
Think back to when you were young, your childhood, your teen years. What were they like? What did you do at fifteen years old? Did you go to the mall with friends? Go on family vacations? Play sports? Most look back on their childhood with a sense of nostalgia and joy. But for Tara Burns, and the 500,000 other foster care children in America's foster care system today their childhoods look very different then what most invision when they think of their childhood. Tara Burns shared her story through the website The Foster Club where many children, social workers and many others post about their stories, experiences and hardships while being in the foster care system. At an extremely young age Tara Burns’ father sold her into sex work, where she spent the majority of her time until she was 15 and the state removed her from her awful situation. However her hardships did not end when she entered the system, after several failed foster home placements, Tara returned to her life on the streets. The foster homes she was in abused her and offered similar treatment to what she had already endured in her previous situation, her social worker accused her of lying and offered little to no help or support. At just fifteen years old Tara went back to the streets began to provide for herself in the only way she knew how to and returned to a life of prostitution. Though this is just one story, thousands of children across the United States are faced with similar situations, and difficult odds. Unfortunately for these children the worse case scenarios and unspeakable situations are what become there harsh reality. While not every social worker is as removed and not every foster home is as abusive as Tara’s,  millions of stories exist to prove how the foster care system of America is failing the youth in the system both mentally and physically. With overworked social workers, foster parents with ill intentions when accepting foster children and the overall disorganization that allows for America’s youth to “slip through the cracks of the system, it is pertinent that the foster care system be reformed to support and protect the children of the foster care system. The foster care system of the United States of America  should be reformed in a way that would help to find the children that are placed in the system, supportive and safe homes while striving to prosecute abusive foster parents and give the children a permanent home where they may excel.

 Thousands of children are faced with the immense injustices that the foster care system is responsible for causing, from overworked and careless social workers to dangerous foster homes, these children are being failed in every way possible and being denied their basic needs; as stated in The Stir Journal,“One in three former foster children report being abused by an adult in the foster home”(source 1 printed citation). It is baffling to imagine that in a government run program that is designed to remove children from dangerous situations would shuffle them through a system where they are placed in various homes in which they experience further and often worse abuse than they did at home. On woman from Washington spoke out about her abuse to Stir Journal when she stated that, “ After being born to a drug-affected, mentally ill parents and removed from an unsanitary home at the age of 4, she endured years of sexual abuse in two separate foster homes. Both foster fathers and one foster brother were convicted of sexual assault,” “One in three former foster children report being abused by an adult in the foster home”(source 1 printed citation). Not only was this woman abused and sexually assaulted for multiple years without any support or help from those who were responsible for her care and safety, but the foster care system allowed for three registered sex offenders to house a young girl and did nothing to protect her from them. Another foster care case in Miami was reported on by NBC Miami, the story discussed how two young girls of four and seven were filtered into the system, after being taken from their impoverished, drug addicted mother in Miami, Florida. After being placed into the system the two sisters were dragged from bad foster home to bad foster home, in the interview the two sisters described the types of abuse that they were forced to endure when one of the sisters, Sophia,  stated, “She took a belt, she started beating me with the belt, picked up a hanger, she started beating me with the hanger, picked up a heel and started beating me with the heel,” (NBC Citation Here).  The other sister, Princess, described to the interviewer how she sat outside of the room terrified and unable to help or save her sister. But the horrors didn’t stop at just one home for these girls, they carried on to talk about the other atrocities that they had endured when they discussed how one foster home locked the fridge refusing to feed them and would starve them in order to punish them,  while another home made the girls made them sleep in a dog house and fed them dog food. Unfortunately the abuse was not just within the foster parents brutality but even between foster children. Many of the foster homes are extremely overcrowded on average a foster home will have at least or more than five children. This overcrowding leads to foster children abusing each other and acting out more than they would be able to do in a smaller household. Many children have been reported being abused by their fellow foster siblings, NBC of Miami discussed two cases where one girl gave her testimony saying, “I stayed in a foster home down south where this boy used to try to rape me every night before I would go to sleep," she said. "I used to be scared to go to sleep at night. I ran away from there." (NBC Citation Here).  Another child, Pierce,  experienced a similar form of abuse when he discussed being sexually abused  from his fellow foster siblings and he stated, “I was a little kid, they knew they could take advantage of me and I couldn’t fight back,”(NBC Citation Here).  Even more disturbingly Pierce discussed how he was afraid to speak out but when he did nothing was done to help him or protect him, "But I did tell, I did tell someone and she didn’t do anything, she didn’t do anything."(NBC Citation Here). It is apparent to see the flaws within the foster care system of the United States considering that so many children are being so horrifically abused by adults who are supposed to be supporting them and protecting and they are receiving little to no help and often have to turn to running away or other drastic measures in order to escape the abuse that they are faced with. 


