These metrics pursue simplicity and uniformity at the expense of child-centered decision-making and a focus on child well-being. Despite numerous large-scale federal policy reforms over the past several decades, substantial concerns remain about the experiences and outcomes of children in the foster care system. There are two strategies currently in place that emphasize accountability for system performance. Although maltreatment-related deaths are rare, recurrent victimization is not: by age 12, 1 in 7 U.S. children has been reported to Child Protective Services more than once, and more than 1 in 4 confirmed victims of child maltreatment is revictimized (Kim & Drake, 2019). Despite substantial investments in promoting adoption for children who cannot be reunified, more than 120,000 U.S. children are waiting for adoption on any given day (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018), many of whom are older, are a member of a large sibling group, or have significant psychosocial or health care needs (Macomber, 2004; Snowden et al., 2008). She earned her Ph.D. in Child Development from the University of Texas at Austin. Sarah A. Font, Pennsylvania State University in the Department of Sociology and Criminology and is a faculty member of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network. Among the most significant changes has been the provision of federal funding to extend foster care to age 21 (Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, 2008). The amount of time children spend in foster care ranges widely: most children who are reunified spend less than one year in foster care, whereas children who are adopted or waiting for an adoptive placement spend more time in foster care. An impact evaluation determines whether foster care as implemented by a particular agency improves, worsens, or has no impact on the safety and well-being of children who are abused or neglected in their home environments. Juvenile delinquency in child welfare: Investigating group home effects, The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences, nationally, by state, and by race or ethnicity. Evaluation of states foster home capacity largely focuses on counts (recruitment and retention) rather than quality or suitability to childrens needs. official website and that any information you provide is encrypted Technology and the proliferation of electronic case records has created new opportunities to integrate data on child well-being across multiple systems, such as health care, juvenile justice, and education. Decisions about placement, permanency, and services for an individual child are difficult and a person acting in good faith will not achieve the right outcome every time, just as a doctor cannot cure every patient of their ailments. Although current policy allows relatives to be turned down for foster care placement in select circumstances, states have recognized that application of existing preferences for kin have resulted in decisions that were foreseeably harmful to children (Center for Arizona Policy, 2018; Riley, 2019), especially when screening or oversight of kinship placements is inadequate (Jonathan R. v. Governor Justice, 2019). A case study in public child welfare: County-level practices that address racial disparity in foster care placement, Report of maltreatment as a risk factor for injury death a prospective birth cohort study, Opposing family separation policies for the welfare of children, Georgia foster reform: Kinship preference limits are good for children. There are two main ways that children enter the foster care system. - States and agencies must evaluate when kin placements may not be preferable to other foster care placements, such as when the child has no preexisting relationship with that kin or kin placement requires other sacrifices (e.g., separation from siblings, changing schools). Midwest evaluation of the adult functioning of former foster youth: Outcomes at age 19, The potential educational benefits of extending foster care to young adults: Findings from a natural experiment, Memo from CalYOUTH: Early findings on the relationship between extended foster care and youths outcomes at age 19. Another common strategy is to hold matching events where families approved for adoption meet with childrens caseworkers to learn more about available children. McMillen JC, Zima BT, Scott LD, Auslander W, Munson M, Ollie M, & Spitznagel E. (2005). Evaluation of foster care should include both impact evaluation and process evaluation. Center for the Study of Social Policy. The majority of these children need services to address physical or mental health needs, and a substantial number will also need a temporary or permanent substitute caregiver in order to protect them from future harm. et al. In addition, there may be further opportunities to reduce the need for foster care for example, by increasing rates of uptake and effectiveness of in-home services. - ACF should revise the National Foster Home Model Licensing Standards to explicitly prohibit the placement of a foster child with an adult who has ever been substantiated as having perpetrated child maltreatment or convicted of misdemeanor child abuse or endangerment in any U.S. state at any time in their adulthood, and to require child maltreatment background checks for all states in which a person has resided as an adult. House Bill 1 study group: Privatization of child welfare services recommendations. - Agencies need to assess the suitability and service/training needs of potential foster parents and the quality of potential foster homes using standardized measures. Associations between child maltreatment, autonomic regulation, and adverse cardiovascular outcome in an urban population: The HELIUS study, Policy implications of foster family characteristics. (2012c). - States should evaluate and improve the quality of services and supports for foster and adoptive families to improve retention and placement stability. Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. Schmidt DM, Rosenthal JA, & Bombeck B. Many states have opted to settle such lawsuits, although the reach of Constitutional protections in this realm remains unsettled (Strassburger, 2018). However, not all foster parents are interested in adoption. Of the many challenges faced by the child welfare system, a recurring and essential question is, who is accountable? Yet, the assumption among the public and some scholars and practitioners is that placement in foster care is inherently harmful and rarely, if ever, justified (Busso et al., 2019; Franck Meyer, 2019; Raz & Sankaran, 2019). The FFPSA includes many provisions relevant to foster care. But foster care is not a permanent placement and children should not be left to languish in temporary care. In many states, caseworkers can remove the child first and ask for the court authorization afterward, within 24 to 72 hours of the removal (OConnell, 2016). (2011). And yet, it is not evident that compliance with current mandates achieves meaningful improvements in child well-being. States commonly use a public-facing website to share (limited, typically de-identified) profiles of children who need or may need an adoptive family (there is also a national version, AdoptUSkids.org). In addition, the final standards only require out-of-state child abuse clearances for states of residence in the past five years. Group homes are licensed Hence, caseworker-completed well-being assessment tools that are costly and time-consuming may be a suboptimal approach for improving child well-being. (2017, July Child Foster Care Background Studies Reform: Frequently Asked Questions General Reform Questions 1. Quantification, worker judgment, and divergence in child welfare decision making, Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, The effects of federal adoption incentive awards for older children on adoptions from U.S. foster care, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Falling through the cracks: Gaps and barriers in the mental health system for Americas disadvantaged children. Given high rates of caseworker turnover in child welfare (Casey Family Programs, 2017; Cypher, 2001), per-worker costs accumulate quickly. Foster care is never an ideal situation for a child, but it may be the least worst alternative for children whose parents intentionally, recklessly, or negligently harm them. Foster care provides such 24/7 care by placing children with relatives (kinship care) or non-relatives (family foster homes) or, for children needing intensive levels of care or supervision, in residential group (congregate) care settings. For example, in most states, the core components of the foster care intervention would include, among other things, placing children in the least-restrictive setting available, achieving timely permanency, and providing services to children and families. 671(a)(19), 2010) and placement with siblings (42 U.S.C. Youth in group home care: Youth characteristics and predictors of later functioning, The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, Who cares: A national count of foster homes and families, In search of a silver bullet: Child welfares embrace of predictive analytics. Wulczyn F, Orlebeke B, Hislop K, Schmits F, McClanahan J, & Huang L. (2018). Evaluation of the guardian ad litem system in Nebraska, The power of the street-level bureaucrat in public service bureaucracies. Aside from financial incentives for adoption and encouragement of concurrent planning, there were two primary ways in which ASFA sought to fast-track permanency. ex rel Stukenberg v. Abbott, No. We then propose several policy recommendations to improve the quality of foster care and the health, safety, and stability of children in care. Center for Arizona Policy. Current race and socioeconomic disparities in foster care entry generally mirror disproportionalities in rates of child maltreatment (Sedlak et al., 2010), adverse childhood experiences (Child Trends, 2019; Sacks & Murphy, 2018), and a range of other social, economic, and health characteristics that are associated with child maltreatment and the need for substitute care. For example, a competition where child protection caseworkers could receive extra money if they closed more cases was widely criticized for incentivizing shortcuts in investigations (Jackson et al., 2017). However, the delineated compelling reasons not to file termination of parental rights are quite broad: if the child resides with a relative, if termination is not in the childs best interests, or if the state failed to make reasonable efforts to reunify the child with their birth parents (Bevan, 2009; Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013). On any given day, nearly 407,000 children are in foster care in America. Foster Care Achieving a Continuum of Care for Children and Youth in Foster Care Achieving a Continuum of Care for Children and Youth in Foster Care Children and youth in foster care are best supported through a continuum of care that provides ongoing services from entry to exit. In addition to the efforts described above to reduce the number of youth who age out (by reducing entries to foster care, and promoting adoption and guardianship), state and federal governments provide a range of supports to youth emancipating from foster care, including extended Medicaid eligibility (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2015), tuition assistance or waivers for public universities in at least 28 states (Parker & Sarubbi, 2017), federal grants for post-secondary education (e.g., Education and Training Vouchers), and independent living services (Fernandes-Alcantara, 2019). Professional foster care, wherein foster parenting becomes a form of paid employment, remains controversial. Foster care is a temporary living situation for kids whose parents cannot take care of them and whose need for care has come to the attention of child welfare agency staff. Guardian ad Litem Program: 2018 Evaluation Report. Data contained in these systems when children are sick or injured, when they are suspended from school or make the honor roll, and what medications and services they receive provide critical cues about child well-being that are not manipulatable and place no additional documentation burden on caseworkers. There can be so much stacked against them and current state laws and polices are not helping. When reasonable efforts do not result in safe reunification, the federal government promotes timely completion of adoption or guardianship. Standardized assessments such as the Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory (Caldwell & Bradley, 2018) or the Structured Analysis Family Evaluation (SAFE: Consortium SAFE, 2011), have been used by some child welfare agencies in home studies for prospective foster or adoptive families (Selwyn, 2011). However, large-scale reductions in the use of foster care and the racial and socioeconomic disparities therein are likely safely accomplished only by preventing child maltreatment. Does the July 1, 2022 changes apply to Adult Foster Care and Family Child Care? U.S. Department of Education, & U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Implementation of the reunification exception provisions of ASFA, Bevan CS (2009). - Competitive federal funding should be made available to develop and test strategies to match children likely to be freed for adoption with foster families open to adoption, and match children likely to reunify with their parents with foster families not interested or able to adopt. Exits refers to information about children exiting foster care during a given timeframe: October 1 through However, prospective foster families have limited information upon which to evaluate agencies, and once licensed, families typically cannot change agencies without beginning the licensure process anew. Policy changes aimed at reducing the number of children who end up in foster caremany championed by . We provide an overview of the role of policy in children experiences before and after foster care, but we focus largely on childrens experiences within foster care. Privatization in Child Welfare (PDF - 429 KB) National Conference of State Legislatures (2018) Offers an overview of State privatization efforts and describes programs in Texas, Kansas, Florida, Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, and Tennessee. Hayek M, Mackie T, Mul C, Bellonci C, Hyde J, Bakan J, & Leslie L. (2013). Careers, Unable to load your collection due to an error. Foster parents who do not adopt play a valuable and necessary role in the system, given the high rate of reunification and the frequency with which families discontinue fostering after an adoption. Efforts to reform foster care have burdened agencies and caseworkers with ever-increasing compliance-related activities, monitored by multiple layers of oversight. The premise of this requirement, based on a report from the U.S. Childrens Bureau (2015), was that a substantial portion of children in congregate care had no mental health or behavioral needs that justified a restrictive placement, to the detriment of childrens well-being and at great financial cost (No Place to Grow up: How to Safely Reduce Reliance on Foster Care Group Homes; Senate Hearing 114273, 2015). Bom Kevin However, when voluntary prevention services are inadequate to ensure child safety, harm to children can be minimized by timely detection and intervention. Today, two decades after reform efforts began and fizzled out, Oregon places kids in foster care at a rate above the nationwide average. For example, the Youth Thrive Survey is designed for children aged 12 to 20 and taps into five key dimensions: youth resilience, social connections, knowledge of adolescent development, concrete support in time of need, and cognitive and social emotional competence (Center for the Study of Social Policy & Metis Associates, 2018). Courtney ME, Dworsky A, Terao S, Bost N, Cusick GR, Keller T, & Haylicek J. Federal court precedents assert that children in state custody have affirmative rights to a minimum standard of care and safety (DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. There are ethical concerns with using information about the probability of reunification to inform placement decisions, the primary concern being that the information would unfairly influence the biological parents services, case plan, or evaluation of their progress. Some states have found that, after closing their own congregate care facilities, they have no options but to place children with serious mental or behavioral health problems in out-of-state facilities or in hotels or other short-term options (Abramo, 2018; Child Welfare Monitor, 2020; Cushman, 2019; Jones, 2019). Parents in all states can surrender newborns to emergency personnel at certain locations (e.g., fire stations, hospitals) under state safe haven laws designed to prevent infant abandonment (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2017b).
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