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