With such unstable childhoods, many of the children that are  placed into the foster care system fall behind academically, as well as suffer from many mental and emotional handicaps from the trauma that they endured while being in the system and from their previous home life. Unfortunately for many of the children in the system, the hardships that they endured follow them throughout the rest of their lives and holding them back from moving on and out of the situation that they were placed in. In a statistic provided by The Stir Journal  it stated that, “ By the age of 25 81 percent of all male foster care alumni had been arrested once and 35 percent had been incarcerated,” (stir journal citation).  More often than not when the children placed in foster care leave the system they are faced with a harsh life. Seeing as they struggle so much during their childhood in the foster care system, when they are finally released from the system they often have little to no means to provide for themselves. The Casey family conducted a study to assess the average education that the foster care children received the study showed that, “65 percent of all foster children have been in seven or more schools. Twice as many repeat a grade. Of those who graduate high school only two percent of former foster children achieve a Bachelor’s Degree.” (stir journal citation). These statistics greatly demonstrate the lack of education and support that the children of the foster care system receive.  On average a child in the foster care system will change schools at least twice a year, and most have experienced at least five to seven different schools. As a result of this, the atlantic journal states, “Only 50 percent of the 400,000 foster care children in the United States complete high school by age 18,” (atlantic journal citation).  Due to the fact that children are moved so often and have little to no academic stability, many drop out of school and those who are unable to graduate by 18 often to do not complete their GED do to the fact that at 18 they are released from the system at 18. Once being removed from the system if the children are not in a stable household, many can not afford to go to school and have to begin working.  Being so deprived of a basic education and family support has driven many of the foster care children to rely on only themselves and illegal activities in order to survive. Not only are those who have been in the foster care more apt to be arrested and less likely to remain in school, but also the side effects of the foster care system have been proven to cause and intensify many psychological disabilities. In the article  Children in Foster Care: Issues and Concerns published by The Psychiatric Times, it discusses the struggle that many children in the foster care system must go through and the psychological effects that being in the foster care system has on the children. In one case vignette within the article it discusses the trauma that a young boy had to endure in his foster home and the medical and psychological effects it had after he was removed from the abusive home when it states, “Adam had been placed in residential care for sexual offender treatment following allegations of criminal sexual conduct. He had received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and was taking olanzapine, fluoxetine and lorazepam. Past assessment and treatment records are limited. Adam report that between age 8 and 16 his foster father sexually abused him. Notably the abuse was not  disclosed or discovered when bipolar disorder was diagnosed. Adam reports multiple symptoms consistent with PTSD, most prominent are nightmares and hypervigilance. In residential placement, Adam participates in formal sexual offender treatment and receives intermittent exposure to cognitive behavioral techniques, but no sustained course of cognitive behavioral therapy or any other treatment specific to PTSD,” (Psychiatric Times citation). From Adam’s testament it is clear to see the mental effect that being in the foster care system had on him and how the overwhelming trauma of being sexually abused by his foster father caused him to suffer from nightmares and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Though this only one child’s story, there are unfortunately thousands more who have endured similar horrors and are faced with the same struggles as adam. The flaws of the foster care system extend beyond just abusive foster parents and poor placements of the children in the foster care system; they go on to affect the children in all stages of their lives by affecting their level of education, ability to succeed on their own and even go as far as to affect their long term psychological stability.

