My proposal to fix the "Broken foster care system".

When I see stories about corruption in the Family Court, it upsets me very much. You have judges, attorneys, and court representatives all conspiring against "juvenile delinquents". Many of these judges see dollar signs over the heads of these troubled youth's, and the Child Protective Service's removing children from homes for money. These children are deemed "wards of the state".
Disciplinarian vs. delinquent.
It breaks my heart when a callous social worker takes a child from a loving home, and replaces him or her in a foster home, only to be abused and exploited. Many of these administrative government-workers have a very "disciplinarian" vibe. They appear to lack conscience.
I am a person with an UNSHAKABLE, solid conscience. I believe I have an excellent moral compass. Many family-court workers are terribly lacking in empathy, and some are downright HEARTLESS.
We need MUCH more rigourous tests and screening for prospective foster parents.
The foster parent's opportunity for abuse INFURIATES me.

It's contradictory- How could a cold administrative type judge a prospective parent by how "good" they are, or measure their conscience?
These poor kid's need to be placed in loving homes where they will be provided opportunities to succeed in life.

I would say that psychological and financial screening should be applied at a massive scale for having kids in the first place.

In fact, why don't we apply psychological screenings to any place where lives are at stake and there are positions of power? Such as; anywhere in law, including law enforcement, teaching positions, prospective parents, politics, and so on.

It's just ridiculous that many of these high-power positions, or positions that deal exclusively with raising children or dealing with the law and communities often directly attract people who are mentally incapable of sustaining these positions. Just how many psychopaths/sociopaths are in politics and law? FAR more than the average we see in general populations.

a reply to: Mousygretchen



Whistleblowers Reveal CPS Child Kidnappings in Kentucky Adoption Business
medicalkidnap.com...

Corrupt State of Kentucky Makes Money from Adoptions

In his next investigative report, reporter John Boel explains that one of the motivations for the State to remove children from parents even when parents have done nothing to warrant such a removal, is to receive federal reimbursement funds for the adoption program.

In his follow up report in 2007, John Boel receives “confidential” family court tapes showing just how the system works, and how the actions of some caseworkers even disturb some of their fellow caseworkers. Records supporting parents seem to “disappear.” They also reveal conflicts of interest between case workers and foster parents who may be related to the case worker placing the child into the foster home.

Watch these 3 reports here:


Adoption Business: Placing Orders for Babies that CPS Fills by Kidnapping

Next, Boel interviews another CPS whistleblower, but one who wanted to keep her identity concealed because she was so afraid of retaliation. The former CPS worker explains how CPS is all about statistics, about how many children can be placed into adoption, since State and Federal reimbursement funds are all tied into statistics. She explains that CPS workers are encouraged to put more children into adoption.

She even relates one story of how someone who could not have children “placed an order” for a baby

IT will never happen. keep on dreaming

a reply to: malevolent

i am pissed off i missed the individual i wished to talk to. trying to make the "perfect" can not be done whether it through science or a pact

a reply to: Mousygretchen

'A camel is a horse designed by committee.' Have you ever heard that saying before? The fostering system is that camel if you put a few polka dots on it too and give it a multiple-personality disorder.

Couples and families do it for the right reasons (love and chances) whilst for many others it's a profitable career. Nothing wrong making money doing something you love, right? Some foster parents are only in it for the money and their pets get more love. These people can pollute a system by creating damaged young adults and disenchanting social workers.

Social workers come in all shapes and sizes. New ones are energetic and in search of saving lives and making a difference. They'll drink evening wine and feel genuinely upset about various of their cases; the raw humanity breaks their heart. Two and three years in and the system, the families and the children have made them harder or broken. They'll use their allocated sick days every year and become harder to contact.

They don't 'lack a conscience;' it becomes compressed and buried under layers of responsibilities and disappointments. A normal conscience is a weakness when dealing with so much negative human emotions. It has to be a bit smothered for them to stay sane in the same way frontline cops and morgue doctors develop black humour. Some social workers see it as 'a job' and not a nice one - it's all they can do. They don't like the children because they tend to be poor, hostile and hate social workers...

