Chloe Logsdon

Michael White

English 1101

25 November 2019

Corruption in Foster Care Systems

The foster care system was put into place to protect children from undesirable living

situations. We are surrounded by people who know a child who has been in foster care. Most

children get put into the system because they were born/raised in an abusive home and were

being neglected, mistreated, abused, and not cared for correctly. Foster systems are becoming

corrupt because most children who enter the system are still being treated the way they were

before or worse than before they went into foster care.

Foster care is being looked into deeply for the first time and people’s beliefs of the

system may be wrong. Many people believe the system is a good place for children, when in

actuality it is often dangerous and corrupt. Foster care systems are finally being looked at. Others

might think foster care is a great option. Most people think that all kids who are a part of the

system are safe, but are they? In the past years it has been noticed that the system is becoming

corrupt. Some might wonder why the systems are corrupt or how. Many reasons are being

looked into such as foster parents who may be doing it only for the income. Perhaps children are

being put into the system for the wrong reasons. Research has also shown that children still being

abused even after they are placed into foster care. As of 2016, 273,539 children had entered

foster care (U.S. Children’s Bureau). Abuse is the main reason children are put into the system.

They experience verbal, physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The things occuring within the

system are unjust and need to be reformed.

 Although the system has worked in some cases, it is common place for abuse to be

within the household. As of 2016-2018, 74.8% of victims are neglected, 18.2% of victims are

physically abused, 8.5% of victims are sexually abused, and 6.9% of victims are psychologically

maltreated (American SPCC). The ages of children entered into the system range from birth to

21 years old, even sometimes age 22. Not enough statistics are collected on child abuse, since it

usually goes unreported, which makes it difficult to compare and clarify. For the information on

abuse to be recorded you have to have proof on number of things happening to the child before

they are put into the system, you can not make accusations until there are proven facts (Doak).

There are many ways to check for abuse and neglect for a child such as the sock method. If you

were to work in a daycare and notice a child that has been wearing the same clothes for multiple

days or weeks, you can take a red marker and make a small dot on the bottom of the sock and

check everyday to see if it is still the same sock. As you check the sock everyday and it still

appears to be the same sock, then you will know the child is not getting the proper care at home.

If they are wearing the same socks, odds are they have not been bathed and their socks and

clothes are filthy.ou should write a report as you keep track and when you have a good amount

of evidence, report it to your director. You must recognize that a child is being abused before

serious things happen to that child.

The way in which data is collected is sometimes inaccurate and inconsistent. Collecting

child maltreatment data is a important because the data being collected is not always reliable due

to each state having their own method of gathering and classifying information (Doak). In the

last 12 years, just in the state of Ohio, there have been zero screened-in and screened-out

referrals, while 41,449 victims suffer from neglect, physical abuse, medical neglect, and sexual

abuse (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). The data is still fluctuating as years go
on. Now it is being seen that children with disabilities are at risk for maltreatment. This is

partially due to society treating them differently and less valuable, causing the parents to feel

disappointed, which then leads to the parent changing their view of the child and the way they

treat them (Pediatrics). Since these children require special care and attention, some parents end

up putting their child into foster care due to too much stress and financial issues (Pediatrics).

This is where the system can be seen as corrupt. Rather than the children with disabilities be put

into the system due to these reasons, there should be more help within the families for the child.

Due to the stress on the guardians, there should be more aids being able to help such as at home

nurses.

The cycle of abuse often causes for children to be mistreated by their relatives.The living

arrangements for children are not being deeply looked into causing unknown or missing data.

For example, children could be legally stated to live with their mother, but without anyone

knowing they could be staying at their fathers or aunt’s. With the child welfare workforce, there

are challenges in recruiting and retaining caseworkers which affect the children under their care

(GAO). The welfare workforce is falling apart due to CPS, also known as Child Protective

Services employees leaving for better paying jobs. When this happens, the employees that get

hired have college degrees, but not all are related to social work. Some employees are even

mentioned to be at risk due to safety reasons, increased paperwork, lack of supervisory support,

and insufficient time to attend training, which affects their job performance (GAO). If this is

happening with child welfare workers, how is it that every report is true or might have false or

not enough information? CPS workers are failing to monitor the children that they are supposed

to protect (GAO). If children are not being protected like they should be, then there is no

difference between their original home and where they are now. If the children do not have
enough protection, it explains why foster parents only care for the child for the income made

because most likely they will get away with how they treat the child due to the lack of protection.

When caregivers join the foster system for financial gain, it is often missed by social

services. So many stories have been reported where CPS workers failed at protection. For

example, in October of 2003, four brothers of the Jackson family in Collingswood, New Jersey,

aged nine, ten, fourteen, and nineteen, were removed from their adoptive parents’ home and the

couple was arrested. (GAO) The investigation was later revealed that their adoptive parents’

were systematically starving them for years, causing issues in their weight and growth. After this

was investigated the boys got moved to another foster family. A report was released, it proves

that not only are children already put into the system affected due to the abuse before placed, but

some are being affected while in the system.

Research shows that the system affects children majorly in many ways, due to multiple

changes in the placement or how they are treated in the home, severe, long-term behavior and

emotional problems can be developed. Mental health problems and poor educational

achievement are seen as well. When a child is changed in foster placement constantly there is a

decreased chance that the child will be adopted or even returned to home (Azzi-Lessing). There

is a major inconsistency for children in the system because child protective services and social

workers have them switching back and forth to foster homes constantly and not being adopted.

With inconsistency this means too many children are stuck in the system as well. With this, most

children have neither a biological family nor a permanent adoptive family to go back to. It is

shown that ages 18-20 get discharged from foster care to be put on their own. Not all at this age

had a legal guardian to provide them with supervision (Azzi-Lessing). If a child has spent their
whole life in the system then discharged they might not always know how to properly care for

themselves.

