Is Foster Care Good Or Bad

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The U.S. has half a million children in foster care (Hamburg). A survey done by a national foster-care database showed that the system often injures the children it is supposed to protect (Hamburg). In Baltimore, a study found that sexual abuse in foster care happened more than four times than in the general population (Hamburg). Another study found 28 percent of foster placements were either beat, sexually abused or killed (Hamburg). Foster care homes can sometimes be more harmful than helpful. There are far too many cases for workers to keep track of and too many kids are getting hurt. Some claim that foster care is the best option for a child in the system but kids are still being abused or neglected in these homes. Foster care isn’t the …show more content…
For example, one child was placed with a convicted rapist, one toddler ended up with a foster mother who threw the child to a pair of snarling dogs, and in one case a 14-year-old girl was raped and impregnated (Palmer and Robertson). A nine-year-old girl in Oregon was placed in foster care with a couple, even though the man had been accused of sexually abusing another foster child (Lyons). The couple eventually adopted the girl, abused her sexually, emotionally and physically (Lyons). These kids don’t get a choice, they just get removed from their family homes and placed with strangers. Once children get placed into foster care they usually stay for a while. The national rate of children who are adopted within two years of entering foster care is 32 percent (Branigin). In the eastern region of Virginia, there were 3.3 maltreatment deaths per 100,000 children in foster care and 3.1 in the western region (Branigin). Hamburg states that, “Caseworkers, who are child savers by virtue of job description, say that even knowing when a child's life is at stake is not clear-cut. They say their work demands judgment calls with no margin for error that must be based on vague evidence and unpredictable factors.” So caseworkers will sometimes remove a child based on little evidence. If abuse is present in a home but it’s not life-threatening, family …show more content…
They lose connections to people they felt close with. They have to make new friends, and meet new people each time. This instability could compromise the child’s ability to form strong