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In Doorstep News' first Op-Ed, Tasniah Akter explores flaws in the American foster system, as many fear that privatisation of foster homes is leading to neglect of children. A worrying number of statistics suggests that children in US foster homes are unable to achieve a comprehensive education, suffer from mental health issues, and become involved in crime. This article discusses why this may be, and investigates possible solutions.
As much as we’d all like it to be, life isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. Things happen: ugly, nasty, unavoidable things. Neglect. Abuse. Drugs. Death. The list goes on and on, but here’s what it all has in common: its effect on innocent children. When children are separated from their families for one (or more) of these reasons, foster care is there to support them. The aim is to provide children with a temporary and safe home until they can be returned to their biological family, or placed in a new one. Unfortunately, America’s foster care system is broken. Instead of taking care of children, the system damages them. 70% of youth who have experience with the justice system have been in foster care, 50% of foster youth will not graduate from high school on time, 60% of child trafficking victims have a history in foster care, and 33% of homeless young adults were previously in foster care. Additionally, minors in foster care are four times more likely than other children to attempt suicide.
One would assume that this system was set in place to benefit children rather than traumatise them, but this is simply not the case.
Feminist writer Lara B. Sharp was put in foster care as a child, and writes about her experience with foster parents, who were exploiting the system to make money. In response to the question: “Do you think people become foster parents just for the money?”, she responded:
“YES many people DO become foster parents JUST for the money.
That WAS My Experience, REPEATEDLY. And, depending upon the situation, they CAN make, what for them, is considered quite a bit of money, without even leaving their home!
I went through several home placements where I was not even spoken to, or looked at… where they didn't bother to learn my name… where the food was kept locked up, and we were fed rice or pasta, or anything else that would only cost them a few cents… where we weren’t provided with toothpaste, or shampoo, never mind actual clothes…
I was in several placements where the homeowner was only getting a small amount of disability as an income, and was therefore supplementing their income by taking in, and completely neglecting, foster kids!!
Fostering is known, within certain economic populations, to be a fairly easy, and quite common way, for people who have room, and very little income, who can be approved due to having no criminal history, to supplement their income, without having to procure employment!”
While the vast majority of foster parents foster out of the kindness of their heart and not their need for income, there are some people who do. As long as they get their monthly reimbursement, they don’t bat an eyelid at the welfare of the child or children they are supposed to love and nurture. Often, they are left alone to fend for themselves. In some very unfortunate cases, these foster children are even tortured through means such as hot showers, hot sauce, belts, verbal abuse .There are even cases of children that are murdered at the hands of a foster parent. Many would wonder: If you are going to bring a child into your home just to either forget about them or physically and emotionally hurt them, why take them in at all?
Money, of course.
Yet, because of foster care privatization and for-profit foster care agencies, nothing is done about it.
Privatization is when a government outsources services to private firms in order to make a profit. Privatization in foster care is a reform strategy where many public child welfare agencies contract out child welfare services.
There are many aspects to foster care privatization. It mainly only affects those with little to no income and biasedly targets children of color. Researchers have found that Native American, African American, and Latino children in certain states are, compared with white children, removed from families at higher rates once identified by child protective services. They and their families are given less help. Child welfare privatization doesn’t help their case either, as once the children enter foster care, their biological parents will have little say in what will become of their children, if they have any say at all.
In order to receive payment from the government, privatized foster care companies must have a lot of people listed down as foster parents and they must place children in homes as quickly as they can. With the incentive being money, agencies will of course do what they have to do. They will take in any person who is willing to foster, as long as they have a home for the child. It doesn’t matter if the home is thoroughly clean or if the future foster parent has anger issues. In order to be reimbursed, foster care workers just have to do things quickly, but not necessarily safely.
Take the agency Mentor as a primary example. In one decade, 86 children have died in the “care” of this company. Two-year-old Alexandria Hill was murdered by a foster mother recruited and trained by the US's largest for-profit foster care company, The Mentor Network. According to Buzzfeed, Stephen Merritt, a foster “father” recruited by Mentor, sexually abused his foster children for years. The company did not look into him despite the testimonies of his victims until 2011, where evidence was found. There have been cases in which a foster parent has specifically asked for boys who were “white” and of “any age”, even with a history of sexually abusing children.
After all the trauma these children have gone through, it is inevitable that they will suffer from emotional, mental and physical turmoil. Losing family members, sexually abused, suffering from addiction all take its toll on them. These children need to be helped. They need a safe place and person to talk to. They need counseling and help with their mental health. Most foster care companies do require the foster children to attend counseling but it’s usually a formality. They do not listen to the needs of their foster care children and it ultimately results in frustration, pain and a broken system. "I do think that sometimes we aren't very good at listening to kids or engaging with kids," Denise Goodman, a child welfare professional and consultant with the Annie E. Casey Foundation says. "Some people just don't value the youth voice - and I think we should."
Money, foster home shortages, an overflow of cases and foster care privatization all play a part in America’s broken foster care system. Millions of children have their lives ruined because of this, never getting a fair chance at life. There are many things wrong with America, and our foster care system is one of them.
Thank you for this very well written article Ms.Akter. I am proud of your ability to articulate and data to support a topic that is impacting children and families at a rapid pace. Excellent work!