The 'higher-ups' who make life-changing decisions from town and city-centre offices never meet the prospective parents or the children. They move children around from school to school and from one placement to another. Their decisions create more jaded social workers and angrier young people.

New parents can have damaged teenagers sent their way and they don't yet have the experience to cope with that level of challenge. It puts them off and they might send the kid back. The damaged teen becomes more detached to protect their own sanity in a world where they don't fit in. The new parents can quit fostering or toughen up and avoid emotional attachments in future - regard new charges as problems to be endured.

I don't know what will 'fix' the system. It's better than it was in the 19th Century with the prison-style poverty of the orphanages and nasty social stigma - feint praise. It's human nature at the sharp end and we can't help fvcking things up. So many people involved that it's a messy system that produces many messed up children who become damaged adults who become parents of messed up children.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: Mousygretchen

'A camel is a horse designed by committee.' Have you ever heard that saying before? The fostering system is that camel if you put a few polka dots on it too and give it a multiple-personality disorder.

Couples and families do it for the right reasons (love and chances) whilst for many others it's a profitable career. Nothing wrong making money doing something you love, right? Some foster parents are only in it for the money and their pets get more love. These people can pollute a system by creating damaged young adults and disenchanting social workers.

Social workers come in all shapes and sizes. New ones are energetic and in search of saving lives and making a difference. They'll drink evening wine and feel genuinely upset about various of their cases; the raw humanity breaks their heart. Two and three years in and the system, the families and the children have made them harder or broken. They'll use their allocated sick days every year and become harder to contact.

They don't 'lack a conscience;' it becomes compressed and buried under layers of responsibilities and disappointments. A normal conscience is a weakness when dealing with so much negative human emotions. It has to be a bit smothered for them to stay sane in the same way frontline cops and morgue doctors develop black humour. Some social workers see it as 'a job' and not a nice one - it's all they can do. They don't like the children because they tend to be poor, hostile and hate social workers...

The 'higher-ups' who make life-changing decisions from town and city-centre offices never meet the prospective parents or the children. They move children around from school to school and from one placement to another. Their decisions create more jaded social workers and angrier young people.

New parents can have damaged teenagers sent their way and they don't yet have the experience to cope with that level of challenge. It puts them off and they might send the kid back. The damaged teen becomes more detached to protect their own sanity in a world where they don't fit in. The new parents can quit fostering or toughen up and avoid emotional attachments in future - regard new charges as problems to be endured.

I don't know what will 'fix' the system. It's better than it was in the 19th Century with the prison-style poverty of the orphanages and nasty social stigma - feint praise. It's human nature at the sharp end and we can't help fvcking things up. So many people involved that it's a messy system that produces many messed up children who become damaged adults who become parents of messed up children.

nothing will ever fix it because there was nothing broken. if you and yours disagree then you need to look higher than yourelf

originally posted by: malevolent

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: Mousygretchen

'A camel is a horse designed by committee.' Have you ever heard that saying before? The fostering system is that camel if you put a few polka dots on it too and give it a multiple-personality disorder.

Couples and families do it for the right reasons (love and chances) whilst for many others it's a profitable career. Nothing wrong making money doing something you love, right? Some foster parents are only in it for the money and their pets get more love. These people can pollute a system by creating damaged young adults and disenchanting social workers.

Social workers come in all shapes and sizes. New ones are energetic and in search of saving lives and making a difference. They'll drink evening wine and feel genuinely upset about various of their cases; the raw humanity breaks their heart. Two and three years in and the system, the families and the children have made them harder or broken. They'll use their allocated sick days every year and become harder to contact.

They don't 'lack a conscience;' it becomes compressed and buried under layers of responsibilities and disappointments. A normal conscience is a weakness when dealing with so much negative human emotions. It has to be a bit smothered for them to stay sane in the same way frontline cops and morgue doctors develop black humour. Some social workers see it as 'a job' and not a nice one - it's all they can do. They don't like the children because they tend to be poor, hostile and hate social workers...

The 'higher-ups' who make life-changing decisions from town and city-centre offices never meet the prospective parents or the children. They move children around from school to school and from one placement to another. Their decisions create more jaded social workers and angrier young people.

