Children's Involvement In The Foster System example essay topic

As an adult, people that I encounter in my everyday life often wonder how I got to be the person that I am today - an understanding, open-minded individual who does not look down upon anyone that is less fortunate than I am and who does not look to "more" fortunate individuals as role models. When I am asked how I got to be so understanding, I answer giving credit to my parents' value system they instilled in me as well as acknowledging their duties as public servants in the City of New York. My father was a police officer who worked in a number of precincts in some of the worst, crime ridden areas of Brooklyn and my mother worked for the Department of Social Services in Child Welfare and the Bureau of Public Assistance, initially as a case-worker, in Brooklyn as well. It was because of their experiences in the "field" and interacting with those less fortunate then we were that I gained a certain level of knowledge and understanding of the unfortunate mishaps of people of my culture and the inequalities inflicted upon the black community. Yet the most influential aspects of my knowledge came from the exposure my mother had through working for the City of New York's child welfare system and the unfair treatments that her clients endured. As a result I will discuss the affects of social, economic and racial inequalities suffered by her clients and the impact it has had on their children's education.

During my studies in this class, we have discussed many issues in society that affects children apart of education systems across America. After reading through our assigned texts so far, I have had time to reflect upon and add to the opinions discussed in class as far as access, gender, opportunity and particularly inequalities in today's society and how they affect our children today. The main text that influenced most of my opinions so far is David Nasaw's book "Schooled to Order" - which discusses the history of the public school system here in America. As shown through my reaction papers and discussions in class, I felt Nasaw's theories and opinions were reflective of the elitist, biased and prejudiced attitudes towards the working poor.

I believed that people in our society today believe that unless you come from a certain lineage, pedigree, or mass amounts of money that the individual lacks a certain level of class and therefore would not be successful adults. Unfortunately, it has been my opinion that more often than not it has been blacks as well as other "minorities" that have been the most affected by these attitudes. Overall, I was disgusted mostly by Nasaw's book in that it not only did it not properly discuss the effects these prejudiced attitudes had on other cultural groups other than the "Caucasian" population here in the United States, but also his neglect for addressing the issue of blacks receiving and continuing their education in this country, and the racist / bigoted ideas that prevented them from receiving equal rights for education. As a result of reading Nasaw's text, I have proceeded in researching other aspects of academic inequalities concerning Black and Latino children here in America. I have discovered that an area that seems to be evident of social, economic and racial inequalities is the child welfare system - i.e. foster care here in New York City.

Through my own research, and discussions with my mother, I have discovered key elements about the current foster care system: 1. African-American children make-up the largest proportion of children in foster care. 2. There is an unequal representation of children of color in foster care in which Black and Latino families are most likely reported for abuse and their children removed from the home. 3. Black and Latino children tend to stay in the foster care system longer 4.

Societal and family problems such as poverty, drug / physical abuse, and parental incarceration have been some of the key factors that have led to children's involvement in the foster system. Poverty and poverty-related challenges, structural inequality, and racially biased decisions are some of the key factors that have contributed to the unequal representation of minority children in child welfare. Limited substance abuse and other health services in "urban" communities are examples of structural inequalities that result in differential treatment based on race and social class. More often than not these are neighborhoods that include public schools that suffer from the same inequalities as well - in which many of these children and parents are exposed to. From an individuals' perspective of growing up in the foster care system, naturally the experience is detrimental and emotionally traumatic that is associated with developmental problems and low educational achievement. It is from this viewpoint that I conducted my interview with my mother, Anne S. Henry, who has had years of social service experience.

Anne S. Henry has achieved 30 years of work experience with the City of New York Department of Social Services, Child Protective Services and the Bureau of Public Assistance. Leaving New York City civil service as Foster Care Director in 1994, she began work as an Executive Assistant Foster Care Director for a private child welfare agency in which she resigned in 2000. She now works as an Area Administrator for a not-for-profit agency, the Association for Black Social Workers, where the main agenda of her agency focuses on finding permanent adoptive homes for children placed in to foster care. The following is the conducted interview I performed concerning social, racial and economic inequalities in our society in which ways her clients, past and present, have been affected. Interview: Anne S. Henry, Area Administrator for the Association of Black Social Workers, a Non- Profit Organization: As a child protective service worker, what are the birth parents attitudes towards their child's / children's education? A: "Most of the time the results were varied, some parents show an interest in their children excelling in school and some didn't.

