Overcrowded Foster Care System

The issue is that…

Approximately 500,000 children are in the foster care system in the United States (McCuistion, 2009). On average, children stay in the foster care system for almost three years before either being reunited with their families or adopted. (ABC News, 2006). Thus as time progresses, we come to face not having nearly enough possible foster care homes for the amount of children needing a shelter and care.

Rhetorical Timing

40% of the homeless people living in the United States were once in foster care and consist of the fastest growing portion of the homeless population (McCuistion, 2009). However Scott McCowan, the executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, states that it does not automatically mean that if an individual is in foster care, he or she will become part of that statistic. Yet there are often serious attachment disorders as a child may be moved from home to home. He says, “Sometimes there are too many children in one home. This is a vulnerable population and they need extra care” (McCuistion, 2009).

A Baltimore study completed by the McCuistion Program tracked foster care children for 12-18 months after they aged out of foster care and found: (McCuistion, 2009).

• 27% of the males and 10% of the females were incarcerated.
• 33% required public assistance.
• 37% had not finished high school.
  
  These statistics encouraged for the “Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act” to be signed into law by President Bush on 2008. This act made a significant amount of changes in the Child Welfare System in order to improve foster care and adoption assistance (Children’s Defense Fund, 2012). Without a doubt, by putting this act in effect, numbers of such negative impact on individuals in the foster care system would decline. 

 

How is the problem you are researching, as Tannen (1999) describes, a “crystal of many sides”? Describe some of these arguments. Whose having them? Whose saying what to whom? Can “true dialog” exist to solve the problem?

When Tannen said “crystal of many sides” she meant that people have different opinions on different topics. We all have different ideas and everyone’s perspective is unique and important. In regards to children in foster care, many people believe that children aren’t being adopted because it is a hard process, or because resources are not being provided to them. From my perspective I believe its happening because people are not being informed of the real process of adoption. People are not being introduced to this issue of how many children are living in foster care without families. it is not being explained how such an issue today in foster care can affect these children, and just may affect us as a community later. Sadly, I would call the people who don’t care to listen to this issue ignorant. Clearly we haven’t informed the world of foster care and the issues it has been presenting. 

Why now? So what? Show that your research is important, central, interesting, problematic, or relevant in some way. Why would your research and advocacy “pass” your audience’s “who cares” test?

According to UNICEF, the world’s premier children’s organization, part of the United Nations:

• 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation
• 1 billion children are deprived of one or more services essential to survival and development
• 148 million under 5s in developing regions are underweight for their age
• 101 million children are not attending primary school, with more girls than boys missing out
• 22 million infants are not protected from diseases by routine immunization
• 4 million newborns worldwide are dying in the first month of life
• 2 million children under 15 are living with HIV
• >500,000 women die each year from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth

So how are these numbers not important? Yes, it may be happening across the world from us, but it is on our world. Unfortunately, it seems that the world still does not notice. It might be reasonable to expect that death and tragedy on this scale should be prime time headlines news. Yet, these issues only surface when there are global meetings or concerts to fundraise, or commercials on TV.

NOW and ALWAYS this should be important.