The Anderson's Blog

MORE FACTS ABOUT FOSTER CARE

The number of children in foster care has decreased gradually over the past 10 years, but there are still 510,000 children — of every age, race, ethnicity and culture — currently living in foster care across the U.S. Foster care provides an important safety net for children and youth who experience neglect or abuse. These vulnerable young people need stable, loving care until they can safely reunite with their families or establish another lifelong relationship.

The National Foster Care Coalition (NFCC), through its broad-based membership of dedicated organizations, caring professionals and others, is an important resource for information and research on the nation’s foster care system and the children, youth and families who are most impacted by it.

• Length of Stay: Foster care is intended to be a temporary solution, but on average children remained in the foster care system for more than two years (28.6 months) in 2006, the most recent year for which information is available. During that time, children experienced an average of three different placements, moves that often meant disrupting routines, changing schools, and moving away from brothers and sisters, extended family and everything that is familiar.

• Age: Foster care affects children and youth of all ages. In 2006, 32 percent of children in foster care were under the age of five; 28 percent were ages six to 12; and 40 percent were between 13 and 21 years of age.

• Race and Ethnicity: Although child neglect and abuse occur at about the same rate in all racial/ethnic groups, the percentage of children of color in foster care is higher than that of the general U.S. population. Research indicates that children of color are also likely to stay in foster care for longer periods of time and are less likely to return home or be adopted.

• Permanence: In 2006, about half (49 percent) of all children in foster care were waiting to be reunited with their birth families; 127,000 children (25 percent) were eligible to be adopted. However, these children and youth waited, on average, more than three years (39.4 months) to join permanent adoptive families.

• Aging Out: Despite the overall reduction in the number of children in foster care, the number of youth “aging out” of the system because their age made them ineligible for services increased to an all-time high of over 26,000 in 2006. Many of these young people, ill-prepared for adulthood and lacking a safety net to fall back on in times of need, struggled with housing, food and education.

• Education: Education is a significant factor in determining the success of youth as they exit the foster care system and beyond. However, a 2005 study by Casey Family Programs found that 23 percent of youth who aged out of foster care did not have a high school diploma or GED, and only 1.8 percent completed college, compared to 22.5 percent in the general population.

• Prevention: Many children could have the safety and permanence they need if there were an array of supports available to help keep families safely together and reduce the need for foster care. Yet, the majority of dedicated federal funding for child welfare is currently reserved for placing and maintaining children in foster care and cannot be used for prevention or reunification services or supports.

Provided by the National Foster Care Coalition.

I’m excited to watch the movie Rosie O’Donnell is doing this weekend to showcase foster parenting.  It’s the Lifetime Evening movie.

“That person who cares for you and guides you, tends to your future helps you to know who you are is the parent,” she said, echoing another line spoken by O’Donnell in the movie: “All a kid needs is one person to hang onto.”

O’Donnell, a mother to four adopted children and a former foster mother, said: “We need to do something to recruit better parents because that’s the first step in solving the (foster-care) crisis. People who are trained and have the resources to help the kids give them what they need.”

I’m trying to update flickr photo’s with all the photo’s I can find of Bailey.  If you have some more, please send them to me!  Check out all the cool flicks!  Click on the MORE PHOTOs on the right hand side of the screen.

We had the best valentine’s day. 

We woke up that morning giving Bailey a valentine’s day gift – a new shirt & a Dr. Seuss book for getting her 2nd grade word list.  The Dr. Seuss book was a collection of several books.  It had over 300 pages in it.

Then, we went to class and picked Bailey up from Grandma & Grandpa Knutson’s.  She and Grandpa Rick went there after her basketball game.  Then, we went and watched BCU girls basketball game.  Came home, took down Christmas Decorations.  Had a “valentine’s day party” put on by Bailey.  Then played a few games of wii.

Bailey went to bed and Jason and I curled up on the couch and watched a movie.  Great Valentine’s Day as a family.

This week at our class, we were informed that Woodbury County has no available homes for foster kids starting this week.  This really tugs hard at me becasue there’s 20 of us (approximately 10 homes) in this 10 week class axiously waiting to get our licensed.  Jason and I started this whole process back in September and really wish we would have gotten into the October class.  But, I must believe that things happen for a reason and there is a reason why we were our background checks came in 2 days too late for that class.

My sister’s father-in-law passed away suddenly this past weekend.  No one was ready or knew where anything was.  So, just so everyone knows, we have a safe deposit box and most of the information is in our 2 filing cabinets in our bedroom.

Bailey was the first person in her class to move up to the 2nd grade word list.  She plans to have it mastered by the end of the week.  We’ll see.

Last night was our first home visit with Betty, who is licensing us to become foster parents.  She came over around 6:30 and stayed till a little after 8:00.  She spent a lot of time discussing foster parenting with Bailey.  They went through different scenario’s and how it would make her feel.  About 6 months ago, she fostered a pig and had to give it back to her Aunt Laura’s family.  This really helped her to see how it will be to say goodbye to her “friend” / “Foster sister”.  Other things we talked to her about is that they may not go to her school, which really dissappoints Bailey.  Also, that she will need to ask those coming to live with us if she should call them a friend or a foster sister. 

Betty looked at the room that she will be staying in and says that we could take up to 3 kids, but we are thinking 2 at the most at any one time.  The more I thought about it, our vehicles can only hold 5 people.  Now, we need to work on a floor plan of our home that shows the dimensions of each room, where the doors are located and windows located.  We need to take some interior pictures of our home for the foster children to see and more paperwork :)!

Here’s a funny story that all of you knowing Jason would laugh about….  Last week in class we were talking about the needs of humans.  Everyone was saying Food, Water, Air.  Jason whispered to me sex.  I told him it must not be the case since he’s still alive.  But, then the 2 trainers said that the class forgot sex since it’s needed to continue on the human race.  He then said, “See, I was right”.  So, Jason is the definately the smart one.