Foster care (also known as out-of-home care) is a temporary service provided by states for children who cannot live with their families. Children in foster care may live with relatives or with unrelated foster parents. Foster care can also refer to placement settings such as group homes, residential care facilities, emergency shelters, and supervised independent living.
WHY ARE CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE?
Children are in foster care because they or their families are going through a crisis. Often these children — from babies to teens — have been removed from their parents because they are unsafe, abused or neglected or their parents are unable to care for them. By law, children in foster care are supposed to have contact with family — their parents, brothers and sisters — through regular visits while they are in foster care.
Foster children often say that being away from family and familiar surroundings, and not always knowing what’s next, are among the hardest parts of foster care. On the other hand, while they miss their families, children may realize that being in the foster care system can be a better solution, at least temporarily.
WHAT IS THE GOAL OF FOSTER CARE?
A key goal of foster care is to ensure that children live in stable, lifelong families. Foster care is meant to be temporary — until a parent can get back on track, or a relative, guardian or adoptive family agrees to raise a child. Besides safety, reunification is always the main goal.
HOW DO CHILDREN MAKE THIER WAY INTO FOSTER CARE? WHO DECIDES THAT A CHILD NEEDS TO BE IN THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM?
Typically, children come to the attention of the child welfare system, staffed by government officials, through a report of child abuse or neglect. Social workers investigate allegations and the agency must get approval from a judge if they determine it is not safe for the child to stay at home.
The agency must go before a judge to seek temporary custody of the child. Part of being in foster care is being visited by caseworkers, therapeutic service providers, mentors, as well as having judges check on the children periodically. Caseworkers are responsible for keeping children safe and getting them into stable, long-term family/living situation as soon as possible; judges oversee this process. They also need to ensure that children’s needs are being met—that they are enrolled in school, receiving health care, clothed and fed as well as staying in touch with their families are a few examples.