Abuse in the Foster Care System

Elizabeth Fields

The Foster Care System is where minors from the ages 0-18 are placed in homes because the homes that they were in were no longer equipped to take care of their needs like they should. This is done by the government and state agencies who come in and investigate the homes to see if they are safe for the child to be living in and determine on whether the child should be removed or monitored. The problem with Foster Homes and the Foster Care System is that children are still being placed into homes where their foster parents are abusive as well and the system doesn’t see it. There are times where the Foster Care System, Child Protective Services, and the Department of Social Services decided to not follow up on children or forget about them and that’s usually where the abuse is present and goes unrecognized. There are many articles and stories about children who were abused in their foster homes because they were the “unwanted child” in the house. I decided to research the articles about foster care abuse and the corruptness of the system to determine how often this happens and if it really is a problem in our area. I have decided that children are being placed in abusive Foster Homes because they provide a check for the parents but because of the corruptness of the Foster Care system this problem often goes unseen.

• Elizabeth Fields graduated from Ware Shoals High School in Ware Shoals, South Carolina. She is a senior at Lander University, majoring in Sociology. She received her associates degree in arts and sciences from Piedmont Technical College in 2019. She has experience working with children with disabilities at Miracle Leagues games and has also volunteered with Beyond Abuse in Greenwood. She has currently done an internship project with Connie Maxwell Children’s home, and also done interviews with DSS in Columbia and Victims Advocates in Greenwood.