| If you love a child in need of care, you | | | | system, two thirds of the boys and half of |
| should take note of a new study on the long | | | | the girls had a history of delinquency. |
| term results of foster care. | | | | |
| | | | Federal and state laws encourage preserving |
| Many foster families provide excellent care. | | | | children in their own families. Before |
| Nonetheless, a new study concludes that | | | | removing a child from a family home, the |
| children on the margins of needing | | | | state must prove that reasonable efforts to |
| intervention tend to have better outcomes | | | | prevent the removal were tried and failed. |
| when they remain at home, especially for | | | | They also must prove that leaving the child |
| older children. Children who are removed | | | | in the family's home would be contrary to the |
| from their homes face higher delinquency | | | | child's welfare. |
| rates, teen birth rates and lower earnings. | | | | |
| | | | However, in practice many children are |
| These results add credence to recent efforts | | | | removed from their family homes anyway. |
| to keep children in their own families. Even | | | | |
| when their families are marginal, their | | | | The research by MIT economics professor |
| children fare better in their own home | | | | Joseph J. Doyle studied 15,000 children who |
| instead of in foster homes. | | | | had been reported for abuse and neglect. The |
| | | | study did not include children who were |
| Over 2 million children are investigated for | | | | subject to drug use or severe physical or |
| abuse and neglect in the United States each | | | | sexual abuse. Those children would have |
| year. About half of those are found to have | | | | required removal from their families |
| been abused. Approximately 10 percent of the | | | | regardless of its trauma. For the remainder |
| abused children are removed from their | | | | of the children, the ones who stayed in their |
| families. | | | | own families did better in their adult lives |
| | | | than the children placed in foster care. |
| Currently over 500,000 children reside in | | | | |
| foster homes. About 60 percent of those | | | | We help our clients recover their children |
| return home; 15 percent are adopted; and the | | | | from foster care by lobbying the social |
| remainder age out of the system when they | | | | service agencies before we get to court. We |
| turn 18. The average amount of time spent in | | | | have found that intense out of court advocacy |
| foster care is about two years. | | | | succeeds better than courtroom tactics alone. |
| | | | Combining sophisticated advocacy both in and |
| Abused children are three times more likely | | | | out of court helps children avoid the long |
| to die in childhood, with about 1,400 child | | | | term negatives associated with the child |
| deaths each year attributed to child abuse. | | | | welfare system. |
| Children withdrawn from their families are | | | | |
| more likely to commit crimes, drop out of | | | | We have also found success in preventing |
| school, join welfare, abuse drugs and | | | | foster care in the first place by using |
| alcohol, and become homeless. | | | | guardianships and other private actions. |
| | | | |
| Nearly 20 percent of young prison inmates and | | | | If you need to rescue a child from foster |
| 28 percent of homeless individuals spent some | | | | care, you need to act promptly. Contact an |
| of their youth in the foster system. Of | | | | attorney licensed in the court that has |
| children who turn 18 years old while in the | | | | jurisdiction over custody of your child. |