It's still a hard knock life. Almost 90 years after the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" debuted and almost 40 years after the first performance of the Broadway musical, things still aren't great for kids whose parents can't take care of them.
But some things have changed. The remake of the movie "Annie," is set not in an orphanage — there are almost none left in the United States today — but in a foster-care home. Annie is stuck with a mean foster mother who plays host to multiple children on a "temporary" basis.
Today there are about 400,000 kids in foster care, about a quarter of whom are permanently separated from their parents and eligible for adoption as a result. In 2011, 26,000 foster children turned 18 and aged out of the system — up from 17,000 in 1998. Those kids are more likely to be homeless, arrested and even engage in prostitution.
The average length of stay in foster care for a child is 33 months. The longer children are in the system, the more likely they are to experience multiple placements. This kind of instability leads to even greater problems for children whose lives are often in chaos to begin with.
And that doesn't even address the kind of neglect and abuse that characterize some foster homes. Earlier this year, three private New York foster agencies paid $17.5 million to settle a suit with eight people who claimed they were abused, starved and imprisoned in a "house of horrors" by a woman who fraudulently fostered and adopted at least 22 children. The city of New York paid almost $10 million to the victims because the Administration for Children's Services failed in its oversight responsibilities.
Earlier this month, a federal judge began to hear testimony in a class-action lawsuit brought by Children's Rights Inc., a New York-based advocacy group, on behalf of 12,000 children in long-term state care in Texas. The suit alleges that the state of Texas violated the children's civil rights: moving them around repeatedly, placing them in unsafe care and keeping them there too long.
An investigation by the San Antonion Express-News "showed that constant caseworker turnover and management problems have contributed to the repeated abuse of children and even death."
Children's Rights said it has filed similar lawsuits in 19 states, resulting in 15 settlements or judgments in its clients' favor. One case in Massachusetts, Connor v. Patrick, was dismissed last year because the district judge ruled that the plaintiffs had not shown their constitutional rights had been violated. Nonetheless, he found that there were significant problems with the system resulting from "budgetary shortfalls." Taxpayers, he noted, "are complicit in this financial failure."
Indeed, the lack of resources is often blamed for the failure of the foster-care system. If only workers had smaller caseloads, they would be able to pay more attention to each child. Robin Fretwell Wilson, a professor of family law at the University of Illinois thinks this criticism is "spot-on." In Texas, some foster-care workers failed to show up for monthly meetings with children. And when they did, they were around for too brief of a time to detect any problems.
But the problems of foster care go beyond money. Our system also fails to attract the people you'd want to be foster parents. Taking in a troubled child is not something you want people doing for money. Broadcasting messages about "Wednesday's Child" on the evening news is not the way to actually get good, stable parents to feel responsible for those kids who are living on the fringes.
Increasingly, churches are getting involved. A program in Georgia called FaithBridge helps connect churches with kids in need of temporary homes in their ZIP code. Not only does the organization look for foster parent volunteers, it also enlists and trains dozens of other adults to help provide transportation, babysitting and other support for the families who take these kids in. Having all that help makes good foster parents less likely to burn out quickly and more likely to volunteer again.
Some additional funds help make these support systems and training more feasible. But what makes it more effective is the fact that these kids are placed in good homes to begin with and there is an entire community taking responsibility for their well-being.
It's not quite being adopted by Daddy Warbucks, but it's a lot better than the alternative.
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