With 20 million Americans needing addiction treatment (pdf) and more than two million hooked on opioids, many families struggle to maintain a wholesome environment for their children. With federal funding on the line, even well-meaning workers of the Child Protective Services (CPS) are then nudged to label parents unfit and funnel hundreds of thousands of children to the shelter and foster care system, where the children often end up faring even worse, at times facing abuse.
Corruption within the foster care system
- Details
- Category: About Foster Care
- Created: Sunday, 23 April 2017 21:25
- Written by Rachel Hile - Infinity Magazine
A major problem in the United States that children are victims of every day is the corrupt foster care system. This is a topic that has appeared in far too many news headlines, most all of them being negative. Being someone that has never had to experience the foster care personally, I decided to read a few stories written by foster children in order to understand and empathize better. The traumatic incidents other kids had to go through led me to doing more research on the subject and learning just how much we need to bring more attention to this.
There are many reasons why kids are put into foster care, some more innocent than others. A common case is that parents simply can’t afford to support their children and are either forced to give them up or see them as being better off in foster care. Then there are those cases where parents have been reported for abusing or neglecting their children. Along with this goes reasons why people decide to become foster parents. Of course, some people do have good hearts and simply want to help/care for children with no home. But, there are also those who see fostering as a chance of self-benefit. If someone decides to be a foster parent, they will receive anywhere from $400-$800 per month (depending on the circumstances and state) while the child is in their care. This money is meant to pay for the child’s basic needs, yet many decide to use it for themselves.
Just like everything else, money is what runs the foster care system. Although in this case, it has led to the neglect of innocent children.