New parents can have damaged teenagers sent their way and they don't yet have the experience to cope with that level of challenge. It puts them off and they might send the kid back. The damaged teen becomes more detached to protect their own sanity in a world where they don't fit in. The new parents can quit fostering or toughen up and avoid emotional attachments in future - regard new charges as problems to be endured.

I don't know what will 'fix' the system. It's better than it was in the 19th Century with the prison-style poverty of the orphanages and nasty social stigma - feint praise. It's human nature at the sharp end and we can't help fvcking things up. So many people involved that it's a messy system that produces many messed up children who become damaged adults who become parents of messed up children.

nothing will ever fix it because there was nothing broken. if you and yours disagree then you need to look higher than yourelf

You'll have to speak more clearly or louder. It's too early over here for cryptic statements.

this explains it all...

Want to fix it? Change the way it is funded. The current system is set up so it is financially beneficial to take kids from loving but disadvantage parents who can't fight back, and need little to no therapy or medical care.

It is costly to remove a damaged child from an abusive home, especially one who needs extra care, a lot of therapy and serious medical attention. The directors sitting in nice cushy offices and pulling triple digit paychecks funded by our tax dollars are breathing down social workers necks to keep within a certain budget. Social workers also get bonuses to their paychecks when they make the numbers look good, so money becomes the motivator, not the child.

Then there is the fact that there are pedophiles and abusers that become foster parents, many high profile pedophiles and *cough* city council men *cough* are able to obtain access to victims this way. Feeling a bit brave tonight, as I usually never bring up the who, but that knowledge is what brought me to ATS.

a reply to: Mousygretchen


You have a decidedly very narrow view on the "problem" that you present. I can only imagine that you imagine yourself or someone close to you as some how the "victim" of social programs that have at their core the welfare of the young.

My late wife was a MSW and worked in all areas of helping young children that suffered in any or all of the ways children can be mistreated. Honestly, judges, lawyers, social workers, and finally, taxpayers would like nothing better than to not have programs such as foster care. Call such a program evil or a crime against the young if you wish, but none of those people or agencies are the root of the problem.

originally posted by: Mousygretchen
These poor kid's need to be placed in loving homes where they will be provided opportunities to succeed in life.

Here's the thing about generalizing both foster care AND "the system:" Generalization often only cite the worst-case scenarios to get support for the claim while ignoring the successes for which "the system" paves the way.

When I moved in to my current home, my neighbors across the street had a total of 5 foster children and one biological child (from a previous marriage). Currently, they adopted two of those children and brought in another who needed a place to live with zero notice.

One of the children who is 6 or 7 is a heroin baby--he just graduated from toddler (T) clothes into boy sizes last year. He was adopted last year.

One grew up in a home of true abuse, where he was starved and mentally/physically/emotionally abused to the point of hating everyone and everything. He is now 13 and doing fantastically. He was also adopted last year.

One is 17 years old and has a daughter who is 3--my neighbors took in the 17-year-old when she was pregnant and have helped raise her daughter in a very loving home. She (the teen) has been their major "problem child"--she also grew up in a home full of drug abuse and absentee parents (and probably other things about which I haven't learned yet)--and they had to see her and her daughter taken away to a "girls home" for months in a last-ditch effort at rehabilitating her behavior (severe disrespect, neglectful parenting to her daughter, drug use, etc.). Amazingly, it worked, and she returned a new woman and mother (and daughter), and she has maintained the positive changes for 10 months so far without any signs of relapse.

One is now 18, and is the sister of the 17-year-old above. She has always been a great kid since I've known her, but came from the same deplorable home as described above. Furthermore (and I just found this out from her own Facebook post), my neighbors are responsible for helping her turn her life around and kick a heroin addiction. Her own claim is that they saved her life (and that of her sister and niece). She has chosen to remain in the house, even though she is 18, because she loves it there that much.

