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Having been a foster-mom myself, I can't feel that foster-care is a bad thing. But, if I had a fatal illness or was looking at a long jail sentence and I had children, I'd think it was preferable to search for a permanent adoptive home rather than let the children go into foster-care due to lack of planning. Aside from avoiding putting the children through multiple moves, there would be a better chance of matching culture and value-system.
As far as foster care statistics go, I wonder how they figure out the numbers. I'm aware of three foster kids that do not need to be adopted or returned home. One is a kid of one of my coworkers, he has a family, but due to having sexually abused his little brother and the fact that his mother doesn't want to run the risk of losing custody of her other children if he moved back home and it happened again, he is now living with a foster family. He's 15 yrs old and will eventually "age out" of the foster-care system, but although as a statistic it would appear to be a very sad situation, the real situation is not sad. He likes his foster family and has known them for years before they became his foster family, and he has good relations and contact with his regular family.
Another one is a boy whose mom died when he was young, and his grandmother took on all the children. Unfortunately his grandmother had a bizarre 12 yr limit, and as each kid turned 12 she would lock them out and not let them live with her anymore. One of the kids when this happened to him called the police and after some time in a group home found a foster family (with a coworker of mine at my previous job). They did not adopt him, but he is their forever son anyway (I think because they have two other children to put through college, they might have kept the foster-child status so he can qualify for more financial assistance). So, I suppose statistically his situation will appear to be another sad "aged out of foster care without ever finding an adoptive home" one, yet the reality is quite good, and if the system had tried to move him to an adoptive home to make the statistics look good, that would have been bad for him (because he is happy and bonded with his foster-family).
The third one is a pre-teen who is living in a group home. The caseworker is not even trying to find her a foster or adoptive family, because with her attitude she would not adjust and would probably run away. The mom will maybe be in jail for the next 30 yrs, and although there is a bio-dad willing to accept her into his family, her mom raised her with a lot of negative misinformation about him, so for now she is not willing to go live with him. I don't know where this kid would fit in the statistics, but if they count the bio-dad it would look like the system is hanging on to a kid that has a perfectly good bio-family.
I wonder on the California info what the definition is of poverty versus neglect when they say half were taken from their homes due to poverty.
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