The foster care system was first implemented to provide homes for children living on the streets, but with time the system became a getaway for any child who did not have a safe living environment. The foster care system is meant to protect these children, and place them in temporary, safe, home-like settings but unfortunately, this is a rarity. Despite the various laws put into effect, foster homes are still widely dangerous places to house children. According to Marcia Robinson Lowry, the executive director of Children's Rights, Inc., “the foster care system in the United States has deteriorated to the point where it is now a documented fact that no child is safe today in the state’s foster care”.
The foster care system is evidently flawed; this is primarily due to the incapability of the welfare workers to effectively do their job. When the problem is looked at more closely, however, we realize that the problem stems from the lack of the government’s concern for the foster children. Despite who is at fault, foster children are experiencing abuse and neglect while in foster homes and this must be stopped. Foster children have the same human rights as the rest of us; therefore, they deserve to be treated with the dignity and respect of a human being.
The fact that a lot of foster homes are of an abusive nature is not only to be blamed on the foster parents. Foster parents have certain obligations to the children, this is undebatable, but the social agencies have obligations as well and unless their obligations are thoroughly met the children are unlikely to have pleasant experiences in their foster homes. It is “under the not-so-careful watch of the state” that the children “suffer further abuse and neglect”(Koehler, "The Forgotten Children Of The Foster Care System”). It is the negligence of the welfare employees that leads to the inadequate placement of the children. This issue is ongoing because “despite egregious failures to protect the children in its care, the state often suffers no repercussions”(Koehler). The deliberate indifference liability standard used in the courts, to determine whether the welfare workers are at fault, sets a low bar for the state governments. With no consequences to face, the state does not deem reform necessary, but unlike the state, the children in the foster care system are affected drastically.
Corruption within the foster care system has been a serious issue since its creation. The blame is easily framed on the welfare workers, but the cause for the abuse and neglect that occurs in foster homes is far more complex. Truthfully, “system accountability is lacking, social workers are more overworked than ever and child welfare agencies are too often the target of budget cuts”(Marzick). The quality of care is in dire need of improvement, but improvement is only possible if reformative actions are taken.
