Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Injustice in
the American
Foster Care
System
Talia Bartolotta, Jennifer Godfrey,
Lauren Hawkins, Orah Kabaei, Melody
Klatt, Danielle Palmer, and Marissa
Stendel
Occupational injustice
(Barbell & Freundlich, 2001; Paul-Ward, 2009; Rubin, OReilly, Luan, & Localio, 2007)
SOCIOCULTURAL
Culture, language, and religion of selected family do not always meet
Lack of nurturing
Moving from home to home has detrimental effects on forming attachment
expectations
SOCIOECONOMIC
Foster care families
Lower average income
More government assistance
More likely to have one-parent households and have greater child to
parent ratios than the average family
When foster care children age out of system
More likely to live in poverty
On average make ~$8,000/year
DIVERSITY
Number
415,129 children
52% male, 48% female
Ages
39% less than 5 years old
23% 6-10 years old
22% 11-15 years old
16% 16-20 years old
Race
LIFESTYLE CHOICES
Behaviors
While in foster care
Poor school performance
Run-away
LIFESTYLE CHOICES
Potential reasons for negative choices and behaviors
Lack of nurturing throughout lifetime
No assistance after aging out occurs
Results
Increased rates of teenage pregnancy
Poor high school graduation rate
Poor college attendance and degree conferral rates
Increased rates of incarceration
Increased rates of homelessness
(Beam, 2013; Pecora et al., 2006)
ROLES
Foster child
Case workers
Foster parents
Biological parents
STEREOTYPES
Foster parents
In it for the money
Do not really care about the kids
Abusive
Biological parents
Drug addicts
Lawbreakers
Bad people
Do not love their kids
STEREOTYPES
Foster kids
Aggressive/dangerous
Poor academic performance
Drug problems
Trouble with the law
Emotionally or mentally disturbed
Case workers
Liars
Jaded and cynical
Do not care about the kids or families
(Chipungu & Bent-Goodley, 2004)
CUSTOMARY PRACTICES
Each individual, family, and foster home is different
People have many diverse stories to tell about their experiences in the
foster care system and the kinds of lifestyles and customs that they
were exposed to
Stereotypes exist but do not necessarily reflect fact for all families in
INTERVIEW #1
Foster parent
16 years
Age: 60
Has had 120 children placed in her house
30 permanent, 90 respite
Began foster care due to a life-long desire to help
as a foster parent
INTERVIEW #2
Current foster child
Age: 17
Has been in system since she was 7 years old
All of her siblings have been adopted except for her
Works as a tutor for younger foster children, as an advocate for sex-
Believes she has had a better life than she would have had with her biological
parents
INTERVIEW #3
Former foster child
Age: 19
INTERVIEW #4
Foster parent
Has custody of 11 month year old baby since she was two days old
Born in a prison cell to a meth addict
INTERVIEW #5
Former foster child
Age: 20
Has 9 siblings: all are addicted to drugs; none are seeking higher education
No contact with adoptive or biological parents
Currently attending community college for education and youth services
INTERVIEW #6
Former foster child
Age: 28
Thinks of the foster care system as a way to provide her with a roof
over her head, but did not teach her life skills
Taught her to raise her kids to know they are in a loving family
Still has trust problems and a sense of inadequacy
OCCUPATIONAL APARTHEID
Social status
Restrictions
Economic
Lack of funds allocated to families
Social
Peer relations
Legal
Tax accountability
Interchangeable parts
Money
(Beam, 2013; DeVooght, Child Trends, & Blazey, 2013)
OCCUPATIONAL DEPRIVATION
Biological
parent(s)
Agency
Residential
Treatment
Centers
(RTC)
Extended
family or
relatives
Individual
Foster
home/
parent(s)
Hospitals &
Psychiatric
wards
Foster
group
home
(Beam, 2013)
OCCUPATIONAL MARGINALIZATION
Restriction based on habit and tradition
Family rules and ideals
(Beam, 2013)
OCCUPATIONAL ALIENATION
Socially disconnected
Hard time getting on their feet without family to rely on
Between 16 and 24, many have been homeless more than once
Trauma, depression, behavior problems, and/or emotional difficulties
Long-term disconnection is associated with
Living in poverty
Low-level parent education
