Florida’ foster care system has come a long way in transforming the lives of many young people, but it has failed to effectively fulfill its mandate of protecting children from psychological torture, neglect, emotional abuse, sexual harassment and physical abuse. The failure incorporates a wide variety of elements, and the gap is commonly termed as the collapse in welfare services of the nation. The state has failed to help foster parents give the children basic needs and moral support. The disturbing dereliction of duty in Florida is evidenced by the handling of cases of sexual abuse among children in foster care and the poor attention accorded to various foster children struggling with sexual behavior problems ( Barbell & Freundlich, 2001). The redundancy in the systemic protection of foster children has created a setting that has promoted further victimization. The failure to identify children with inappropriate sexual habits and not allocating them proper foster care and services has caused an implosion of inappropriate behavioral patterns among children under the care. The system has failed to help children seek rehabilitation services that can help them drop former habits picked from their previous hostile leaving conditions. The social, legislative and administrative challenges have contributed to the plight encountered by foster children in Florida. To this end, foster children need to be equipped with skills that can help them overcome the past memories and build resilience for a better future.
Designing a New Foster Care System in Florida
Preparation and Support for Foster Parents and Children
The government in collaboration with the children centers should offer education program and robust training to foster parents at the initial stages of the program; the majority of these parents are willing to help, but they have little knowledge on helping the children overcome their past. The training will equip them with specialized skills that will help them handle the learning curve of caregiving especially the first few months which is more sensitive.
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The establishment of a strong network of foster parents to offer support is also essential. The caregivers need to feel that many people and necessary organizations share in their dream of offering best opportunities to the children in preparation for a better future. As such, it is will be helpful to initiate more parent communities for foster caregivers that center on matters of the children. The network will give foster parents a chance to connect with the agency, fellow foster caregivers and the larger public as well.
The provision of adequate financial aid and other necessary resources to satisfy the needs of foster children is also crucial. Apart from time and emotional commitment required to raise children, there are a lot of expenses involved, and this burden should not be left to foster parents alone. The resources directed towards children support need to be increased. In the past, many parents have been unable to retain and recruit foster children because of lack of capacity, a factor that has hurt many children. The poor support is also a sign of the little value the state accords foster parents (Bass, Shields & Behrman ., 2004). At a minimum, the administration should work closely with the child welfare agencies in providing foster caregivers with adequate funds to take care of the needs of the children. First, the role played by the caregivers not only benefits the children but the nation as a whole. Secondly, if these children are not exposed to an environment they can learn to feed for themselves they will be a burden to the nation. As such, it is best that the government show an increased sense of responsibility by committing enough reimbursement rates to take care of costs and especially the higher expenses incurred especially by parents working out of the home. The best way of ensuring that sufficient financial help is offered is to establish statutory requirements for re-evaluating the board rates of foster care at regular intervals or directly index them to rates of inflation.
Additionally, the children should also be able to access the basic services. Over the recent past, there have been increased complaints from foster parents that they have difficulties accessing the necessary services and benefits for the care children. Research has indicated that even though the agency of child welfare has delegated the authority of making decisions to these parents, quite often, they experience challenges in accessing mental and health services, deciding on special education needs, obtaining and affording basic equipment children require for artistic and sports activities among other resources for education (Bass, Shields & Behrman ., 2004). It is also unfortunate that some of the schools that the children attend have inferior facilities such as furniture and books among others. In this regard, child welfare agencies should cooperate with community agencies, foster parents and the government to ascertain that such needs are addressed comprehensively and promptly.
Generally, despite the crucial role caregivers play in promoting healthy development and safety of the foster children, they encounter hardships and require support. They face numerous challenges such as difficulty in securing schools for the children, authorizing and accessing medical treatment, getting cost-friendly legal services, maintenance of leases for public housing and accessing various federal services and benefits.
Like any other children, those in foster care require educational coordination, advocacy, stability and continuity to succeed in academics. Foster children who have smooth school experiences have easier transitions to adulthood and tend to be more successful and have economic sufficiency. Studies have evidenced that foster care children tend to have higher levels of school absence, expulsion, suspension and transfers compared to children that are not under foster care (Bass, Shields & Behrman ., 2004). The necessary actors should seek to find solutions to the poor grades, low scores and high disciplinary cases. Some of these issues are genuine while others are only a matter of discrimination. Care agencies should thus help parents follow up on such scenarios and address them accordingly.
The health of children under care should be approached with more sensitivity and seriousness. First, the children suffer unmet health issues, a factor that is unique to this category of children. The situation can be addressed by increasing stability in placement options in combination with increased information sharing and coordination among service providers. In the past, children under the foster care have experienced at least two changes every year which has been coupled with the introduction of new physicians among other care providers (Bass, Shields & Behrman ., 2004). The system does not only lead to poor record keeping of health information of such children but also hampers their development. Unlike adults who easily blend into a new environment, children make attachments with their place of residence and shifting them affects their psychological and emotional balance.
