Foster Care

[4Rebekah]

Foster care is when children, infants to 21 years of age, are not able to live with their parents or families for many different reasons. They are sent to live with relatives, in shelters or with a foster family that will watch the child until they are able to be reunited with their parents. When a child is in the foster care system, sometimes they are allowed to have monitored visits with their family, depending on the situation. Children are able to leave the foster care system by going back to live with their biological parents, getting adopted, or aging out. Foster care is a safe place that these children are able to live in .

 

Every child that has been in foster care has had to experience some sort of trauma or loss. This trauma can affect different children in different ways. Some children become more rebellious, some become distant or detached, there are many different ways a child can react to trauma. 1 in 5 former foster kids end up being homeless at the age of 18 and there is a higher percentage for these children to end up in prison at some point. 70 percent of female foster kids get pregnant before they turn 21 years old. Being in foster care is very hard on a child and this will affect their future. Under 3 percent of former foster kids eventually get a college degree.

 

In 2020, there were 214,421 foster families in the U.S. This number dropped from what it was in 2019, which was 218,927 families. The number of foster families most likely dropped from 2020 to 2023. There are many more kids in need of a home in foster care, than there are homes for them to live in, with foster families. There are around 400,000 children that are in the foster care system in the U.S. The goal of a foster family is to care for them and give them lots of love. These children have been through many hard things and need a family that will be there for them and love them. 

 

When I am older I want to become a foster parent to help out children that need it. I think that it is important to help others in time of need. A child needs to have stability when they are growing up, it is crucial for their childhood.  My family is a foster family and I think that it is a good experience because you get to learn how to live with different chlidren that come from different cultures and different famlies. 

 

 

https://www.adoptuskids.org/meet-the-children/children-in-foster-care/about-the-children 

https://www.afs4kids.org/blog/living-after-foster-care-ends/#:~:text=Compared%20to%20their%20peers%2C%20former,obtain%20a%20college%20degree%20eventually. 

https://www.aecf.org/blog/what-is-foster-care 

https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma/trauma-types/complex-trauma/effects 

https://www.fosterva.org/blog/how-many-foster-families-are-there-in-the-usa-want-to-know#:~:text=However%2C%20in%202021%20there%20were,school%20age%20to%20young%20adults. 

 

Would you ever become a foster parent?

 

Have you ever met anyone in the foster care system?

 

Do you think that more families should become foster families?

 

*Please do not use any names of people that are in foster care.

 

[5Clara]

I think If I couldn't have kids I would become a foster parent, but if I'm fertile and well enough to have kids, I want kids of my own. I haven't ever met someone in the foster care system but I've heard of kids being in foster care. I think more people should adopt and or take in kids in foster care, they all just need a home and some love. They deserve a happy, healthy, and loving family. They've probably been through terrible things and been traumatized, so they just need help feeling more safe and secure. 

[4Rebekah]

Exactly, foster care is a place were children can feel safe and secure after all of the things that they have had to go through.

[6 hugo dominguez]

Depends on the situation that im in but i\other wise no, I have not met any kid or person in the foster care system. I think poeple should be fostering more kids, it could help out the community and some kids life. it could help the kid have a family and grow up well

[5Ben]

Me personally, I wouldn't become a foster parent because I want kids of my own, but I have nothing against adopting a child. I also have not met a person that has been in the foster care system. I do think that more families should become foster families, because kids need a family to call their own and have parental figures.

[4Rebekah]

I agree with you, I think that children need parental figures that they can call family that will love them and take care of them.

[5Dallas McDowell]

I would not become a foster parent. I have met people who have been in foster care earlier in life. I think that if you have a nice life and you think its a good idea then you should.

[4Tiffany]

Yes I would become a foster parent because I know what it's like to have a hard life. I have two cousins that are from the foster system and I have some friends that are apart of this. Yes I think more families should become foster families because there are lots of kids in the world who need to be in a safer place then their home. 

[4Jasond]

I personally wouldn't but I would adopt. Also I have been fostered before, so I think that families is a good thing for kids, but I think that there should be requirements.

[4Rebekah]

I agree that there should be requirements to be a foster parent and I think that there are some, you have to go through lots of classes to become a foster parent, and you have to renew you license every 2 years.

[3audrie]

Yes, I would love to be a foster parent. Some kids really need someone in their life and from what Ive heard most kids don't get put in good homes. But they always remember the good ones they did go to. I feel like it would be good to know that they got to remeber something good.