Part 1 – Safety
Part 2 – Fostering a child’s well being



Part 3 of the report by by Adair Fox and Jill Duerr Berrick, Titled “A Response to No One Ever Asked Us: A Review of Children’s Experiences in Out-Of-Home Care”.

This section addresses supporting children’s families. That’s a tough subject, but the kids’ responses were pretty honest.

First was who the kids named as part of their family. Not surprisingly, kids in kinship care include their birth family as part of their family twice as much as kids living with an un-related foster family. Over half the kids in both groups named their foster care provider as part of their family.

According to the study, kids want more information on their birth parents. 25% of the kids surveyed didn’t know their birth parents names. The percentages of kids knowing their birthmother’s information was more than double than those that know information on their birthfather.

70% - 75% of kids want MORE contact with their birth family, and especially their birth mother. Whether this was in the form of phone calls, letter or visits, didn’t matter, it was the contact that notably important. They associate contact with being loved by their birth family.

Sibling relationships were important as well, and in some children the sibling contact was more important to them. The kids reported not knowing who their siblings were, where they were placed, or how to contact them. They felt that the workers were negligent in arranging visits with the siblings. It is also noted that the kids were less satisfied with the amount of contact with their siblings, than with their birth parents.

There is a very good part of this report. It is indicated that 75% of kids felt that they “always” felt loved in their foster home, and 90% of the kids said that they liked the people they were living with and felt like they were part of the family. The amount of time a child had been in the placement directly correlated to their feelings of love for the family.

73% of kids said that their birthday was “always” celebrated while in care. This was an important issue for them.

It also appears that kids notice the structure and routine that we provide. 56% of the kids surveyed that their foster families provided them more routine than their birth family. Almost 75% of kids reported that there was an appropriate consequence when they broke rules.

However, the kids feel different from the foster parents’ biological kids. Less than half reported that they were treated differently, or more poorly than the biological kids, but that number is still too high. It can be hard to treat foster kids the same since they come with a myriad of issues that require a different way of parenting.

Part 4: Promoting permanence

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