Assessment of Policy and Cultural Aspect
The practice of Cultural consultants need to be strengthened and taken with the intensity it deserves owing to the increasing problems experienced in foster care system due to cultural differences. The management should invite experts who represent views of diverse ethnic and racial communities such as Latino, African American, Caucasian, Hmong and American Indians to offer advice, technical help and relevant information to the culture and history of various groups in the development of practices, policies and procedures for use in improving foster care system. The move will help build trust and strong partnerships and ensure the perspectives and views of various communities are captured in the new procedures, initiatives and policies ( Barth, 1997) .
The new policies should be structured to address specific cultural problems in the system. For instance, research indicates that the chances of children of color being taken from their parents and getting placed in the care of out their homes are higher compared to other children. It is also observed that they spend longer periods in care and the rates of getting adopted or reunified with their relatives are lower compared to the rest of the children. Racial discrimination is evident at every point and process of children welfare system from reporting, evaluation, and investigation to placement ( Barth, 1997). There is thus a need for systems that monitor every stage to ensure inequality.
Education, health and mental institutions need to adopt regulations that encourage equality because they have been at the forefront of discriminating children of color. Children of color do not access proper treatment and have low optimal physical conditions and mental and social limitation to handle problems and challenges that come along in life ( Barth, 1997) . Such deficiencies affect care children to adulthood and are attributed to inaccessibility to quality educational and health resources at a younger age. To deal with this problem, a separate institution should be established to act as a watch go. In addition, the check institution should monitor care children closely from childhood to adulthood to ensure that they live a normal life and are able to access the necessary services just like other children without any discrimination.
Children of color face more obstacles in their daily attempt to pursue their goals. They should be in a position to acquire services that will assist them to live a stable life including medical support and mental health if necessary to exploit their best potential. To this end, a holistic approach involving collaboration between the government, community and children welfare agency must be adopted to address the plight of children of color.
Risk and Building Resilience
If the objective of meeting developmental needs of children under foster care is to be achieved, practices must control the impacts of the risk children are exposed to and enhance the resilience of the children in the event future challenges. Resilience in this context refers to the ability of the children in care to function competently regardless of living or having been exposed to adversity and entails different protective characteristics like reflective function, self-esteem, sense of security and self-efficacy which assist in coping and successful adaptation.
Notions of protection, resilience and risk have an inevitable linkage ( Schofield & Beek, 2005) . Developing right protection factors can only be based on risk patterns. To understand the developmental risks that care children face in the long-term and identify appropriate protection sources requires a psychological perspective. Most of the risks children get exposed to originate from their inner worlds such as unresolved trauma and lack of self-esteem and from other individuals who create personal relationships and offer professional services to the children. They can also emanate from housing authorities, community life and education systems. Similarly, protective factors can originate from individual minds or their environment. In this light, protective factors need to be designed to respond to specific risks. For instance, sensitive care can help a child overcome a feeling of loss but not other risks such as racial harassment experienced in the school environment ( Schofield & Beek, 2005) . To respond to various risks appropriately and build resilience, caregivers must be sensitive to psychological needs of the children.
The increased levels of negative outcomes and experiences in foster care system indicate the need to establish a resilience-oriented approach that is intentional in mitigating the destructive influences. Such a program will help care system transit from centers that focus on easing challenges and promoting safety to more holistic methods that take account of the overall welfare of care children and families.
Conclusion
Foster care system in Florida needs to be redesigned to a more holistic approach that promotes emotional and social development, builds school skills, and fosters resilience to ensure the success of all foster children and their caregivers as well. The intention of the government in establishing foster care system can be improved through conducting regular research on the effectiveness of the system, re-structuring the strategy to capture latest aspects, periodic assessments, model program development and offering training and technical support to the caregivers. The system needs a multidisciplinary and multicultural approach that can take note of the varied needs of the children, inefficiency in the system and development options for improvement. The objective of the care system should be more than rescuing children and providing basic needs. The system needs to evolve to address all development needs of the particular children including psychological torture and other impacts of the risks they are exposed to daily. Parenting for these groups of children goes beyond schooling, medical treatment and availing food. It should foster skills that can help care children overcome their past and build resilience in the phase of adversity. This can be accomplished by increasing a sense of security, promoting competence, enhancing self-esteem and achieving developmental goals that reduce risks and strengthens resilience. In addition to improving efficiency, the government, community and child care agencies need to work closely with foster parents and provide the required support. A successful foster care system not only benefits children under care and brings a sense of fulfillment to foster parents but also contributes towards the economic growth of a nation.
References
Barbell, K., & Freundlich, M. (2001). Foster care today (pp. 1-7). Washington, DC: Casey Family Programs.
Barth, R. P. (1997). Effects of age and race on the odds of adoption versus remaining in long-term out-of-home care. Child Welfare , 76 (2), 285.
Bass, S., Shields, M. K., & Behrman, R. E. (2004). Children, families, and foster care: Analysis and recommendations. The future of children , 5-29.
Schofield, G., & Beek, M. (2005). Risk and resilience in long-term foster care. British Journal of Social Work , 35 (8), 1283-1301.
