Children are dying at alarming rates in foster care

[JA]

CHILDREN ARE DYING AT ALARMING RATES IN FOSTER CARE, AND NOBODY IS BOTHERING TO INVESTIGATE

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It is worth noting that there's only one country that hasn't ratified the UN Convention on Children's Rights: US.

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[Virginiá]

Clearly these children just need some bootstraps!

[dead0man]

we need more abortion

[Koharu]

we need more abortion

... Please go away and never, ever set foot in a topic about children again. Seriously. That is disgusting.

Yes, contraception of all sorts would help in regards to unwanted children. But many, many, many of the children in foster care are actually wanted, but because of mental illness, addiction issues, family issues, or many other issues, their home and/or parents/guardians becomes unsafe. Some of these people probably shouldn't have children, but would not choose contraception even if it was freely available to them.

I am pro-choice, but that's just a disgusting way to phrase this.

Anyway, the foster care system is struggling with a huge lack of resources and caring people who want to be involved. I am hoping to become a foster parent sometime soon, and have already begun attending educational events put on by the foster care system in my county. These statistics only further encourage me to do this, and I believe more good people need to step forward and do it, too. If more people were proactively involved in the system, it wouldn't be so easy for things like this to go unnoticed for so long. This breaks my heart.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

There are no support structures for children in this country.

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

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This is the crux of the problem.

"Foster Care", however, does not just mean "group homes" and "foster homes" with some stranger as a foster parent; it includes out of home placements with other family and relatives, and in various different sorts of arrangements.  Some foster kids are prospective adoptees.  Others are placed with family member is a "permanent guardianship" arrangement; this is usually when the parent has lost parental rights, but the prospective family member doesn't have a squeaky clean record.  Still others are in "foster care" with a relative, or even with one of the parents themselves, while the parent(s) work to complete some sort of "case plan" that includes specific objectives to be met to reach the goal of reunification.

America's foster kids are, in the majority of cases, the offspring of parents with SERIOUS substance abuse and/or mental health issues.  They are often in foster care because of neglect or abuse (including sexual abuse).  They often have substance abuse or mental health issues of their own.  If they are not going back with one or both of their parents, they often are placed with other family members, some of whom bear some responsibility for the condition the failed parent(s) were in, or who aren't, in reality, functioning at all that much higher a level that the failed parent(s) were.

It's fair to say that America doesn't know what to do here.  America views these kids as throwaway kids, to be managed and not developed.  The scope of this problem would be reduced if folks stopped having children out of wedlock, and particularly without any regard for what kind of life the child will have with what such parents are "offering" that child, but that's only one part of the problem; there are kids from two-parent marital families that end up in foster care due to abuse/neglect at the hands of one or both parents.

[Nyvin]

I can't wait to see all the pro-life Republicans jump to these kid's defense.

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

I can't wait to see all the pro-life Republicans jump to these kid's defense.

My wife and I have adopted our step-grandson through the foster care system.

I know personally of a number of my Christian brethren who have adopted children through the foster care system, or whom have chosen to be foster parents.

That's a cheap shot, and an ignorant one as well.

[Adam Griffin]

Thanks, Trump!

[Kingpoleon]

Foster care is awful and corrupt. The politicians ought to stop politicizing it and start fixing it.

That said, in Arkansas, there are many, many cases of ill treatment in the system and laziness/corruption among the workers in foster care.