Continued from here.

The second part of this study focuses on fostering children’s well being. What does that mean? This is the part where the child’s physical, emotional and educational needs of the child are covered.

When it came to basic needs of food, clothing and shelter, less than 25% of children said that their needs were not being met in the foster care system. The kids did not indicate anything about physical or mental health needs being met, but then again, they are kids so it would difficult for them to quantify that aspect of their care.

However, when it came to academics, the kids said that things were better. The study does acknowledge how often kids in care change school districts, and because of this, things like drop out rates are higher among kids in out-of-home care.

However, at least 50% of the children surveyed said that the school they were in was better than the one they attended while in the custody of their birth parents. 66% of children said that they were doing “very well” or “well” in their current school. I’m not sure how subjective that number is, since I know my own child will say he is doing well when I know the opposite to be true. The report does not indicate specific ways in which the kids think they’re doing well.

The last part of this topic deals with children’s friendships. These are hard to maintain when you are moving through multiple placements that may very well be different parts of the city or state. 33% of the kids surveyed indicated that it was a friend from the neighborhood of their birth family that they missed the most, and that same percentage of kids said they lived in at least one placement where the foster parents did not allow them to keep contact with their old friends.

That’s a tough call, and there was no research done to determine if these friends were appropriate, or if the friendship was in the child’s best interest.

This may be an area in the children’s lives that we really need to work on enhancing, but the big question is how to do that.

Part 3: Supporting children’s families

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