The survival, wellbeing, and health of a child are highly dependent on the level of protection provided by the caregiver. However, millions of children globally are subjected to various forms of abuse exploitation and are victims of violence. Disgraceful as these acts are, they continue to occur in private, and it is only time that reveals the outcomes through children who are impoverished, unhealthy and uneducated. This has brought about the need for the formation of child protection services that ensure the children are protected from any form of neglect or child abuse. Once the CHP determines that a child is subject to any sort of abuse , the child is in most cases taken away from the caregiver and taken into foster care while legal ramifications follow the caregiver. The USA foster care system has more than half a million children. The surprising factor is that more than half of these children have some form of disability. The disabled children in most cases will stay for longer within the system making it a critical component of the caring for the children with disabilities. Therefore, this research aims to determine why these disabled children stay for longer within the foster care system after their involvement with child protection services and why this varies across various states in the USA.
According to a study conducted by Anderson et al. (2007) on the costs associated with caring for a disabled child, they found out that it is a costly undertaking. The researchers conducted a literature review of the economic burden incurred by families caring for children with disabilities between 1989 and 2005. The study found out that the financial burden is substantial and it increases in case the child has a severe disability . Children with disabilities require specialized care and related expenses. Despite the formation of various policies to assist the families, a considerable number of families to access the funds. In the USA, about 40% of families with children suffering from a disability are bound to experience some form of financial burden. As a result of this, such families will be subjected to CPS services, as they cannot support disabled children. Anderson et al. (2017) found out that in most cases, such families have low-quality jobs that provide poor incomes, live in poor housing, and accompanied by extreme poverty. Therefore, once the CPS takes children with disabilities from such families, because of poor living conditions, they cannot access the child/children for they must prove they can support them. In the end, such children will be forced to stay within the system until such a point that their parents will have the ability to take care of all their need without any strain and this can take years.
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One of the major contributors to child abuse directed towards disabled children arises from the parental stress. According to Cramm and Nieboer (2011), for a parent to successfully take care of a disabled child, he/she must adopt an unexpected and informal caregiving responsibility that will extend the course of the child’s life. Such care will also require additional financial, social, emotional and physical resources. The parents of such children will have to balance the competing needs of the family with the disabled child’s multifaceted developmental, educational and medical interventions. Nonetheless, such needs will affect the caregivers’ psychological wellbeing because of stress. If child protection services visit such parents due to child abuse or neglect, the parental stress will contribute towards the decision of placing the child outside the home into the foster care system. Cramm and Nioeboer (2011) found out that the worsening psychological well-being of the parents is what drives them into engaging into poor child protection thus jeopardizing their ability to offer the disabled child complete long-term and short-term needs fully . As a result of the poor caregiver psychological wellbeing, the children will have to remain under foster care until such a time that the parents are ready to take them back.
Goldhaber-Fiebert et al. (2014) conducted a study to determine the variation of USA states in foster care maintenance. According to the study, child welfare programs in all USA states amounts to $26 billion annually towards serving the children. The out-of-home services offered to children is one of the most crucial and expensive undertakings by the state. The maintenance of children varies across states depending on different factors. The political climate of a system is also bound to determine foster care programs. In the case of Republican-controlled states, foster care programs are minimal. This arises from the fact that, since the 1970s, Republicans have called for lower taxes and reductions in public spending as compared to Democrat-controlled states. Through such political stances, it is an indication that the children in foster care will have to stay for shorter periods as the states cannot fund their lengthy stay. Such states will thus indicate the disabled children will stay for shorter periods as compared to Democrat governed states .
Palusci (2015) indicate that child abuse and neglect among disabled children is common. The abuse of children with disabilities has been present since human civilization, and it only came to light during the classical description of the battered child by Henry Kempe in 1962 . People with disabilities are bound to affect a lot of exclusion from not only their homes but also form society such in schools and communities. Following the passage of the United States Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act in 1974, disabled children could find solace in foster care and other home-based care facilities. However, as child protection services continued to be vigilant against abuse and neglect of children with disabilities, their stay within the system has continued to increase with some spending years within the system. A significant contributing factor is that some of the children with disabilities have parents coping with similar disabilities. The system cannot support the children together with their parents, and this has seen such parents losing their parental rights. Therefore, such children will be forced to stay within the systems until such appoint they can get new caregivers.
