Low Level Research Shows Unwillingness to Change

Well this should actually surprise no one but I am astounded with the little amount of research findings done on kids shipped into the foster care system. While I’ve been virtually obsessed with digging up as much information as I can, the relative lack of work done and proper evaluation of an action as important as separating kids from their parents is depressing.

A prominent feature when trying to search for findings is usually a complaint by the lack of adequate research on certain prominent issues by other researchers. Why this is the case is not immediately clear to me. Subjecting the system to scrutiny should be the responsibility of those in charge. Issues that yielded very little organized information centered on: the effects of the foster system, placement stability, erroneous calls, effectiveness of the present system, abuse of the system, etcetera. These are, if you ask me, topics that require constant findings and re-evaluations.

The few organized researchers that have scrutinized the Child welfare system oftentimes arrive at interesting findings. The University of Amsterdam for instance linked the separation of families to increased juvenile delinquency in kids. There are also a handful of independent researchers including groups and individuals who arrive at various conclusions after scrutiny.

It should however be the primary function of the Departments in various states and counties to carry out both general and county specific evaluations if providing the best service for our kids was really the priority. A proper evaluation framework should include one that initiates, investigates and adopts research findings and evaluations for proper service delivery.

Anything else is a jamboree. You can’t claim to be rescuing someone when you’re not certain if they’re need of rescue or worse, if your rescue method is the best solution. Since funding is not an issue as we have established, there is a lot of explaining to do as to why this is so.