Foster Care for Abused and Neglected Children

1. Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect
Tenth Edition
Chapter 15
Foster Care for Abused and
Neglected Children
PowerPoint Lecture
Slides prepared by
Piljoo Kang, Ph.D.
Toccoa Falls College
Copyright © 2021, 2014, 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
After studying this chapter, you should be able to
15.1 discuss the alternatives that CPS explores before
placing children in foster care.
15.2 explain the rationale for foster care, including the
use of kinship homes with their advantages and
disadvantages.
15.3 describe how foster care is meant to be therapeutic
and what some of the problems might be.

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Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
15.4 discuss the role of birth parents whose children
are in foster care.
15.5 outline what is expected of foster parents with
children in their care.
15.6 explain the other forms of substitute care other
than foster care.

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Alternatives to Foster Care
• Social worker should first try to find means to protect the
children in their own home: family preservation.
• Determine that child is in imminent danger or family cannot
provide adequate care before placing child out of home
• When it is no longer possible for a child to remain at home,
Child Protective Services first seek out relatives or
individuals with whom the child is bonded as alternative
caretakers.

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Formalized Kinship Care
• Informal kinship care: a child comes to live with a
family member or friend with the agreement that they
will assume the child’s care for an undetermined
amount of time. CPS is usually not involved.
• Voluntary kinship care: the court or CPS places a
child with relatives who assume the care of the child
with no further CPS involvement.
• Formal kinship care: under the auspices of CPS, a
foster home is screened and approved for the care of
a particular child and receives a subsidy for that care.

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A Look at Foster Care Today
• Today, the majority of the children in care are in traditional
unrelated foster homes. The majority of the children in
foster homes have come into care as a result of parental
neglect or drug abuse.
• The child is provided with an opportunity to learn to trust
in a more functional environment with models who,
ideally, embody the more positive aspects of parenting.
• The agency can use this time for a more accurate
diagnosis and supply remedial services when needed.

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Therapeutic Potential in Foster Care
• Provides the opportunity for diagnostic screening of
developmental and language delays, and failure to thrive
• Gives child some distance from fears and conflicts at
home
• Foster parents provide positive role models.
• Provides stimulation, adequate nutrition, and access to
medical care that may remedy problems

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The Role and Importance of the Birth
Parents
• Children who are totally separated from their birth parents
may develop unrealistic ideas about them: idealize their
birth parents & deny abuse or exaggerate their
maltreatment.
• Continued contact assures the child that the parents still
care. Birth parents can play an integral part in the child’s
adjustment.
• Children benefit when foster and biological parents work
as a team.
• Many birth parents can learn from their children’s
substitute parents a model of positive parenting.

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The Role of Foster Parents
• Foster parents are screened, carefully chosen, and trained in
important aspects of their work as trauma and children’s
behavioral issues.
• They are considered part of the therapeutic team and benefit
from support from CPS social workers.
• Every effort is made by CPS to see that a child has the fewest
disruptions possible.
• Model healthy parent-child interactions for biological parents
• provide valuable assessment information on child’s difficulties
and adjustment

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Other Placements
• Residential Treatment:
– provided with much needed structure
– less intensive emotional environment
– extreme behaviors are tolerated
– rehabilitation is the goal.
• Adoption: should be undertaken slowly and thoughtfully
to allow the child to
– learn to trust the adoption worker
– grieve over the loss of biological parents
– begin to attach to adoptive parents

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