foster care started in the us in 1909.
foster care started in the us in 1909.
when did foster care start in the us?
1909
in the united states, foster care started as a result of the efforts of charles loring brace. "in the mid 19th century, some 30,000 homeless or neglected children lived in the new york city streets and slums." brace took these children off the streets and placed them with families in most states in the country. brace believed the children would do best with a christian farm family. he did this to save them from "a lifetime of suffering" he sent these children to families by train, which gave the name the orphan train movement. "[this] lasted from 1853 to the early 1890s [1929?] and transported more than 120,000 [250,000?] children to new lives." when brace died in 1890, his sons took over his work of the children's aid society until they retired. the children's aid society created "a foster care approach that became the basis for the federal adoption and safe families act of 1997" called concurrent planning. this greatly impacted the foster care system. children's aid works with the biological and foster parents to "achieve permanency". "from the mid-1800s to the eve of the great depression, orphan train children were placed with families who pre-selected them with an order form, specifying age, gender, hair and eye color. in other cases, trainloads of children were assembled on stages, train platforms or town halls and examined by prospective parents. "conjuring the image of picking the best apple from the bin. sometimes a child would be separated from his or her brothers and sisters, or would end up in a family that only wanted them to work. most of the time the children were chosen by a loving or childless family".
foster care in the united states
california has the largest population of foster care youth in the nation, with 55,218 children in the system as of 2012. this is over twice as many as the 20,529 foster children in new york, the state with the second largest population of foster youth, had by the end of 2012. over 30 percent of california foster youth reside in los angeles county, amounting to 18,523 children. children can be removed from their homes and placed into the foster care system for a variety of reasons, but, in california, 81.2 percent of children were removed because of neglect. even after being placed in the foster care system, however, these children might not find the kind of care or stability they need. girls in foster care have been shown to have marginally higher rates of teenage pregnancy than the general population of california. children in foster care also have to face disproportionately high rates of mental illnesses as some studies have shown that as much as 47.9 percent of foster care youth showed signs of serious emotional or behavioral issues. after "aging out" of the system at age 18, research has shown that previous foster youth still face difficult instability in their lives. as much as 30 percent of previous foster children are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. only about 50 percent graduate from high school and less than 10 percent graduate from college. a study focused on foster care alumni in los angeles county showed that about 65 percent leave foster care without a place to live and 25 percent are incarcerated by age 20. despite these difficulties, california is working toward easing the transition for foster youth through programs and legislation like the california fostering connections to success act of 2010, which expanded upon similar federal legislation and increased the age limit for receiving foster care benefits.
foster care in the united states