Of the children who entered care in
1990:
* 50% were for protective services reasons * 21% because of parental condition or absence
(illness, death, handicap or financial hardship) * 11% because of child's commitment of
status or delinquent offenses * 2% because of child's disability or handicap * 1% because
of relinquishment of parental rights * 13% for other state-defined reasons (including a
parent/child relationship or family interaction problem, an adoption plan or subsidized
adoption, de-institutionalization, and unwed motherhood)(1)
Alcohol and drug abuse are factors in the placement of more than 75% of the children who
are entering care.(2) Children who lose their parents to AIDS is another group in need of
foster care. In addition, increasing numbers of children who are HIV infected are in
foster care.(3) An estimated 80,000 healthy children will be orphaned by AIDS before 2000,
with approximately one-third of that number expected to enter the child welfare system.(4)
Many of the children coming into care today are medically
fragile and/or physically handicapped. Between 1984 and 1990 there was a 12% increase in
the number of children who entered foster care because of their own handicap or
disability.(5)
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children not in care to
have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems including conduct disorders,
depression, difficulties in school, and impaired social relationships. Some conservative
estimates are that about 30% of the children in care have marked or severe emotional
problems.(6) According to a GAO (1995) study, 58% of young children in foster care had
serious health problems; 62% had been subject to prenatal drug exposure, placing them at
significant risk for numerous health problems.(7) The educational needs of children in
care can be substantial. Various studies have indicated that children and young people in
foster care tend to have limited education and job skills; perform more poorly
educationally than children who are not in foster care,(8) lag behind in their education
by at least one year,(9) and have lower educational attainment than the general
population.(10)
Footnotes
(1) Tatara, T., "Characteristics of Children in Substitute and Adoptive Care, Fiscal
Year 1989" (Washington, DC: American Public Welfare Association, 1993).
(2) U.S. General Accounting Office, "Foster Care: Parental Drug Abuse Has Alarming
Impact on Young Children" (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1994).
(3) Michaels, D. & Levine, C., "Estimates of the number of Motherless Children
and Youth Orphaned by AIDS in the United States," Journal of the American Medical
Association (268: 1992) 3456-3461.
(4) Taylor Brown, S., Wilcyzinski, C., Moore, E. & Cullen, F., "Perinatal AIDS:
Permanence Planning for the African American Community," Journal of Multicultural
Social Work (Haworth Press, 1993).
(5) Tatara 1993.
(6) Schor, E., Aptekar, R. & Scannell, T. "The Health Care of Children in
Out-of-Home Care" (Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America, 1987).
(7) U.S. General Accounting Office, Foster Care: "Health Care Needs of Many Young
Children are Unknown and Unmet" (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office,
1995).
(8) Ohio Department of Human Services, "Children in Out-of-Home Care" (Columbus,
OH: Division of Children and Family Services, 1987).
(9) Jones, M. & Moses, B, "West Virginia's Former Foster Children: Their
Experience and their Lives as Young Adults" (New York, Child Welfare League, 1984).
(10) Festinger, T., "The Foster Children of California" (Sacramento, CA: The
Children's Services Foundation, 1994).
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