Tag Archives: foster care

When Foster Kids Lash Out

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Being wrenched away from the only family you have ever known and thrust into the care system is often a traumatic experience, and sometimes at-risk children deal with their trauma by getting angry and acting out. Unfortunately for children who have this very natural reaction in the State of California, they are arrested for the act more often than foster kids in other states. We are Robert and Kathey Raskin, and we want to see this issue brought to light so more people are aware of this terrible injustice that is taking place.

 

A Vulnerable Position

Children in foster care are in a vulnerable position. Separated from their families and under the constant threat of repeated abandonment, many develop issues with anger and other emotional problems. When these children have trouble dealing with their emotions, they usually will not receive the professional help they need. Unable to deal with their swirling emotions and their separation trauma, many will strike back with physical violence. In shelters and group homes in California, the result of this is that children as young as eight years old have been arrested.

 

Who Are the Real Criminals Here?

Between the years of 2015 and 2016, nearly 500 children in shelters and group homes were arrested, detained, or received citations. For these children, what already may be one of the most difficult times of their lives is then made even more damaging when they end up in handcuffs, or, worse, in jail. The CPS system that is supposed to be protecting them is not taking steps to make sure children in crisis receive the emotional support and psychiatric services they need, and unfortunately for these children who now have criminal records, it is too late for many.

 

Possible Risks in Adulthood

While many children who spend time in the foster care system grow up fine, there are others who do not fare as well. Kids who are trapped in the system can end up with a stunted sense of empathy as a result of growing up without learning to be empathetic to the well-being of other people. Some people even refer to children who endure multiple placements as “psychopaths in the making” because they are being deprived of the normal bonds they need in order to develop a conscience. Placing children who already have the odds stacked against them at further risk by arresting them and sending them to juvenile correction facilities is completely unacceptable, and we, Robert and Kathey Raskin, aren’t standing for it.

Cracks in Canada’s Foster Care System

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They say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but that isn’t necessarily true when you are talking about the child protective system of our neighbors to the north—Canada. We are Robert Raskin and Kathey Raskin, and the sad fact is, the US isn’t the only country that needs to overhaul its child protection agencies. While most of Europe and Australia take a “family welfare” approach to child protection that is geared toward reuniting families, Canada instead focuses on the welfare of the child, so they are quick to remove children and put them into care.

 

One Baby’s Story

For one Canadian baby who was born with opiates in his system, Canada’s system resulted in the child being placed in a foster care home for two years as the court case experienced delay after delay. The parents had many chances to turn their lives around to regain custody, but their issues were too deeply entrenched, leaving the baby to become very securely attached to its foster parents as the case dragged on. The child already is at risk for learning disabilities and behavioral disorders thanks to his opiate addiction, and now, thanks to the system tying him up in legal limbo, he risks attachment disorders as well.

 

Lasting Effects

In Ontario, children under six years old are not permitted to be in foster care for more than twelve months, and there is a very good reason for this. When a child this young is put in foster care, they may not have any memories of their biological family, which means the foster parents effectively become the only parents they have ever known. When they are ripped away from their foster parents, the negative effects can be lasting, and these include both attachment disorders such as attachment anxiety, regression, and undermining the child’s sense of security and ability to form bonds with others.

 

How Common is This Issue?

In 2011, there were at least 30,000 children in foster care in Canada. The majority of these children will have court hearings at some point to determine whether or not they will be returned to their parents or be placed for adoption. In some jurisdictions, cases like these are resolved in a week’s time, while in others cases can average 20 weeks. There have been 132 cases in the system for more than two year. If you ask us, Robert Raskin and Kathey Raskin, this is far too long when you consider the risk to the child and how much is at stake when it comes to the child’s future relationships.

At Risk: Aging Out of the Foster Care System

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Today in the US there are approximately 428,000 minors in the foster care system, and nearly 112,000 are waiting for adoption. For many of these children an adoptive family will never materialize, especially if the child is older, is a teenager, or has health issues that may make placement especially difficult due to a lack of qualified or willing foster parents. At the age of 18, and in some states 21, these children will no longer be wards of the state, and they will be cast out to fend for themselves despite the fact that they often have no life skills and no support system that can catch them if they fall.

