sisters first arrived at my house. Alive, breathing children were now under the care of my family. I had two little sisters and I had finally become the big sister that I had always wanted to be, yet this was not permanent, and one day they could be somebody else’s sisters. Again, what was the difference between being a foster family and an adoptive family? How do kids enter the system and why? How does the system even work? What is “the system”? Many of you may be asking similar questions and I hope to clear up your confusion. But, I will say this. Through my personal experience with foster care I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I will not sit here and explain to you how the organizations associated with adoption and foster care are perfect. I will not say the processes of fostering or adopting are easy. I will not lie and make you feel that the processes of adopting my sisters and fostering my brother have only provided me with happy memories. However, I do understand that these systems and organizations have the purest of intentions and change lives for the better. They provide children and young adults with prospering opportunity, but they are far from perfect. What readers should gain from this essay is knowledge on what needs to change in order to make the foster care and adoption agencies better. There are steps that need to be taken and action needs to be induced in order to improve the lives of the children in foster care. Nevertheless, as a reader, you have to maintain a basic understanding of what the foster care system is and how it works before I can address what needs to be changed. 

The foster care system “is a temporary arrangement in which adults provide for the care of a child or children whose birthparent is unable to care for them” (What). In 2012, in the United States “397,122 children [were] living without permanent families in the foster care system and 101, 666 of th[ose] children [were] eligible for adoption” (Facts). Contradicting the common belief that foster children are usually very young, the average age of children in foster care is nine. The average length of time a child waits to be adopted is three years, but this can vary depending on the case (Burdick). There are several reasons a child could enter the system. Their parents could be abusive, drug addicts or alcoholics. Often times cases are reported on the issue of child neglect. It could also be because of financial reasons or the parents personally deeming themselves unfit to handle the responsibility of a child (Lisa). The options are endless as to why children are placed into the system. They can be unknowingly taken away from their families because of the reasons listed above, or they can be voluntarily placed into foster care as an infant. In a nut shell, foster care “is where children go when their parents cannot, for a variety of reasons, care for them” (What). My little sisters, Adriana and Sophia were placed with my family because their birth mom had a history of abusive behaviors. My little brother, Carter, his birth parents were brought up on charges of child neglect. Beside the reason(s) the child is in the system, there is one factor that is always constant: the goal for a child in the foster care system is “reunification with their birth family” (What). This may be changed to adoption, only when this is seen as in the child’s best interest. My sisters are an example of this situation. They were brought into my family as foster children and five years later were adopted. General statistics and facts on the foster care system are important for you to know as I dive into the changes that need to be implemented to enhance the lives of the effected children and their foster families. 

One pressing issue that needs to be addressed are the low per diem rates for foster families. Per diem is the money that foster families receive when caring for a child. This money is meant to cover the cost of living for the child. These “costs” may include items like clothing, food, school supplies, etc. To be clear, per diem “is not considered income, but simply a reimbursement for expenses” (Kenny). Foster care families are supposed to receive payment to even out the expenses they have spent on the child or children they are taking care of. As a society, we need to remember that “foster parents are volunteers” and often take children in out of the goodness of their hearts (Kenny). The money that they receive all goes towards the child’s expenses, not for personal gain. The amount of per diem varies throughout the United States, because there is no established national minimum (Kenny). This is the main problem of the issue. Each state is able to establish their own per diem rate for foster families. Some foster parents get 10$ a day while others get 100$ a day. The amount of money received varies depending on where the family lives. However, the overlaying issue is that nationally, foster parents are not nearly given enough money to repay their expenses. In 2016, a survey went around, analyzing annual living expenses for family’s state by state. The study showed that in order to adequately cover the cost of raising a child, twenty- eight states would have to raise the per diem they receive by fifty percent (Kenny). If the government created a national minimum reasonable to maintain the expenses of a foster child then foster families and children would be benefitted greatly. 

Often times, children are passed from home to home because families aren’t given enough money to be able to support the child. In return, this causes more emotional damage to the child on top of the issues they inherently already have. If the per diem rates were raised slightly, children wouldn’t be passed around from home to home as often as they are. Recruiting families to foster would be easier, because they know financially they would be capable to take on the responsibility (Lisa). It will simply improve the lives of the children effected, providing them with a more stable environment and equal opportunity to the kids who aren’t in the system. My point is not to say foster families need to be paid, but that they need to receive sufficient funds to provide for the children they are voluntarily taking into their homes. This one factor could improve several aspects of the system and the overall livelihood of the children. Sadly, there are some children, teens and young adults who are never placed into foster homes and never become adopted. They are passed around from group home to group home until reaching the ages of eighteen or twenty- one. These cases are children who “age” out of the system. This is another feature of foster care that needs to be altered. 

