Critical Issues in Child Welfare by Joan Shireman

Author:Joan Shireman [Shireman, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Children's Studies, Social Work, Political Science, Public Policy, Social Services & Welfare, Social Policy, Sociology, Marriage & Family
ISBN: 9780231539272
Google: dnqpBgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2015-06-30T03:30:37+00:00

FIGURE 6.1. Placement settings of children in out-of-home care Source: AFCARS 2013 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2013)

Despite the large number of children in foster care, it should be recognized that placement in foster care is relatively rare. Working with the data of Illinois and Michigan, researchers at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago discovered that in Illinois, 7 percent of the first contacts with the child welfare system resulted in a placement, while in Michigan only 4 percent resulted in a placement.5 Among cases in which maltreatment was substantiated, the placement rate rose to 14 percent in Illinois and 8.5 percent in Michigan (Goerge et al. 1996). National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) data for 2010 show that of the children for whom a report of maltreatment was substantiated, and who received services, 64.8 percent received services in their own homes, and 36 percent were removed from their homes (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2012a). Some of these placements were very brief.6

Characteristics of Children in Foster Care

Reasons for Entry Into Care The basic reason that children enter foster care is, of course, that their families are, for a time, judged to be unable to care for them. The usual path of entry into foster care is through the protective service system, but children also come into foster care at the request of their parents, either because illness, incarceration, or similar circumstance makes them unable to care for a child or because the child’s difficulties have become so severe that the family cannot provide adequate care.

Most children who enter foster care come from fragile and complex families, and it is difficult to find precise descriptive data. Neglect is the most common allegation. Family circumstances impact whether or not children enter foster care. Particularly in urban areas, very poor children and children whose families do not have a steady source of income are more likely to be placed (Barth, Wildfire, and Green 2006). Substance abuse is present in a high percentage of the families whose children are placed (Chipungu and Bent-Goodley 2004). Families are often involved in the criminal justice system. Domestic violence is present for about a third of the families whose children enter foster care according to National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being data (Hazen et al. 2004).

In an analysis of ongoing cases of children 2 years old and older in the child welfare system, using data from the National Survey on Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), Barth, Wildfire, and Green (2006) estimated that about 20 percent of the families with children in care had none of the above problems, and their children (often teenagers) had entered in order to obtain mental health services. This was a particularly important factor for families from rural areas, and probably reflects the scarcity of mental health services.

Age of Children in Care The age of children in foster care has fluctuated in the past twenty-five years. In the 1970s and 1980s,

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