We found that many of the clients were involved in drugs and lost focus of what was important in their lives and their children's lives because the drugs had taken over. Those persons that were not involved in drugs, they were struggling... lots of times what was considered neglect... it was neglectful simply because people did not have enough money to make ends meet and they might not have paid rent, they might have been on the verge of losing their housing... people were struggling and they truly were consumed with day-to-day living and education had not become front and center for them. Many times it didn't mean that they didn't care, they just simply felt they did not have the opportunity or the wherewithal to put that much energy in pushing... but those who did encouraged and they pushed and some of them were very much involved in the schools, but there were others who weren't. They were intimidated, people were generally intimidated by the schools... if they were people who had work history, and had been successful themselves in school, there was a different attitude, they pushed... but those who had not been very successful in school... it wasn't demonstrated, there was not a lot of interest. Of course if you asked them if 'they would want their child to go to school and do well?'. .. they'd say yes. But actively getting involved and pushing their children... you didn't see that much of it.

There were exceptions, but for the most part, people spent their energy getting from one day to the next, from one week to the next, putting food on the table, making ends meet... that sort of thing... Q: As a parent how did my schools / education compare to that of the children you placed into foster care? How did my school compare to that of the schools that your clients' children attended? Could you see where there were inequalities?

A: " Most of the children that I had on my caseloads and children that came from the caseloads of my staff came from the lower end of the socio-economic status, because those are the children that were mostly in foster care... those were the children whose families had complaints lodged against them, more so than those who children came from the upper end of the socio-economic status or people of a different persuasions (race) than the majority of the children on my caseloads... in terms of color... because the children we came in contact with were children whose families frequented the public hospitals and public clinics... and that's who called in most of the reports... from time to time you'd get an anonymous call or might get a call from the schools. But the schools, as far as I'm concerned did not call in reports as frequently on children of different persuasion as they did on Hispanic and Black children and again most of the children we serviced were minority families... and because of their economic status, more than likely they were in poor neighborhoods which in turn they were in what was considered in a poor school district... so yes coming from our middle class background where we were afforded better surroundings and equipment in our school district... I saw where children of our caseloads were ill-equipped, and in my eyes cheated out of fair opportunity". Q: Typically, what were the social, economic and ethnic backgrounds of your clients? A: " AsI said before, our caseloads largely were Black and Latino... mostly Black and were of the poor working class... in addition to exposure to the foster care system, many were on welfare (public assistance), Food Stamps, and Medicaid. When I had a welfare caseloads... we had to do what was called a 'Social Study', that's where we did individual assessments of each family member... we had to indicate in our write-up how they related to each other, how they were doing in school, if there were any problems in the family, they needed to be dealt with... and the family structure... and if there was a need for further services then we were supposed to help the families resolve it.

But sometimes we saw in many of our assessment, the child or children's education was adversely affected... they were doing well in school socially and usually their grades were low. And as for our interactions with teenage children on the caseloads... there was evidence of where the guidance counselors and teachers often discouraged them from achieving academically and pushed them towards vocational and technical schools to become workers rather than encouraging them to attend four-year universities and colleges". Q: As someone who worked in the Social Services field, what is your perspective on the New York City public school system? What is your opinion as far as materials that are / were accessible to children in poorer school districts versus children in wealthier school districts? A: "Well as I had said before that children off my caseloads and my staff's caseloads... the schools that they came from were schools from poor neighborhoods and I think it's common knowledge that the materials that they had did not compare to the materials that were in wealthier neighborhoods... one of my personal encounters was with someone who was not a client but someone that I was asked to tutor when I first came from college and came to New York and when she brought her textbooks over... I was appalled to see a textbook that she brought, was the same textbook my older sister used years ago when I was a kid when I was in North Carolina... same exact book.

She went to what was considered a school in a poor neighborhood even though she came from one and two-family homes... so just over the years the students we were exposed to and even today people I know who are in the school system say that better materials are given to schools in wealthier neighborhood versus poorer neighborhoods... that there is a huge social inequality that still occurs today and in my opinion its based largely on heavily minority populated areas". Q: So as a parent did that influence your decision as far as what schools that you and my father wanted to put me into? A: "Well we knew you weren't going to go to schools in a bad neighborhood... I hate that term... but we were not impressed by what we saw happening with the Board of Ed... so our intent was that you were going to attend a private school... but then we thought "look we pay a lot of taxes, so why not take advantage of our tax dollars?" so we put you in a school in District 26 in Queens and we had done research, and we knew the whole district was rated well, and we knew that particular school (P.S. 203), math and reading scores were good and we put you there and we were pleased with the instructors that you got... you were in a gifted class and we were pleased with the kind of instruction you received... but that didn't happened with everybody. We were involved...