Aging out of the system is when you reach a certain age within the system that no longer categorizes you as a “foster child”. This age varies between two numbers, eighteen and twenty- one and it also varies from state to state (Burdick). Once you reach the age your state adheres by, you are placed into the real world with little to no guidance from the government or the foster care system. In 2012, nearly 25% of the youth who aged out hadn’t received a high school diploma or a GED. A mere 6% had received a two or four-year college degree and a study completed earlier that year showed that 70% of all youth in foster care have the desire to attend college (Facts). The lack of governmental programs provided for these youths supports why the success story statistics of aged out adults are so low. More than one in five will become homeless after age eighteen and seventy- one percent of women are pregnant by twenty- one (Miller). In, 2010 a study showed that almost sixty percent of young men who had aged out of the system within that year had been convicted of a crime (Facts). However, even with these facts it is not to say that there are no government programs or classes already provided for the aged-out youth. The programs that currently exist are organized and executed poorly and there is a huge shortage of these programs nationally. The Department of Children and Family Services reported that “many youths who age out are frequently unprepared to handle the realities of the real world: They are also more likely to experience unemployment, homelessness, substance addiction and incarceration” (Talamo). 

In an interview Htet Htet Rodgers, a woman from Louisiana explains how she had been required to complete a self- mandated independent living program, covering everything from hygiene to opening bank accounts at the young age of fourteen. She describes how at the age of fourteen this class was the least of her worries and she paid little attention to what she was being “taught”, also making note that this class was the only help provided for her in preparation of aging out. Akiva Robinson is another native of Louisiana who aged out at eighteen. She accounts how many others, including herself are unwilling to reach out and ask for help due to their pride. She wanted to feel that she had everything figured out and that she could survive on her own, when in actuality she had been taught nothing to do so. She stated that, “when you’re in foster care, they shelter you and aging out is scary because you don’t know where to go or how to pick up the pieces” (Talamo). 

From the stories above it is shown how little help is provided for the aging out youths in their preparation of taking on the “real world”. The age for aging out should be nationally defined and not change between eighteen and twenty- one depending on the state. The programs and courses already established need to one, be enforced, but two altered so the young adults can make the most out of the information they are being taught. If the classes are taught to these kids at fourteen then the information goes directly over their heads. If the classes are taught to these kids at eighteen or twenty- one then the information they learn can actually be utilized and carried out into their everyday lives. The government has an obligation to standardize the aging out age nationally to either being eighteen or twenty- one. The laws and programs associated with aging out must also be reformed, along with family preservation laws. 

As stated within the first half of this essay, the ultimate goal of foster care is reunification with the birth parents (Lisa). This factor stems both ways. What is meant by this is that child protection officials “follow a mandate to preserve families and avoid placing children in foster homes whenever possible” (Wood). In simpler terms, child protection agencies will wait until they absolutely have to take a child out of its home. In the Families First program “a caseworker provides troubled families several weeks of intense intervention” before taking the child away (Wood). A kindergarten teacher from Six Lakes Michigan recalls one of her students coming into school with choke marks all around her neck. The young girl described how her mommy had gotten mad at her the previous night and grabbed her. This child often arrived at school tired, withdrawn and with marks all over her body. At a parent teacher conference the girl’s mother explained how she couldn’t wait to “get rid of her”. A Families First caseworker was assigned to the family and three years later, the girl was still living the same life. Her kindergarten teacher asked her current teacher how she was doing and she responded, “as well as one could expect given her home situation” (Wood). This is an example of a child who is being abused at home, but still after three years of officials working with her mother, hasn’t been taken away. Before the Families First act “children seemed to be removed from dangerous homes sooner” (Wood). It is extremely unfair to let children suffer longer that they have to when it is apparent they should be taken away. The sad truth is that “some parents will never or can never care for their children in even a minimal way” (Wood). There needs to be stricter rules on what mandates a child to be taken away from their families. Developing a policy or limit on how many chances a family receives is necessary. Abused and neglected children can grow to be contributing citizens or they can become their parents. As a society “we can perpetuate the cycle or break it” (Wood). We have to shape these policies to become stronger and more efficient to protect innocent children sooner. 

The issues within the foster care system listed in this essay all have one major thing in common. If we mend the foster care agencies and policies we break the cycle of the foster care system. Providing sufficient per diem rates will attract more people to become foster parents as well as stop the children’s movement from home to home so frequently. If the government establishes and implements better aging out programs than the number of homeless, pregnant, incarcerated foster youths will diminish greatly. Taking children away from their unfit parents sooner will provide ample opportunity and keep the kids from repeating their parent’s mistakes. The foster care system is good and it does amazing things for children in need. It provides food, shelter and opportunity to kids who in different circumstances wouldn’t be receiving these items. It works to re-unite parents and their children, often giving several chances to those who previously messed up. It has saved lives and provided children with safe and loving homes. However, we do need to recognize that nothing in life is perfect and there are always steps that could be taken for improvement. The foster care system is broken and in need of mending to enrich the lives of the children and their foster families.  The foster care system is not all bad, but it’s not all good either. Now is the time to implement change to reshape the system into the best organization that it can be. 
