Not All Foster Parents are Created Equal

Recent studies from the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics raise many concerns regarding many children entering foster care with chronic health, developmental, and psychiatric disorders, reflecting neglect and abuse experienced before placement, in addition to the trauma from being separated from their parents.

More disturbing, however, is the evidence that their health care is often neglected while in foster care.
The U.S. General Accounting office found “that young foster children do not receive adequate preventive health care while in placement, many significant problems go undetected, or, if diagnosed, are not evaluated and treated.”  Among other things, this neglect of children’s basic health care needs is a result of inadequacies in the foster care system, as well as inadequacies in the health care system.

For nearly 3 decades, researches have noted a high prevalence of health and mental health problems in foster children. Those children fail to receive even basic health care despite the presence of many adults and professionals who share responsibility for them. However, placement in foster care provides an opportunity and a responsibility to address all of the health care needs of this very high-risk group of children, in particular the developmental and mental health needs of young children newly entering foster care.

Since 2000, according to data collected by The Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law and by The San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 children died in foster care in the county. The deaths are from all different causes, not just abuse.  The Medical Examiner’s Office ruled at least eleven as sudden infant death syndrome.

In 2007, three foster children died in foster care in San Diego county. Broad confidentiality laws shield everyone, including foster parents, meaning the number of children who die in foster care in the county – or statewide for that matter – is not readily known.

“The state does not have any centralized tracking system of kids who die in foster care,” said Christina Riehl, an attorney with The Children’s Advocacy Institute.

Here are some National startling statistics about children in the foster care system:

• 54 % earned a high school diploma*
• 2% earned a Bachelor’s degree or higher*
• 84% became a parent often repeating the same cycle they went through*
• 51% were unemployed*
• 30% had no health insurance*
• 25% have been homeless at one time*
• 30% were receiving public assistance*
• Research shows that young people in foster care are far more likely then their peers in the general population to endure homelessness, poverty, compromised health, unemployment, incarceration and other adversities after they leave the foster care system*
• It is reported that 65 deaths of children in foster care occurred statewide in 2006. In 2005, 48 deaths occurred statewide.
• U.S. statistics show that 50% of former foster youth will be homeless during their first two years exiting foster care

*Information from www.fostercaremonth.org