"Every child deserves a stable and lasting family life and should not be deprived of it except for urgent and compelling reasons,"(1909 White House Conference on Dependent Children).
Considering the number of children abused and neglected each year, it is only appropriate that proper structures be in place to house these children when removed from the home. Foster care is a primary source for children displaced from their homes, either looking to live with someone other than the parents permanently, or until parents and children are reunited.
First, a look at children of foster programs via statistics from the most recent AFCARS Report for fiscal year 2006:
Who is in Foster Care?
- Average age: 9.8
- 52% were male; 48% female
- Average length of stay was 28.3 months
- 42 percent had been in care for less than one year
- 13 percent had been in care for five years or more
- Children whose parental rights were terminated: 79,000
Children Waiting for Adoption
"Waiting children" are identified as children who have a goal of adoption and/or whose parental rights have been terminated. The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) states that if children are in foster care for 15 out of the previous 22 months, states are to recommend that parental rights be terminated and the child be made available for adoption.
- 54% of waiting children lived in non-relative foster homes
- 21% lived in foster family homes with relatives
- 13% lived in pre-adoptive homes
- 6% and 4% lived in institutions or group homes, respectively
- 4.9 is the average age of when taken from parents
- 8.2 is the average age of the waiting child at end of FY 2006
- 39.4 months is the average time of a waiting child in foster care
The goal for children in foster care is to keep the stay brief and return the child to a safe home life, whether through reunification, guardianship or adoption. Children placed in foster care have typically been neglected, abused, and may have emotional, medical or psychosocial issues. It is therefore extremely important these children are not forgotten or "lost in the system". Programs set up to side with these individuals are listed below.
Programs of Foster Care and Adoption
The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA,1997,P.L.105-89): To improve the safety of children, to promote adoption and other permanent homes for children who need them, and to support families. This new law makes changes and clarifications in a wide range of policies established under The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (AACWA,1980,P.L. 96-272).
The Title IV-E Foster Care and Subsidized Adoption Program was created by U.S. Public Law 96-272 as set forth in Title IV, Part E of the Social Security Act. The purpose is to prevent the unnecessary placement of children from low-income families by offering states fiscal incentives for providing preventive services.
The purpose of Title IV-E subsidized adoption program is to ensure that "special needs" children who are difficult to place in adoptive homes do not remain in foster care solely for financial reasons.
Also, a child for whom Title IV-E adoption assistance is provided is automatically eligible under Title XIX for Medicaid and for social services under the Title XX plan, as though he were an Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipient.
For children for whom reunification and adoption is not possible, legal guardianship under a relative or trusted adult is a tremendous option. The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care recommends that the federal government provide federal guardianship assistance by making guardianship assistance a IV-E reimbursable expense, in a similar manner to reimbursable adoption subsidies.
The John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP) offers assistance to help current and former foster care youths achieve self-sufficiency. This program is vital for children who age out of the system.
