Foster Care has the highest level of
activity in The United States of America. It means the fact of
putting a child in the care of another family when the former has
been adandoned or at times abused by his biological parents. Usually
it is temporary till the child gets adopted or at least one of his
birth parents reclaims him/ her. Most of them get emotionally and
psychologically damaged which makes it even harder for them to accept
the fact of moving in with their unbiological parents. The abandoned
children are predominantly males. They are mostly Whites with a
percentage of 41 in 2005. The rest of them are mainly Black (32%) and
Hispanic (18%).
What do statistics and researches
declare about Foster Care in the USA?
Foster care is like a bus
station in which children wait for the right family to pick them up
and treat them as if they were their biological parents. On one hand,
not all children exit the system because they got adopted. In 2007,
around 8.7% of them left because they reached the age of eighteen.
Unless they find a decent job and a place to live in, they will face
homelessness, poverty, hunger, bad health, etc... On the other hand,
researches brought out into open that the numbers of adoptions have
increased from 28.000 in 1996 to 50.000 in 2000. This fact gives hope
for many of the abandoned children who were left behind with no care
once in for all.
Foster care is the system which
takes care of the parentless children till they get chosen by a
worthy family. Therefore, more and more adoptive homes are needed in
order to save those 8.7% we have already talked about from
homelessness. In 1999, around 40.000 of the Foster Care children were
successfully adopted, while 100.000 of them were still waiting.
Almost 65% of the former were adopted by their "Foster Parents".
The rest were adopted by relatives (16%) and non- relatives (20%).
The percentages provided by many
researches about Foster Care make us ask a question: What are the
reasons behind the fact of those children leaving the system without
being adopted? First, it is revealed that in 1998 and 1999 most of
the waiting children are Black and Hispanic with a percentage of 67%.
And the white waiting children were only 32%. Second, it is plainly
declared that Foster Care children are most likely of being adobted
when they are between one and five years old with a percentage of
45%. Once they reach ten, their chances start to briskly decrease to
15% and then 2% as they get older.
Beyond Doubt, Foster Care is
every parentless child hope to get a caring and loving family after
being deprived from his/ her divine right of being raised by his/ her
own biological parents. It is true that through the recent years the
percentage of adoption and adopting houses are increasing. However,
there are still children who need an appropriate home to live in, a
healthy meal to eat and a school to attend. Hopefully, there will be
a year when The United States of America will reach a point where all
Foster Care children find a welcoming family to live with.
Written by: Nada Mrabet
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