The newest child--going on about 10 months now (taken in when the mother and her daughter went to the girls home)--is showing leaps and bounds of improvement in her emotional state and maturity. He grandfather (who lived in her house) sexually abused her, and her dad sided with the grandfather over his daughter, refusing to have him move out of their house and refusing to believe her story. He has ceased visiting his daughter anymore at the foster home, and when it came time for her to decided if she wanted to stay or go back home (or change foster homes), she chose to stay. She would run away frequently when she first arrived (I helped locate her on two occasions), but has since graduated high-school early and ready for the real world (as ready as anyone at that age can be). She ran away from a foster home that was the type that you describe in your post...she was basically used for manual labor there, and she's way too strong-willed to just lie down and accept that.

And my neighbors are absolutely not in it for the money, as nearly every cent that they receive goes back into those kids, plus some. They would die for each and every one of those children, without hesitation. The love that pours out of that home is utterly mind-blowing, and while it's absolutely no utopia (too many teenage boys and girls in that house for it to run like clockwork), at the end of the day, it's as perfect as it needs to be.

See, the problem is that we generally only see stories in the news that are negative about the foster system--realities like what I describe are out there, we just don't hear about it. In no way will I ever defend government entities that abuse their power and have an overall negative impact on a society, but from the first-hand interactions that I've had concerning the system and foster parents (my neighbors aren't the only ones), I've only seen the good side of it, but that is enough to tell me that there is good going on in the system as well, and it should not only not be overlooked and discarded, but it should be put on a pedestal for all to see as to how the system can and should be working the majority of the time.

Every one of the kids I described are better off having been removed from their households and placed into my neighbors' home. And for the record (since I see a report about the KY CPS about two responses into this post), we live in KY.

I can't claim a lot of knowledge on the system as a whole, but I have my brother and his wife, unable to have kids of their own, that finally have a foster child, after a very long and difficult process of vetting. It took years! The screening process is not simple at all.

They were given a toddler who had been abused and neglected in a home of drug addicts, and she hasn't developed normally as a result (way behind in speech) and is finally beginning to laugh and become happy. So far their experience, as they have kept me up daily on it, is that they are surrounded by a lot of people who really care and who are really doing their best for this child.

It's the only close experience I have had with "the system" of foster care, but it makes me hesitant to judge without learning more.

I was going to mention an article I read a little while ago about how adoption agencies in the US are based around money, and receive more money if they facilitate more adoptions, but infolurker has provided more information on that than I could.

So there's your problem.

My mum was repeatedly accused of being a bad parent. She was a single mother with two small children only a little over a year apart in age. Once, when my brother was about two, he ran outside of the house whilst my mother was on the toilet. He ran off down the street and was brought back by a neighbour after being gone for only a few minutes. This neighbour wasted no time in denigrating my mother's parenting skills. She was criticised for letting me climb trees, and allowing my brother and I to go to the park unattended, which was about a two minute walk away from the house, when we were 8 or 9. Any time we got in trouble at school, it wasn't because kids are just little sh*ts sometimes, but because my mother was a horrible person apparently.

Now, her two children grew up to obtain postgraduate degrees from highly respected universities. My brother and I are educated, successful, and overall pretty decent people. Is that really the work of a bad parent? Absolutely not, but people are idiots and love to condemn others. She smacked us sometimes, a smack on the bum when we were being really, really naughty. A smack on the bum is not child abuse. Nowadays, though, we probably would've been snatched away into foster care at once if a profit-driven adoption agency got wind of it. The term "child abuse" is getting a wider and wider definition.

I once found myself in a house with a young mother and her toddler daughter. This woman was smoking crystal meth in front of her small child, and telling her to "get the f*ck away you little c*nt" and so forth, before smacking the child as punishment for the horrendous crime of walking into the room. That, right there, is a bad parent. That is child abuse. And yes, I called the authorities.

I don't know how it is in the US, but from what I know of child foster care, the kids are often passed along from one house to the next. It should be reserved for actual cases of abuse, where the child is in danger, but like I said, if you so much as look at your kid the wrong way, someone will call it abuse.

And doing that does so much harm, because it dilutes the term and meaning is lost. It's like those idiotic "feminists" who accuse men of raping them just by looking at them. It trivialises the word, and in doing so, trivialises the concept.

a reply to: Kandinsky
Thank you for your enlightening post!

a reply to: Volchitsa
I hope nobody is muddying the definition of child abuse, because it makes it harder to prosecute them when they are happening.