According to Hansen and Hansen (2006), the path to adoption is usually very long. However, there is little study on the economics of adoption in the USA. The implementation of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 changed the regulations that states had to adhere to and various incentives that were offered to families. The aim of providing such adoption incentives is to reduce the federal and state burdens associated with foster care services the adoption of children with special needs as per the 1997 act would see a parent having access to $10,000 unqualified tax credits. Nonetheless, despite the emotional reward being excellent, the parenting of such children requires additional expenses, effort and time, which deter many potential adopters. Therefore, the result is that such children will end up staying in the system for long before they can find adopters willing to offer them the support they need.
Schmidt et al . ( 2013) cite that the demographical characteristics of children in foster care and systems play a vital role in determining how long they will remain within that care. In the case of older children with disabilities, they have a lower probability of accessing permanency plans that involve either going back to their biological parents, relatives or being adopted as compared to non-disabled youth. In relation to sex, males are less likely to be placed out of foster care as compared to girls, and this is also evidenced in special education. In regards to care , African-American children suffering from disabilities are more likely to stay in foster care longer as compared to Whites (Schmidt et al., 2013).
Glidden (2002) conducted a study on 123 adoptive families that had adopted children with developmental disabilities. According to Glidden (2002), there is very little researcher into the adoption of children with developmental disabilities. However, in the USA, 50% of children awaiting adoption from the system have some form of developmental disability. These children will end up spending many years in the foster care system as they await adoption , which negatively affects their behavioral and emotional well-being. Generally, children with disabilities have been regarded as being unadoptable. Despite there being numerous changes to policies regarding adoption, the disabled children still, find it hard to get substitute care away from the system.
Lazarus et al. (2002) indicate that transracial adoption has sparked an intense debate all over the USA. The study involved 63 families who had adopted child in-racially and 34 transracially. According to the study , it found out that parents who had engaged in transracial adoption were more likely to experience higher levels of short term and long-term outcomes, unlike the in-racial parents. Moreover, the study found out those children with disabilities from minority communities are less likely to become adopted nd; this can contribute towards their extended stay in the system. The most commonly adopted children included blacks and whites .
The research will test the following hypotheses
Children with disabilities stay for longer within the system because of the increased economic, emotional and physical needs accompanied by their adoption or return to biological parents.
The number of children with developmental disabilities in foster care homes is increasing significantly. Some of these children spend years within the system, as they do not get a chance to go back to their biological parents, relatives or other potential adopters . As indicated in the literature review of various sources, the children with disabilities will continue living in the foster care home for years, and this affects their emotional a nd behavioral outcomes as they continued to develop (Glidden, 2002). Nonetheless, as indicated form a number of the resources, there is very little research into the causes of delayed adoption of children with disabilities (Hansen & Hansen, 2006; Glidden, 2000). This study will aim to fill this gap and highlight the differences across the states. Moreover, the research will be able to answer the hypothesis and come up with recommendations on how to reduce the time taken by children with disabilities within the system.
References
Anderson, D., Dumont, S., Jacobs, P., & Azzaria, L. (2007). The personal costs of caring for a child with a disability: a review of the literature. Public Health Reports , 122 (1), 3-16.
Cramm, J. M., & Nieboer, A. P. (2011). Psychological well-being of caregivers of children with intellectual disabilities: Using parental stress as a mediating factor. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities , 15 (2), 101-113.
Glidden, L. M. (2000). Adopting children with developmental disabilities: A long ‐ term perspective. Family Relations , 49 (4), 397-405.
Goldhaber-Fiebert, J. D., Babiarz, K. S., Garfield, R. L., Wulczyn, F., Landsverk, J., & Horwitz, S. M. (2014). Explaining variations in state foster care maintenance rates and the implications for implementing new evidence-based programs. Children and youth services review , 39 , 183-206.
Hansen, M. E., & Hansen, B. A. (2006). The economics of adoption of children from foster care. Child Welfare-New York- , 85 (3), 559.
Lazarus, C., Evans, J. N., Glidden, L. M., & Flaherty, E. M. (2002). Transracial adoption of children with developmental disabilities: A focus on parental and family adjustment. Adoption Quarterly , 6 (1), 7-24.
Palusci, V. J. (2015). Developmental disabilities: Abuse and neglect in children and adults. International Journal of Child Health and Human Development , 8 (4), 407.
Schmidt, J., Cunningham, M., Dalton, L. D., Powers, L. E., Geenen, S., & Orozco, C. G. ( 2013). Assessing restrictiveness: A closer look at the foster care placements and perceptions of youth with and without disabilities aging out of care. Journal of public child welfare , 7 (5), 586-609.
