Pros And Cons Of The Foster Care System

The concept of foster care and adoption can be traced as far back as the Old Testament. The book of Esther tells the story of a young girl who was taken in, after her parents died, by her cousin and became queen of Persia. Although Esther’s story has a happy ending, many of the children in today’s foster care system do not. The teenagers who are aging out of foster care has the steepest hill to climb. The system is set up to be a temporary solution until they can locate a permanent home for the children. In many cases that home is never found and upon reaching majority, usually 18 years old, they are thrusted out on their own. The foster care system is failing our youth who are being aged out because they are unprepared, often unstable, and rarely have any type of support to guide them into a successful future.
In 1636, Benjamin Eaton became America’s first foster child, but it wasn’t until 1853 that Charles Loring Brace started the “free foster home movement” …show more content…
Of the children exiting care, 9% were emancipated and 2% had unspecified “other outcomes” (Child Welfare Gateway Information). Nine percent does not seem like a substantial number, but that is 21, 875 children in one year who was released on their own with minimal support. Many of the kids have experienced trauma, abuse in and out of foster care, a lack of stability and a contempt for adults and authority figures. Combining the factors that are against them and what little resources they have working for them, the outcome is predictable. In a study on homeless emerging adults including adults whom have aged out, Rebecca J. Gomez et al. notices, “Housing problems are compounded by lack of education, employment, and income for emerging adults aging out of foster care … An additional detriment is the lack of a support system to rely on when emerging adults face a housing or