The foster care system often sets children up for tribulations later in life. Children who

were raised all of their lives in a dysfunctional foster care system, “are far more likely to become

teen parents, be chronically unemployed, and spend their lives in poverty than other young

people’’ (Azzi-Lessing). Now that it is seen as an issue with teens who were in a dysfunctional

foster home causing them to have no guided direction and correct supervision the increase on

unemployment and poverty might begin; this could also lead to teens entering group homes due

to them not knowing what to do with their lives. It is to now even be seen that there are laborious

chores for the foster child to complete while in a foster home like attend schooling, tutoring, and

therapy or else punishment is involved; more seen in group homes which now have a major

downfall in. “There is more than 10 times the rate of physical abuse and more than 28 times the

rate of sexual abuse as in the general population’’ (Hile). If this is happening, then why is

nobody seeing this and why is the word not being put out there? Better monitoring needs to

happen to control the system and the correct care for the children. It has been seen though that

foster and adoptive parents who experience corruption in the system get more sympathy from the

public (Wexler).

Doctors are trusted with children, but when they do not keep them safe the children are

put in harm's way. Medical abuse is also seen as one of the major reasons that children are put

into the system just because a parent disagrees with something their doctor said, or even seeking

an second opinion (Shilhavy). How is that fair to lose a child because you simply do not agree to

something the doctor has told that parent? Yes, it might be seen as abuse, but the child is not

being put into danger, unless they were to refuse something like an anti vaccine. I think that if
parents’ go to a doctor for something they notice with their child, but feel like that doctor is not

helping, so they decide to get a second opinion by a different doctor then they should not be

counted towards child abuse. I think that the child should have all the shots needed, but the extra

ones that the parents disagree with should not be considered as abusing their child. The system

should focus more on the children being physically or sexual abused and recieving neglect.

Parents are being wrongly accused and for months had to fight to get their children back, which

sometimes does not always happen. When the parents do finally get their children back after

being wrongly accused, reunification happens during the process when a child has already

bonded with their foster parents, which can lead to more time to try and get their children back

(Shilhavy). Some children who enter the system are getting the same exact aid that they received

when they were with their birth parents (Wexler). “Some may express outrage that the child

wasn’t removed from the dangerous home sonner and placed in foster care -- the intended social

safety net for children who are unable to live with their birth parents. However, such a sentiment

ignores the fact that foster care harbors its own threats to the safety and well-being of vulnerable

children’’ (Azzi-Lessing). Some foster parents are even forced to attend “parenting classes’’ that

some of the biological parents might be attending as well. The foster parents should not be

forced to take a parenting class if the system has chosen them to protect and take care of a child

put into foster care.

Not all might think the system is corrupt. It may seem that every child is safe as long as

they are out of their abusive home and put into the system. As long as CPS checks up on the

child and notice they are improving in many ways before they entered the system they will let

them stay with their “new’’ family. The child of the parents, then the Child Protective Services

are supposed to be the first to know whether or not the child is being abused or not. Children
who enter foster care are supposed to be provided a safe protective home, food, clothing,

schooling, and even a family; which is not always met. Research has been found that once some

children enter the system and form a bond to their new foster families or parents they do not

want to go back to their biological parents. Most children put into the system who suffered from

a bad home life and soon get put into a protective household, developmentally grow stronger

mentally, physically, and cognitively. The wants and needs of the child are finally being met

allowing them to grow in the direct path where all children's needs are met and they are properly

protected and cared for.

The system is corrupt because children can go from home to home without situation

improvement. Most children in the system will not always be protected, or find a permanent

home. The corrupt system has been compared to “modern day slavery’’ (Schaefer). Children are

being ripped away from families because they might go get a second opinion from a doctor,

issues with who the child stays with after a divorce, or a false accusation of an abuse that a so

called witness saw when they do not have any form or sign of abuse. Most children are still

being abused as they enter their foster home even though they really got put in there to be

protected. The system is affecting the way children cognitively, socially, emotionally, and

physically develop. The amount of CPS and social workers there are is a very small amount and

more is needed that everyone can feel they trust. The inconsistency in the system needs fixed

because there are too many children and not enough homes.

If more value was put into good social work the foster system would improve the lives of

children involved. An increase would be seen on more high quality foster homes and families. If

the problem is fixed within the system, the inconsistency children experience, like moving from

home to home, would be fixed to where they can stay in one stable home that is prepared to meet
all the needs it takes to have a foster child. There are plenty of families that would love to foster

a child due to them wanting more children or might not being able to have any of their own; the

system just needs to be guided in the right direction. There needs to be a slow improvement that

leads to an outstanding finish in fixing the foster system.

Azzi-Lessing, Lenette. “The hidden harms of the US foster-care system.” 22 January

2016, p.1-3 www.theconversation.com/the-hidden-harms-of-the-us-foster-care-

 system-49700

Shilhavy, Brian. ‘’The Corrupt Foster Care and Adoption System: Why Aren’t More Foster and

Adoptive Parents Speaking Out?’’, edited by Health Impact News, 25 October 2018, p.2-4

www.healthimpactnews.com/2018/the-corrupt-foster-care-and-adoption-system-why-

arent-more-foster-and-adoptive-parents-speaking-out/

Wexler, Richard. “Biological Parents Versus Foster/ Adoptive Parents: Inequalities Exist with

Different Standards’’, National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (NCCPR) Child

Welfare Blog, 25 October 2018, p. 4-12

https://healthimpactnews.com/2018/the-corrupt-foster-care-and-adoption-system-why-

arent-more-foster-and-adoptive-parents-speaking-out/

Doak, Melissa. “Detecting, Measuring, and Preventing Child Abuse’’, 2009

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