Foster Care System Essay

The foster care system has been around since the 1900s and has impacted millions of children’s lives. Since its creation, the system has rapidly grown and has had to receive outside aid to support the increasing number of children entering foster care. Although the foster care system has positive intentions, it has negatively impacted hundreds of children's lives, broken apart families, and has proven to have discrimination factors.

There are over 500,000 children in foster care in the United States, most of whom have been victims of abuse and neglect. The circumstances have not let these children experience a stable and supportive environment during their early years of life. “Such experiences are critical in the short- and long-term development

Thus, making it harder to ensure all children get the help they need to aid their mental stability. Children are likely to be removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect, or other maltreatment, which can leave them with emotional or psychological traumas. Children of parents who are in prison, battling substance abuse, or whose parents have both died also manage traumas that can lead to serious mental health problems. The foster care system can add to the originally challenging experiences by making a child leave their home and family members to temporarily live with strangers. Children are forced to adapt to their environments, which are most likely constantly changing from one foster home to another. In other situations, children can return home after a short period, but many of those cases result in reverting to foster care. The constant living changes cause instability in a foster child’s life, and the “constant ‘starting over’ process that children endure in the system can cause problems with attachment and detachment, which impacts the child’s ability to form and maintain healthy relationships”(Sheppard). Without proper treatment or

Due to the tender relationship the children may have with their parents, separation from their siblings can cause overwhelming feelings and increase the risk of experiencing emotional and psychological problems. The extended period of separation between a family can be a strenuous process, so the foster care system created scheduled visitation times so parents and their children can stay connected. Although visitation benefits the family by letting them attempt to improve relationships, it can have harmful effects if visitation does not follow through. Instead of having prior contact about the visitation, there is little to no conversation between “the biological parent and the social worker or no confirmation call regarding if the visit will continue as scheduled until it either happens or is canceled” (Haggerty). Cancellations or rescheduling a visitation that a child has been looking forward to all week can be very upsetting and cause them to be disappointed and act out. On average, scheduled visitations last only one hour once a week to every other week. The purpose of visitation is to help the child and parent establish a healthier relationship, but one hour every 7 to 14 days make it very difficult for them to have any form of