6. Family Foster Care Resources and Support

For children who cannot remain with their own parents and cannot be placed with kin, the best option for temporary care until permanency can be achieved is family foster care. The most effective foster care preserves the child’s connections with family and community and is provided by a foster family who has adequate training, supports, and other resources to meet the child’s needs. Although outcomes are best for children in the least restrictive, most family-like, and stable setting possible, foster care is intended as a temporary placement until the child can be safely reunified with his/her family, achieve a permanent home with caring and capable kin, or be adopted.

Starting in the 1980s, overuse of congregate care -- which includes emergency or shelter care, group care, residential care, and psychiatric or hospital settings -- became common, as the number of children in foster care began increasing dramatically. At the same time, children entering care have demonstrated more severe health and behavioral problems and availability of family foster care providers has decreased. Workers’ growing caseloads hinder the necessary monitoring of placements and development of alternatives to move children out of group care. As a result, children and youth have lingered not only in foster care but in overly restrictive congregate care facilities. In addition, the longer children and youth stay in congregate care, the less likely they are to make a successful transition back into their families, communities, or mainstream society.

Research indicates that congregate care should be the placement of last resort and that when it cannot be avoided, it should be as brief as possible. A rigorous study by U.S. researchers in Romania shows that stays in orphanages affect the brain development of young children. Toddlers placed in quality foster homes scored dramatically higher on IQ tests years later than children who stayed in orphanages, and those with the longest stays suffered the most severe impacts. [i] Other studies show that children and youth who spend the majority of their placement time in highly restrictive settings complete fewer years of school, have poorer school achievement, and lower educational aspirations than children in less restrictive settings. [ii] Even when congregate care is reserved for children and youth who display seriously violent and aggressive behavior, these behaviors do not appear to improve in such settings. [iii]

Congregate care is also a costly intervention – with the average monthly cost of residential treatment from $5,000 to $6,000 per month. [iv] These funds can be better invested in preventing child abuse and neglect, providing supports for families to reduce the need for out-of-home placement, and supporting kin and family foster care providers when placement is unavoidable.

Like other child welfare goals, reducing congregate care and shifting placement to kin and family foster care requires a combination of policy strategies, rather than a single response. Strategies that support family foster care include family supports described in Policy Area I of this report – parenting education and training, respite and short-term crisis care, and navigators.

Specific state policy options are presented for each of the following areas:

6.1 Family foster care within the child's own geographic and cultural community

6.2 Investments in support for foster families

6.3 Adequate financial support for family foster care

6.4 Prohibition of congregate care for young children

6.5 Alternatives to reduc the need for congregate care

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