Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have read that children in foster care are moved to a new home approximately twice a year. I don't know if this is accurate or not. My questions: Is this true? What are the reasons children are moved so often? I have no experience with the foster system, so I'm looking at it from a curious outsider's perspective. It seems to me that moving a child to a new home every 6 months is cruel. Anyone care to shed a little light?
Every situation is different, but when kids are first put into care oftentimes they go to whoever has an open room. Then they might be moved to the home of a relative who may/may not be able to care for them adequately or may only be able to take 1 or 2 kids but there are 4 siblings, so then the kids might be split up. Sometimes the home they are placed in just isn't a good match, or the kids have emotional issues that the foster parents aren't prepared to deal with or just don't want to. If they are siblings that have been split up, they might be moved again when a home becomes available that can take all of them. And finally, not all foster parents will take all types of kids (race, disability, age, sibling groups, emotional/social issues, safety issues, etc.) and so the kids have to be moved again and again until a good match is found.
My husband and I have been foster parents for 14 years to over 110 children. We have had children placed from hours to the longest so far 8 years. The only times children have been moved from our home is to be returned to family, or if a sibling was born while in care and we are over our numbers {3}. Last week a sibling was born to our 2 children that have lived with us for 4 1/2 years. Mom is fairly young {early 20's } and my husband and I have decided we cannot have this baby placed with us. We are in the real situation that our 2 children that we have loved and bonded with and visa/ versa will be moved so the sibling can grow up together. Our stance is that mom could have 10 children, and we are not able to continue fostering until she decides to stop. We also had Mom in our home as a foster child.
In our community we are so short foster homes that we are always asked{including today} to bring extra children in. Another thing happens in our area; Most children who come into care are First Nations ancestory. We have the provincial department that looks after the well being of the provinces children. We also have two First nation agency's; that when their children come into care, they place the children in their homes. Got to say, this isn't working as most F.N. foster parents don't last long. and they become osterized by their own community. Unfortunately anything other than age of child is consider when placing children in our area. Sad!
Rules and guidelines vary from state to state as far as specifics, but I don't know of any states who just move kids just to move them. Kids are placed with family first if at all possible (if there are any willing family members who can be located and can pass a background check). If not, then they will go to a foster placement as soon as one can be found. If none are available, they may wind up in an emergency shelter first (though this is rare with younger kids, it is sometimes the case with older teens).
Once placed in a foster home though, they will not be moved unless there is a specific reason. Those reasons can vary. Kids who go into foster care often have a high level of needs. Maybe they wind up in a bad fight, or constantly cause problems in the home. Then the foster parent can put in a removal notice, and generally the state will have 2-4 weeks to locate a new placement. Or maybe they are self harming and it causes them to require a psychiatric hospitalization. That can last from a few days, to a few months. Then once released, maybe the former foster home doesn't feel safe or qualified to handle the youth due to those behaviors and again can put in a request to move.
Ultimately though, like Pat said it is just so varied. I have known foster kids to be in one placement for many, many years and to have a familial relationship with the foster parents, and I have known kids who have been in 4-6 placements in a year. Different extremes, and it is down to a number of factors.
The average child in foster care is moved a total of 18 times before they "age out".
Foster parents come to this opportunity for a variety of reasons: Philanthropy, to be a parent, to be paid, to help a child, etc. And so they reasons it is disrupted are varied as well. Plus, some times a child may run from a placement, act out, or be placed into a different level of care, necessitating a move. There are good foster parents and bad foster parents and mediocre foster parents (just like any parent). Some should not be parents at all. But sometimes foster parents can be gullible -- thinking that all this child needs is love. Wrong. They also need consistency, lots of patience, consistency, parental visits, consistency, doctor appointments, consistency, counseling, consistency..... Not all parents/would be parents can do this well at all. It is a VERY hard responsibility. These kiddos have been either abused or neglected or both. They pay a high price for their family's behavior. These kids need so much. And if a family has it to give, and can hang in there with them, many of these kids can do so well!
And...sometimes the foster parents really want to adopt and will take in foster kids to 'screen' them and find a reason that the undesirable (to them) foster kids should be moved to another home so they can screen more potential kids so that the 'best' (to them) will be with them and adopted by them, should they be freed for adoption.
So sad, but I do know of several foster parents that did exactly this.
I have read that children in foster care are moved to a new home approximately twice a year. I don't know if this is accurate or not. My questions: Is this true? What are the reasons children are moved so often? I have no experience with the foster system, so I'm looking at it from a curious outsider's perspective. It seems to me that moving a child to a new home every 6 months is cruel. Anyone care to shed a little light?
I would be curious to know where you read this. Having been a foster parent for years, and had dozens of children through our home, most of our placements were reunited with their families within a year. The few we had for longer periods of time were not moved unless there was a serious issue with the child that required (a) our request to remove the child, which happened only once or (b) a need was discovered that we were not going to be qualified to treat/care for and necessitated moving the child from our care.
Many agencies now understand that moving the children causes a trauma similar to the loss (death) of a family member every time they are relocated. Well managed agencies will work to limit the moves and traumatic events to the children as much as possible.
As far as "If they are too hard to deal with I reckon they wont be wanted long..." - you have no idea what you are talking about. Our one placement that we could not help was heart-wrenching. An autistic, non-verbal toddler who only screamed. Non-stop hours of screaming, whether happy, sad, angry, or tired. He screamed for hours every day. Given opportunity to run, he ran (and screamed) as fast as he could go. He didn't know where he was going, he didn't care. He ran and screamed. I so desperately wanted to help him, comfort him, and learn more about him. Unfortunately we had too many other children to care for, including our own biological children and two we were adopting, that we could not devote the time and effort he was going to need. After a couple months we had to ask social services to find a new placement for him. The next well meaning family took him in and lasted three days before requesting a move. Our last information was that he was going to a facility with capability for intensive care and therapy. I wonder to this day what happened to him, and remember his beautiful little smile.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