 It is apparent that the foster care system of the United States is failing the youth that requires their services. From overcrowded foster homes, to abusive foster parents and the inability to find the children safe, stable and permanent to semi-permanent homes, the foster care system is failing. The lasting negative effects of the horrors that these children must endure follow them throughout their entire lives. The need for change is in high demand, and we as a society can not allow for this horror to continue any longer. The children in the foster care system are in need of good homes, stability and safety. In Minnesota it has been proposed that their be a task force designated to investigate and prosecute those who abuse their foster children.  Additionally many have proposed the idea of background checks of foster parents and homes to ensure that those who are entrusted with the task of housing and supporting the youth in foster care, will take care of the children and support them rather than further damage and hurt them. By providing background checks this will prevent sex offenders and others with violent criminal records from housing children and will hopefully lower the number of abused children in foster homes, as well as ensuring that the at home climate is stable and more conducive to allowing for the child to thrive in their home environment. Not only should there be more care in selecting home for children and protecting them from abusive parents but, also In order for the foster care system to run more efficiently and function correctly to provide the children with safe stable environments, the social workers who are responsible for these children need to be given fewer cases and more resources in order to successfully do their job and support the children who they are responsible for. All in all their is a large amount of change that must occur within our foster care system in order to ensure the safety, functionality and stability that the children of the foster care system deserve and require.    

Though many are in favor of the necessary reform of the foster care system. There are some that oppose these changes and feel that the foster care system will crumble if reforms were put into place to ensure the safety of the children in the foster care system. In  2015 The Star Tribune published an article discussing how the new reforms caused the system to have to cut the reimbursement funds for foster parents, as well as caused excessive back up in the juvenile and family court systems. Many of these issues came from the shutting down of group homes and the attempts to find children safer, more permanent homes. Additionally some of the funding that would’ve gone to reimbursing foster parents was shuffled into the foster care task force. The foster care task force was created to investigate and prevent children from being abused while in their foster homes. Jim Koppel, the assistant DHS commissioner for children and family services stated to Brandon Stahl of The Star Tribune that, “We believe that the increase in the visibility of child protection issues both through the media as well as the Legislature have had a big impact,” (star tribune citation). While almost no one disagrees that children should not be abused in their homes and those who are abusing their foster care children should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, many question whether or not it is necessary to have a fully funded investigative task force to prevent and prosecute abusive foster parents, when the courts are overcrowded and over booked, and the reimbursement funds for foster parents are being cut. Since the foster parent reimbursement funds are being cut there is an extreme amount of concern in foster parents and many have chosen not to foster any longer, due to this there has been a great loss in good foster homes and many are concerned for the children who are medically fragile because their care is so expensive and requires an immense amount of time  therefore many parents are hesitant to take them in as their foster children. In The Star Tribune one foster parent who often fostered infants which suffered from withdrawal from drugs and alcohol as a result of their mother doing drugs while she was pregnant, discussed how she had to pay for many of the expenses out of pocket due to the fact that the reimbursement funds were so low and insufficient for the amount of care that these children required, she could no longer afford to be a foster parent and care for them. 

   

The foster care system is in desperate need of repair and reform. No child should fall through the metaphorical cracks of the system and be left to fend for themselves. The way this system has been functioning is absurd, children should not be placed into homes where they are beaten, sexually abused and emotionally harassed, and those who commit these crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. While it is clear that the current foster care budget is rather small and their resources are limited, the system needs to raise money, increase their budget and begin to hire more social workers, and other individuals with the task of protecting the youth in the foster care system. While the counter argument does hold many good points that reforming the system will be expensive and the initial process of removing children from abusive homes and reassigning them to safe stable homes will be taxing and may back up the judicial system, it is without a necessary hiccup in the overall plan to help, protect and save the victims of the corrupt, and failing foster care system that is currently place. Considering that about 22% of foster care children run away from their foster homes, it is clear to see that this system is failing. Most can agree that no child should ever feel unsafe in their homes, and every child deserves to be cared for, loved and protective; so by reforming the foster care system this may become a reality for many of the children within the system. The overall idea of the reform of the foster care system is to find the children good stable homes, that have the potential to become permanent placements so that the children in the foster care system will be able to have normal, consistent and happy childhoods, this goal would become a reality through the use of reforming the foster care system, and who would oppose finding children stable, safe and supportive homes.

 