I was the class parent, I volunteered, stayed in contact with the school and made it very clear from the first day of school that me and your father were accessible and I attended parent-teacher meetings... I was always there. But the school system needs to make a collaborative effort between parent and teachers... parents need to make themselves known or else their children will fall through the cracks... I noticed at your particular school however, there were only 3 or 4 children of color in your class, most of the other children of color were in special education classes and seemed to be the same pattern obvious today. Q: What were your observations on school materials, student tracking, etc. in the NYC Board of Education? A: "Mostly what I remember is the results of what the students were accessible to in theses schools... there were concerns... on more than one occasion parents would say something to the effect that the child wouldn't come home with textbooks and I would always be amazed...

I learned when I first got a welfare caseload when I came to New York the high school students were being tracked off into vocational high schools... they weren't being tracked into earning an academic diploma... and most of these people were people of color and it was pretty obvious to me that it had nothing to do with their ability... it had more to do with the way the system viewed them... they had low expectations of them and they were not encouraged... I didn't see a lot of them being encouraged, they certainly didn't talk about it... and I saw a lot of them graduating with Regents diplomas. Like I said most of them were put on the vocational education track... and unfortunately it's still being done today". Q: Finally, as someone who works in the social services field, what has been the most devastation that you " ve seen in these communities as a result of the social inequalities inflicted upon these individuals today?

A: First of all, when I began working in social services for the City of New York, I remember welfare policies did not allow recipients of public assistance to attend school and further their education should they choose to do so... the attitudes of many of my clients unfortunately was that because of racial and social biases inflicted on them... they often did not believe in completing or achieving an education... many times they felt like 'why should I stay in school or people like me don't go to college... all I have to do is have a baby and I can get on welfare'... many times they saw welfare as a way of support... and more often than not I had caseloads where generations in families would have spent years on public assistance... this of course was before the Welfare Reform. In those instances, education or for the most part higher education definitely was not encouraged... those few that were encouraged and through life events had to go onto welfare unfortunately had to drop out... because you could not be on welfare and earn a degree at the same time... it wasn't until fairly recently that policies have been changed. But through that, I have found that mentality has been apart of the most devastating to these minority communities because of lack of education, accessibility to equal services and education opportunities... in many ways some people have been able to receive P.A. just until they could get on their feet... but for the most part I've had clients get on welfare and never get off... I think the way the system had or has been set-up has been the most crippling and most blatant in inequalities in these communities... these people make up a very large percentage in the City of New York and they or mostly on the lowest end of the socio-economic spectrum... these have been some of the biggest factors that have played a role in the rise in the crime rate, drug abuse, and child welfare...

I'm not saying that they are most likely to abuse their children... but these factors have played a major role in them most likely being reported... and it needs to be changed". Generally, my interview with my mother carried on much further than what is stated here in this paper, however to summarize what was discussed, my mother explained to me how she felt there has been a "systematic plan" to keep minorities - mainly Blacks and Hispanics - in a position of always being a step or two behind. Like I have stated in my previous reaction paper, I don't believe that it is coincidence that some of New York City's worst public schools and community colleges happen to be in heavily minority populated areas - or what people would often call the "ghetto" - and that the children of these areas more often than not become a product of the streets. From my own observance, many of these children learn from an early age to give up hope in growing up to improve their lives through education, and sometimes do not want to strive to achieve better. My mother and I both agree that until racial, economic and social inequalities are put into balance, that this city as well as many other areas around the country minority citizens will seem to always struggle and suffer from unfair treatments. She said that it is no coincidence that most of the city's worst schools, hospitals, and emergency services seem to largely be in heavily minority populated areas and she feels that the biggest inequality in New York is race.

Admittedly, this paper has been the most difficult for me to prepare in that of the topics we discussed in class, I feel that inequalities is the main category for society's problems in which it incorporates accessibility, opportunity, gender, and mostly race. Our education system has been set-up mainly to separate the elite from the masses, and the fact that blacks have been apart of this country's history, unfortunately have always been the last on the social list and I believe that until it changes, they will remain that way.