 

Sobering Data Regarding Teens and Adoption

Each year the system fails over 20,000 children who will not find homes and will be left without a support system and often without anyone who cares about them or any skills with which to make it on their own. Older children and teens aged 15 to 18 have been statistically shown to have lower adoption rates and to have longer waits before they are adopted than younger children. Recent data has shown that the number of children in foster care is increasing, and as this number grows so does the need for adoptive homes and caring foster families who will truly care about their welfare and their future outcomes.

 

Projected Outcomes for Former Foster Children

When it comes to the future of former foster children who have aged out of the system, the numbers are grim. These youths are less likely to graduate from high school or to attend college, and even the rates of GED certificates are significantly lower in this demographic. Another problem is medical care. It can be difficult for these former foster children to navigate the healthcare system, and many of these individuals suffer from trauma from abuse in their homes of origin as well as their foster homes that they are desperately in need of treatment for, often leaving them with issues that will make it even harder for them to transition into adulthood.

 

What You Can Do to Help

There are many ways you can help children from aging out of foster care. Studies show that approximately 50% of Americans believe that children are in the foster care system because there is something wrong with them or because they have done something wrong. This is simply not true, and in fact the vast majority of these children have ended up in care through no fault of their own. You can also challenge the policies of organizations that are failing to find homes for these children, demand accountability from those who make policies, and contact your state and local government representatives to demand to know what is being done. And, of course, you can always consider becoming a foster parent and taking in an at-risk child yourself.

The Need for Private Foster Care Reform

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In the state of California during the 1980s it was believed that putting children in private foster homes, but unfortunately so far that has not been the case. Although the state has spent $400 million annually each year on the organizations that are responsible for training, vetting, and providing foster parents, the rates at which children in these privately approved and selected homes are abused is not any lower than those that are in publicly approved placements. In fact, those children fared much worse, as one study that determined they were one-third more likely to be victims of serious abuse than the children in the state-supervised homes were.

What’s the Difference?

The key difference between private and public foster care is who is in charge of training, and who determines where these allegedly at-risk children will end up. Private providers, who earn money through the placement of children, have accepted thousands of people who have been convicted of crimes into the program, and this underhanded and greedy kind of decision making may be one of the key reasons for the startling amount of abuse of both kids and the system that is currently going unchecked in far too many cases. Currently in LA County, 80% of children who are removed from their homes who do not end up living with their grandparents will end up in homes selected by these extremely questionable private agencies.

Organizations for Reform

There are several key organizations that are dedicated to reforming the child protection system and protecting children’s rights. Many experts and child advocates believe that far too many children are being removed from their homes and placed into care without good cause, and the rates at which these children are subject to abuse in privately chosen foster placements are at least as great as those that are placed into care through state agencies. Children who are placed with relatives do better than children who are left in what is commonly referred to as “stranger care,” but when there is no alternative, it’s crucial that the care they are getting is through an agency that has to answer to a higher authority that is not profiting from the same system.

Alternative Solutions

Countless studies have shown that the vast majority of kids are in far greater danger when they are removed from troubled homes and placed into foster care, and the fact that so many of these allegations are baseless and the child in question was in no danger in their own home just makes the situation that much more tragic. If these organizations have their way, child protective services workers will have their power reigned in, and fewer children will be taken from their homes to begin with. A safer alternative is to set up better safeguards and services for families in crisis that will give them the tools they need to raise their children in a positive environment.

What Can Be Done?

The system is corrupt, and many believe it is beyond reform and needs to be abolished. Because it is funded by more than $20 billion annually in taxpayer money, it is possible to draft new laws that will require that people who are suspected of child abuse to be investigated and prosecuted by the justice system the same as they would any other criminal. Although the current system was started with the well-meaning goal of protecting children, it is clearly not working in its current form, and the result is that social workers and agencies that are not trained in law enforcement are being allowed to act as officer, judge, and jury. That isn’t morally right, and it is certainly not the way this country’s government is supposed to work.