Corona Daily 312: Temporary Children

 

Sixteen years ago, during a casual chat, my English professor, S, mentioned he was raising eight children – two his own and six he was fostering. As an Indian, I knew little about fostering. These were children, needing care and protection, placed under the guardianship of foster parents. Until then, S and his wife had fostered 27 children in total.  

How can someone teaching at university afford to take care of so many children, I asked bluntly. The government pays well, S said. In fact, for families courageous enough to foster, that is an incentive.

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UK has about 60,000 and USA 450,000 children living with foster families. These two nations have the most developed systems, independent agencies, and a government budget that usually pays a non-taxable, non-reportable sum per child. Monthly board rates are variable, $700-$1000 per month per child in the USA, and double of that in the UK. Children can be of any age from birth till 18 or 21. On reaching adulthood, they are expected to take care of themselves.

A child may have suffered abuse; physical, mental or sexual, may be neglected or abandoned. The child’s parents may be arrested and jailed. Older children may be involved with juvenile crime, substance use, trauma or have run away from home. Agencies supported by the state take their responsibility and place them for fostering until they can return home. If the courts decide they can’t return home (e.g. abusive parents unlikely to improve), those children are offered for adoption. The foster parents will take care of the children, until someone adopts them. Fostering can happen over days, months or years. (This BBC story about a foster child will make even insensitive people cry).

Volunteers offering to foster undergo a lengthy scrutiny. Social workers visit their homes, gather information, check absence of criminal record. After placing the children, regular visits are done to check everything is in order.

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Yesterday, I wrote about children of divorced or separated parents. Children in foster care are another group affected by the pandemic.

Economic hardship and domestic violence meant more children needing care outside their home. An Irish agency reported a 37% surge, a figure similar to places in the UK and USA. Hundreds of foster children have been in limbo waiting for court hearings, suspended for many months. The state departments cancelled face-to-face visits. Children waiting for courts to determine whether they should return home or be offered for adoption could not see their parents. Some independent fostering agencies closed their doors to new children to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

A tough part of fostering is children “ageing out” of foster care. They must leave the home of their foster parents on reaching adulthood. In normal times, they look for an hourly-wage job and manage to find their way in life. Now jobs at McDonalds and Starbucks are also not available. In times of a stay-at-home order, they face homelessness. Since the state withdraws financial support after their eighteenth birthday, the foster parents are often not in a position to afford them. (Many have their own children to look after as well).

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The silver lining is the increasing number of families who are now coming forward to start fostering.  Some childless couples, as well as couples with children, had toyed with the idea, but there was never the right time. This pandemic has provided them an opportunity. Many work from home, some have lost their jobs. Fostering terms are flexible. One can apply to foster for three to six months as well.

A pandemic is sometimes capable of bringing the best out of people.

Ravi