I have anumber of friends that are currently in Oregon Foster Care, DHS, for a vast number of reasons, but I don't think Foster Care is doing very much caring about the kids they are placing and looking after. A great number of Foster Kids run away from the homes that they are placed in, on the sole reason that they are not happy. Foster Care claims they do everything they can to "protect" the kids they are placing, but what are they really protecting them from. Is it unsafe to allow visits with the childs natural family? Is it unsafe to let the Foster Parents treat the kids they are given as if they are their own, instead of treating them with different rules and regulations then their own children.? All children just want to be loved, and respected reguardless of where they are living. To have friends that they can see and communicate with. Actually be able to see their family that they love so dearly. But Foster Care is not allowing these things to happen. Most Foster Kids end up depressed, hurting themselves, [as in Cutting, Drinking, Drugs] because they are so unhappy. I completely understand that some rules need to be made, just with every good parent rules keep the child safe, but why make completely different rules for Foster Kids. Just because they are not with their actually family does not mean they don't have the same emoitons and want the same things every other kid wants. They are just children, Foster Care has to be the ones to change and adapt to the kids they are trying to place. For if we don't we are going to have some pretty depressed and messed up adults on our hands.
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I think many kids that are in the system sadly do get screwed up in some way. If they don't get adopted, they grow up in foster care, then when they turn 18, they are let out on thier own. They don't know how to function right. They have become so dependent on the system, they still need it. If they do get adopted, they have to worry if their new parents will treat them right. They walk on eggshells at first because they want to do everything right so they won't get sent back to foster care. Just because a child is placed in foster care does not mean that they can just care less about them.
Yes, foster care is an imperfect system. It's tough because it is a single system created to try to meet the needs of countless situations involving children of different ages, backgrounds, and issues. Sadly, it's not going to work for everyone.
Foster care differs by location in regards to rules and policies. It sounds like Oregon is a bit different from Wisconsin, where I'm from. My family was a foster family for young children (infant - 3) when I was in high school. In most cases, birth parents could still have contact with the babies if they wished. My family treated the little ones as though they were one of us.
In Wisconsin, foster families don't get paid much. Because of that, it is less frequent that families volunteer as foster families just for the money. Because the money isn't good, families usually have foster kids because they actually care.