When Foster care is safer place than home
Foster care is considered only to be a temporary solution to an existing birthparent-child problem. Children turned over to foster homes were either abandoned, neglected, victims of physical abuse, or there are no available caretakers. Other reasons include sexual abuse and failed placement.
The biggest reason why courts order children to be moved to foster homes vary from state to state, but primary aim of foster homes is to provide a shelter to children whom the court deems as not safe in their own homes.
The length of stay of each child in foster care also varies which can last from a few days to years. Some remain to stay in a foster family while the adoption process is ongoing while others are made to wait until the court is certain that the birthparents are already capable of child-rearing or that they have reached a final decision about giving up the child for adoption.
Difference between foster care and adoption
In foster care foster families must defer decisions regarding a child's welfare to courts. A social worker also actively oversees the child's welfare while in foster care. Adoptive parents, on the other hand, have essentially all the legal rights and obligations as birthparents.
In addition, children in foster homes may only be removed upon court order while an adopted child can be removed only based on the same reasons as a birth child.
Costly implications
Being turned over to foster care as a child is for a particular child's best interests especially when the main reason was to rescue him/her from abuse that's happening in his own home or sustained in the hands of his/her birthparents. Despite its noble aims, though, many children raised in foster care became problematic adults. A significant percentage of these children either went to jail as adults or continually receive welfare benefits even through adulthood.
Many of the children in foster care are also suffering from medical problems, which range from hearing impairment, developmental delays, anemic, poor vision, to respiratory illnesses such as tuberculosis.
Is it a good idea to adopt children who are in foster care? Obviously, it depends on the child you wish to adopt but the idea itself can be noble, that is, if one of the reasons for choosing to adopt a child from a foster home is to provide him/her with hope and a chance to fulfill his/her dreams as well as yours.
It can be hard to relate to a foster child knowing that he's/she's been exposed to trauma in his/her own. Nonetheless, it can elicit good parenting skills from you and, hence, help the child get through life in general.
