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The enormous amount of African American children in the foster care system is a concern for many professional social workers, and others who are interested in this issue.

The purpose of the study was to examine the association between foster care children and the behaviors they exhibit particularly in attachment outcomes. The study was also an informative tool that addressed the impact of children with attachment issues currently in the foster care system. Examining the relationship between the two variables may be able to help parents and their children, by providing future resources necessary to both parties in case separation and loss occurs.

The increasing number of children who have reentered foster care is a pervasive problem today. The present study examined the recovery of substance-dependent parents and the length of time between reunification and a maltreatment recurrence event.

The purpose of this study is to explore and understand the reasons why some siblings are placed together and why other siblings are separated within the foster care system.

The purpose of this study is to examine the perception of satisfaction of both kinship and non-kinship caregivers of the services offered to them through the child welfare system.

Thesis (M. A. (Social Work)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / Foster care is the best method of alternative care for children that need care and protection. It offers children an atmosphere and environment that recognise their economic, social, educational, health and cultural needs without discrimination. The fundamental objective of foster care is to make sure children are protected and grow up in a safe and healthy environment. Notwithstanding the positive impact that comes with it, it has been confirmed worldwide that foster care suffers from serious deficiencies to an extent that the rights of children are compromised. The Department of Social Development is no exception to foster care backlogs, which result in foster care placement applications accumulating and families’ quality of life being affected and compromised. Social workers are inundated with high caseloads on a daily basis. The study employed qualitative and collective case study design. The non-probability, convenient sampling technique was followed to select twelve statutory social workers at Botlokwa Department of Social Development satellites. Out of these social workers, eight were female and four were male. Data was collected by means of literature review and semi-structured in-depth interviews guided by an interview schedule with open-ended questions. The data was analysed thematically with the help of the Nvivo programme. The study unearthed factors such as shortage of social workers, social auxiliary workers and supervisors, system deficiencies within the children’s court fraternity, insufficient tools of trade, multiple work responsibilities and lack of cooperation from clients as contributing to foster care backlogs. The findings also revealed that in order to cope with these backlogs, some social workers engage in unethical conducts such as comforting clients with lies and not attending to foster care files. Instead, they write process notes and use their own resources to execute their roles and help one another to deal with the backlogs. Therefore, it is recommended that specialisation in foster care, foster care file audit, hiring more social workers, effective working relationship between foster care stakeholders, adopting a computerised reminder system for files due for review, convenient court dates and amendment of form 30 and the advertisement of unknown fathers can be efficient measures to mitigate foster care not only at Botlokwa, but also within the Department of Social Development nationwide. The researcher therefore concludes that foster care backlogs within social work offices is real, and that to curb it requires collaborative efforts x by role players, particularly the Department of Social Development and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.

In 1969, the "President's Committee on Mental Retardation" issued a challenge to all those involved in the care and treatment of the mentally retarded, to integrate institutionalized children into "... normal community living... and enable them to develop their ability and potential to the fullest extent."1 In addition to this mandate the federal government became increasingly aggressive in its campaign to make available to all handicapped children the same rights and privileges as "normal children". One of the major thrusts of this campaign today is to encourage local communities to commit themselves to fulfilling the needs of the handicapped individual within the environment of their community as opposed to the traditional method of institutionalization.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Awaiting adoption is a social problem in America that affects thousands of children as well as families, agencies, communities, the mission of the child welfare system, and society at large. In 2014, over 101,000 children were awaiting adoption in the United States. On average, waiting children have been in out-of-home care for approximately three years. One phenomenon that plagues waiting children and their opportunity for adoption is the disruption of their pre-adoptive placements or the change in a waiting child's placement prior to a finalized adoption. Despite unique placement and permanency needs, waiting children and their foster parents are seldom recognized as unique cohorts. Thus, little is known about the experience of pre-adoptive placement disruption. The status of waiting children, foster care and adoption history and policy, and literature and theory relevant to pre-adoptive placement disruption are discussed. In-depth, semi-structured interviews and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis were used to investigate the research question: What is the experience of pre-adoptive placement disruption for pre-adoptive foster parents? Eleven foster parents participated in nine interviews. Participants were licensed through public or private child welfare agencies. The majority of participants were married, Caucasian, and had adopted from foster care. Important findings emerged from the experiences participants shared. Pre-adoptive placement disruption is characterized by "compound loss" including both the loss of the child and the loss of purpose. Participants experienced the disruption like a broken social contract and attributed the disruption to the child welfare system or the children's perpetrators. Disruption experiences resulted in lasting effects including changes to the profiles of the children participants would foster or adopt in the future, pre-adoptive status, and advocacy efforts. Resolve emerged as a critical factor for participants to approach foster and pre-adoptive care in new ways. Vulnerability, isolation, and ambivalence emerged as essential elements of living through disruption. Findings suggest the importance of assessing pre-adoptive parents' motivations and expectations, validating their experiences, acknowledging their losses, and practicing with transparency and competency. Implications exist for child welfare and social work practice and education. Additional research is needed regarding barriers and supports of adoption from foster care.

Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka vilken typ av brister som anmäls till IVO iärenden som rör familjehemsvård inom socialtjänsten och hur dessa brister kanförstås utifrån ett förändringsperspektiv. I denna kvalitativa dokumentstudie har 30klagomål analyserats utifrån en innehållsanalys av sekundärdata. Resultatet påvisaratt både familjehem och vårdnadshavare upplevt brister i kommunikationen från ochmed socialtjänsten, det visar även att det skett en särbehandling mellanvårdnadshavare. Studien visar att klagomålen berör olika områden, dock ger flertaletklagande uttryck för att de inte känner sig lyssnade på. I diskussionen diskuterasresultatet utifrån studiens centrala begrepp, tolkningsram samt tidigare forskning.Studiens resultat och diskussion visar att det finns ett behov av att stärkakommunikationen mellan socialtjänsten och dess brukare, en viktig faktor i det äratt försöka säkerställa att information mottagits och förståtts på ett korrekt sätt. / The purpose with this essay was to research what type of flaws reported in casesabout family home care in the social services and how they can be understood froma change perspective. In this qualitative document study, 30 complaints have beenanalyzed with content analysis of secondary data. The result shows that both familyhomes and caregivers have experienced communication flaws from and with thesocial services, it also shows that there has been special treatment betweencaregivers. The flaws concern different areas, many express that they do not feellistened to. In the discussion, the results are discussed based on the study's keyconcepts, interpretive framework and previous research. The results and discussionshow that there is a need to strengthen the communication between the socialservices and its users, an important factor is to ensure that information is receivedand understood in a correct way.