Orphan Trains Research Paper

Deicis Esquivel Flores Professor Jeffrey S. Markovitz English 102 05 April 2024

Foster care is a system that has been able to provide several benefits and contributions, and overall has met the needs of various children struggling with their biological families by placing them in temporary homes. However, there are still many areas in which this system can improve to better support young people aging out of the foster care system. At the time that a child is about to age out of the foster care system, this means they have reached the age limit and are no longer able to remain within the system as they approach adulthood. This can become worrisome for these youths knowing they will have to leave soon since they may not lack the support, knowledge,

This system was called the Orphan Trains and the idea behind the Orphan Trains is actually pretty similar to how the foster care process is at placing kids in different homes. In the passage “Orphan Trains:Teaching about an Early Twentieth-Century Social Experiment” it states, “The concept of placing children in homes or with non family members was part of the historical development of the United States. The concept of placing them out originated in Europe, most notably in France and Great Britain” (Chiodo and Meliza 147). This means that Brace’s idea was to place orphaned kids into different states and countries. To further explain, this system worked by having the idea of wanting to place children in different countries, states, and overall different regions of the world. How is this system similar to how the foster care system is run today? The Orphan Trains actually have and share some similarities with today’s foster care system. In today’s current foster care, there are people specialized in finding and matching foster families that can meet the needs of each child. Similarly, the Orphan Trains had children traveling around the

This issue of foster homes not willing to accept adolescents, can also contribute to the issue that foster kids face when aging out. If there is a lack of placements for adolescents and youth in the foster care system, this can mean there is a lack of stability and support that they can receive. Lack of foster homes wanting to accept adolescents can also become troublesome because this can not ensure that these children and adolescents will not have stable mental health and emotional support during their time in the foster care system. A child may enter the foster care system because of issues with their biological families or overall personal issues. However, even after these kids have left the system, it does not mean they are still not struggling and going through issues. Statistics and data on this issue is very important in order to understand the amount of children and youth that go through challenges after leaving. As stated, “The U.S. Administration for Children and Families reports that within two to three years after aging out of foster care at age 18, approximately 51% of youth will lack employment, about 25% will become homeless and incarcerated,