Foster care

Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a 'foster parent' or with a family member approved by the state. The placement of the child is normally arranged through the government or a social service agency. The institution, group home or foster parent is compensated for expenses unless with a family member.Former child welfare clients were in year of birth and sex standardised risk ratios (RRs) four to five times more likely than peers in the general population to have been hospitalised for suicide attempts....Individuals who had been in long-term foster care tended to have the most dismal outcome...former child welfare/protection clients should be considered a high-risk group for suicide attempts and severe psychiatric morbidity.'The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in 1998 reported that six times as many children died in foster care than in the general public and that once removed to official 'safety', these children are far more likely to suffer abuse, including sexual molestation than in the general population'. Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a 'foster parent' or with a family member approved by the state. The placement of the child is normally arranged through the government or a social service agency. The institution, group home or foster parent is compensated for expenses unless with a family member. The State, via the family court and child protective services agency, stand in loco parentis to the minor, making all legal decisions while the foster parent is responsible for the day-to-day care of the minor. Most kinship care is done informally, without the involvement of a court or public organization. However, in the U.S., formal kinship care is increasingly common. In 2012, a quarter of all children in formal foster care were placed with relatives instead of being placed into the system. In Australia foster care was known as 'boarding-out'. Foster care had its early stages in South Australia in 1866 and stretched to the second half of the 19th century. It is said that the system was mostly run by women until the early 20th century. Then the control was centered in many state children's departments. 'Although boarding-out was also implemented by nongovernment child rescue organizations, many large institutions remained. These institutions assumed an increasing importance from the late 1920s when the system went into decline.' The system was re-energized in the postwar era, and in the 1970s. The system is still the main structure for 'out-of-home care.' The system took care of both local and foreign children. 'The first adoption legislation was passed in Western Australia in 1896, but the remaining states did not act until the 1920s, introducing the beginnings of the closed adoption that reached it peak in the period 1940–1975. New baby adoption dropped dramatically from the mid-1970s, with the greater tolerance of and support for single mothers'. Foster care in Cambodia is relatively new as an official practice within the government. However, despite a later start, the practice is currently making great strides within the country. Left with a large number of official and unofficial orphanages from the 1990s, the Cambodian government conducted several research projects in 2006 and 2008, pointing to the overuse of orphanages as a solution for caring for vulnerable children within the country. Most notably, the studies found that the percentage of children within orphanages that had parents approached 80%. At the same time, local NGOs like Children In Families began offering limited foster care services within the country. In the subsequent years, the Cambodian government began implementing policies that required the closure of some orphanages and the implementation of minimum standards for residential care institutions. These actions lead to an increase in the number of NGOs providing foster care placements and helped to set the course for care reform around the country. As of 2015, the Cambodian government is working with UNICEF, USAID, several governments, and many local NGOs in continuing to build the capacity for child protection and foster care within the Kingdom. Foster children in Canada are known as permanent wards, (crown wards in Ontario). A ward is someone, in this case a child, placed under protection of a legal guardian and are the legal responsibility of the government. Census data from 2011 counted children in foster care for the first time, counting 47,885 children in care. The majority of foster children – 29,590, or about 62 per cent – were aged 14 and under. The wards remain under the care of the government until they 'age out of care.' All ties are severed from the government and there is no longer any legal responsibility toward the youth. This age is different depending on the province. In December 2013, the Israeli Knesset approved a bill co-drafted by the Israel National Council for the Child to regulate the rights and obligations of participants in the foster care system in Israel. In Japan, foster care started around 1948, leading to the passing of the Child Welfare Law. The idea of foster care or taking in abandoned children actually came about around 1392-1490s in Japan. The foster care system in Japan is similar to the Orphan Trains because Brace thought the children would be better off on farms. The people in Japan thought the children would do better on farms rather than living in the 'dusty city.' The families would often send their children to a farm family outside the village and only keep their oldest son. The farm families served as the foster parents and they were financially rewarded for taking in the younger siblings. 'It was considered an honor to be chosen as foster parents, and selection greatly depended on the family's reputation and status within the village'. Around 1895 the foster care program became more like the system used in the United States because the Tokyo Metropolitan Police sent children to a hospital where they would be 'settled'. Problems emerged in this system, such as child abuse, so the government started phasing it out and 'began increasing institutional facilities'. In 1948 the Child Welfare Law was passed, increasing official oversight, and creating better conditions for the children to grow up in. In the United Kingdom, foster care and adoption has always been an option, 'in the sense of taking other people's children into their homes and looking after them on a permanent or temporary basis.' Although, nothing about it had a legal foundation, until the 20th century. The UK had 'wardship,' the family taking in the child had custody by the Chancery Court. Wardship was not used very often because it did not give the guardian 'parental rights.' In the 19th century came a 'series of baby farming scandals.' At the end of the 19th century they started calling it 'boarding-out' like they did in Australia. They started placing the children in orphanages and workhouses as well. 'The First World War saw an increase in organized adoption through adoption societies and child rescue organizations, and pressure grew for adoption to be given legal status.' The first laws based on adoption and foster care were passed in 1926. 'The peak number of adoptions was in 1968, since when there has been an enormous decline in adoption in the United Kingdom. The main reasons for children being adopted in the United Kingdom had been unmarried mothers giving up their children for adoption and stepparents adopting their new partner's children'.