Youth in Foster Care: The Shortcomings of Child Protection Services (Children of Poverty)

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Each year thousands of minority children from cities are taken into foster care in rural areas. The outcome and standard of this care is typically unpredictable and poorly documented. The youths are removed from their families, neighborhoods, friends, schools, and communities, under what the author refers to as "exodus programs". Many adolescents taken into foster care can expect to spend the remainder of their teenage years away from an environment that is familiar to them, a move that is even more frightening than the inner city.

Employing case studies, observations, interviews, and secondary sources, this study examines the plight of inner-city minority youths who become isolated in rural areas. The problem is viewed from the perspective of the shortcomings of the child protective services. The impact of these shortcomings is such that foster parents and teachers who are trying to help these youths cannot do so because of a breakdown incommunication between the agencies and the immediate caretakers.

The author interviewed youths who had been taken from inner-city areas and placed in out-of-home care, finding that these youths were confused and afraid, and in general experienced traumatic emotional states. Because their social skills were different from those of local students the urban students were seen as having emotional problems and were placed in special education classes.