Period 2
Mr. Fortier
Orphanages, Foster care and Adoption
junior thesis Living is a harsh time and community wasn’t only difficult for the parents, but for their children. Kids were put on the streets and left to strive for themselves, leaving most to die or take up harsh jobs which in the end, could kill you. The development of orphanages, foster care, and mostly adoption from 1900’s until present day, helped children from living in a bad home or the streets to having a stronger and healthier life. Living in poverty is difficult but giving your kid a safe home is important. As orphanages slowly became scarce in our country, new and better ways of child support and care have been improved by foster homes and even better, adoption. …show more content…
Reverend Charles Loring Brace created a system called orphan trains. This would send children by train to live on a farm to learn Christian values and be taught useful agricultural skills for their future. Parents often wanted Brace to take their children but other kids were chosen before them. Parents preferred orphanages over foster care because they didn’t want their children to love their foster families over themselves. Yet critics disapproved the thought of having people’s children raised by strangers. They thought unwilling parents were taking advantage of public institutions to take care of their own children. People argued that you should have to take care of your child because they are yours and the public’s problem. In the 1910’s the states intended to solve these problems and have parents raise their own children at home by initiating mothers’ or widows …show more content…
They could also be transferred due to court order from parenting issues such as abuse or neglect to provide for their child. The agency is allowed to place the child with a licensed caretaker. Kids can only be released but court order showing the parents have gotten their act together and can take healthy care of their child. Parents must show proof of being clean of drugs, have gotten a well paying job to support the family or created a safer living environment for their child. Foster homes are intended to be short term so children don’t have to be “bounced” around from home to home. Having the child bounced from home to home causes issues like depression and the feeling of being abandoned. Yet living with a foster family for too long can have a hard effect on the biological parents and the foster family. Kids can get attached and not want to leave. Some foster families have challenged to not have the child given back to their biological parents because the child has lived so long with them; they consider them as their own child. Some foster children are wards of the court, meaning they don’t get to return home due to parent issues. Once you are born, you get tested for a toxicity screen. If you have signs of drugs or alcohol in your system as a new born baby you immediately get put into foster