Living in a single or no parent household, having a child before age 18
High school dropouts
OCCUPATIONAL ALIENATION
Identity
Need for continuity with their primary attachment figures
Attachment to a primary caregiver is essential to development of emotional security
Sense of permanence is enhanced when placement is stable
OCCUPATIONAL IMBALANCE
Lack of opportunity based on setting or placement
Money
Foster parents are paid a small wage; does not leave extra money
Education
Inability to access funds for higher education or it is discouraged
Constantly changing schools because of placement instability
Extracurricular activities
Inability to be involved due to time and money constraints
Often have multiple foster children and sometimes biological children to take care of
Jobs
Unable to participate due to rules of the house, transportation, time
OCCUPATIONAL IMBALANCE
Supervised Independent Living Program (SILP)
Socialized to expect others to fix their problems rather than assist in
developing the reasoning skills needed to solve them
Do not have facilities for hands on learning and staff to implement
Cycle of learned helplessness
Number of people involved in conveying information
Entitlement; have come to expect certain things to happen with little
or no effort
(Paul-Ward, 2009)
Homelessness
Drug use and alcohol abuse
Foster care cycle
Poverty
Limited resources
Support systems
REFERENCES
Barbell, K., & Freundlich, M. (2001). Foster Care Today. Retrieved
from: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/downloads/policyissues/foster_care_today.pdf
Beam, C. (2013). To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care. New York, NY:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Bass, S., Shields, M. K., & Behrman, R. E. (2004). Children, families, and foster care: Analysis
and recommendations. Children, Families, and Foster Care, 14, 4-49.
doi:10.2307/1602752
Chipungu, S. S. & Bent-Goodley, T. B. (2004). Meeting the challenges of contemporary
foster care. Children, Families, and Foster Care, 14, 74-93. doi: 10.2307/1602755
Cohen, M. (2015). Many barriers to providing normal activities for foster children. Retrieved from
http://youthtoday.org/2015/04/many-barriers-to-providingnormalactivitiesforfosterchildren/
REFERENCES
DeVooght, K., Child Trends, & Blazey, D. (2013, April 9). Foster Care Reimbursement Rates in
the US. Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://www.childtrends.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/Foster-Care-Payment-Rate-Report.pdf
Foster Care: Background and History. (2016). Retrieved from
http://family.findlaw.com/foster-care/foster-care-background-and-history.html
Hilton, M. (2015). How much do foster parents get paid? Retrieved from
http://adoption.com/how-much-do-foster-parents-get-paid
Mastin, D., Metzger S., Golden, J. (2013). Foster care and disconnected youth: A way forward to
New York . Retrieved from http://www.childrensaidsociety.org/files/uploaddocs/report_final_April_2.pdf
National Foster Parent Association (2015). Retrieved from http://nfpaonline.org/
Newton, R. R., Litrownik, A. J., & Landsverk, J. A. (2000). Children and youth in foster care:
Disentangling the relationship between problem behaviors and number of placements.
Child Abuse & Neglect, 24(10), 1363-1374. doi:10.1016/S0145-2134(00)00189-7
REFERENCES
OHare, W. (2008). Data on Children in Foster Care from the Census Bureau. Retrieved from:
http://www.aecf.org/m/pdf/FosterChildren-July-2008.pdf
Paul-Ward, A. (2009). Social and occupational justice barriers in the transition from foster
care to independent adulthood. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 63, 8188.
Pecora, P. J., Kessler, R. C., OBrien, K., White, R. C., Williams, J., Hiripi, E.,Herrick, M. A.
(2006). Educational and employment outcomes of adults formerly placed in foster
care: Results from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. Children and Youth
Services Review, 28(12),1459-1481.
Rubin, D. M., OReilly, A. L. R., Luan, X., & Localio, R. A. (2007). The impact of placement
stability on behavioral well-being for children in foster care. Pediatrics, 119(2),
336-344.
Statistics on Foster Care. (2014). Retrieved from
https://www.fosterclub.com/article/statisticsfoster-care