No Place for a Child: The Hidden Truth of Foster Care in America
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Juvenile courts are a processing point for more than 800,000 children each year who are confirmed victims of abuse and neglect. With more than a half million children in foster care, 65,000 parents terminated of their parental rights each year and more than 2.4 million grandparents raising their grandchildren, many adults offer visceral opinions about how to fix America’s troubled families. But answers are hard to come by when trying to determine what’s in “a child’s best interest.” In the closed-door world of America’s juvenile courts, the public knows little about how laws and policies direct the futures of millions of at-risk kids.
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My heart breaks for the nine year old girl, I understand sending a child somewhere to get help. But giving up the parental rights to the state, no way would I ever do that.
Unless a parent has the financial means to privately pay for a facility they have no option but to relinquish their rights. I am a social worker for young adults who have developmental disabilities and a dual diagnosis of either mental illness or traumatic brain injuries and I can't think of one client that I've served in over 20 years whose parents could afford to pay. It's insanely expensive. It's hit and miss when it comes to family involvement, some families are very active in their child's life and care, while others don't bother. I have some clients who spend weekends and go on extended vacations with their families and others who haven't seen their parents in years. As long as families do their homework and make sure that the facility has well trained and experienced staff, and the clients are healthy, clean, and have the things that they need, it can be the best thing for the child. The agency that I'm contracted with allows them to live independently or semi independently with supervision. They work, use public transportation, and have active social lives. We usually have a block of apartments in a complex with full time staff that travel between apartments for those who live independently or with roommates and houses for those who need more hands on support. My job is more of the regulatory stuff, I serve as a liason between individuals and their employers, and I teach them how to get to and from work on public transportation and ride with them until they are able to do it alone. Sometimes we just hang out and talk. It's a great job. Doesn't pay well, but the companies that pay the best tend to be the ones where the care is sub par. It took me 12 years to pay off my student loans lol. But it's rare that my job feels like work, and I'd rather be broke and happy than have more money and be miserable. I work with individuals who lead happy and full lives and most have never been given the opportunity to have so much freedom and the power to make choices for themselves. My clients really blossom during the time that I work with them.
Raymond isnt a stalker BUT he knows where dana works and she cant run and hide......that sounds like a threat of some kind
Hurt people hurt people.
Little Chelsea suffers from FAS, I can see that. She should live in a loving Foster home like my three foster kids with fetal alcohol Syndrome.
That poor little 9-year-old girl. I cannot imagine and even the state seems to think that that is not the place for her. I'm not saying she was perfect or behaved perfectly but that mother just decided she didn't want to deal with it and dumped that poor kid. She should not be allowed to have anymore that's just a disgrace
I think Joshua’s mother was a little heartless. She could at least hug her son.
His stepdad said, "It's not that we don't want you." Really? Because that's exactly what his mom said.
Idk how foster parents do it. I wouldn't be able to care for children for extended periods of time and then have them taken back. To have my heart broken over and over again would KILL me.
@@Zero_Fawkes
It is super hard for the super caring. All too easy for the others.
Most foster parents do it for the money. Not the kids.
The bio parents get too many effing chances. That’s why these kids are so messed up.
Ofcourse it kills them too. It’s just a matter of not being selfish and dealing with that pain so you can help and love a kid to the best of your abilities when it is with you. Plus knowing it’s best for a child to grow up with their parents. So when conditions are stable enough at home to move back, the joy you feel for the child reuniting, should be above your own pain and grief for losing that child.
I
As a parent I would never sign over my kids, I would go to the ends of the earth to help them but not like this, never like this. That poor 9 year old girl and Joshua broke my heart they needed love and attention and a better way to express themselves
Foster mom takes that personally? Grow up. Mothers dont dump kids when they mess up. So you are luing and you are just another opportunist. Judging this girl is so hypocritical. I know whats up. What a liar.
Even though she would have been willing to go to great length for her, it is hard to love a foster teen the same way as your own flesh and blood that you raised from infancy.
So heartbreaking for many CPS children. Parents Must do better imo. ✌️💜✌️
Those aren't normal kids having normal outbursts and even parents have their limits .
I love it that Cathy, Gavin and Delina still have contact. Delina made a good decision
@@andrea4271 well actually Delena is my mom and Gavin is my older brother and Gavin has 3 kids of his own now
@@LilCRok I hope your mom is doing well! Thanks for the update!
Josh should have went to his father before going to the state !
If his father wanted him, he would be there!
@@mrs1975brown yeah it definitely seemed like the dad did not want to be involved and I doubt he would have taken him especially full time
Delinia is a great mom now travels the world her adoptive mom has her 1st son but she is involved in his life she just Wasn't emotionally make enough to raise a kid but she did try.
How do you know this update?
Sounds like the worst outcome, The foster “parent” is a horrible person for pressing charges on someone that didn’t threaten her life. Covert narcissist.
@@yvonnejensen1969 I think that was a good wake up call for Delena. Probably is what kept her out of trouble afterwards.
how is joshua now?
Cfs in manitoba will take ur babies right from the hospital with the reason being the mother ismt capable of being a good mom because she herself was raised in care. Basically admitting cfs themselves and their foster homes arent capable of parenting. its all bout.momey here
Usually CPS means the biggest bully (Karen) in the room tells parents to “Do as I say…” or I will “…take your kids.” And the legal system backs this.
Fathers are forced to pay, pay, pay and the mothers just abuse & neglect… until arrested drunk, or the child dies. Even then CPS answers to no one, under the guise of privacy. I speak from first hand knowledge - though I’ve always taken care of my own. The world is crazy now.
The world is crazy now? So when this was filmed it wasn’t crazy then 🙃😂
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I’m very old, so I have seen the ebb and flow. It’s worse than it used to be because there is NO accountability for CPS. They hide behind privacy laws to keep their secrets.
@@ShopStylebyme
I’m about to hit my 7th decade. I’ve watched it all.
@angiesmith3269 Children are being abused, sometimes even tortured to death in their own homes so often these days. It almost seems that the frequency of this happening is comparable to how often murder is committed against spouses. But to say that mothers are the neglectful abusers, and fathers are not even given the opportunity to be the primary caregiver, is just not true. It may be that you have personally witnessed and/or experienced this dynamic repeatedly, but kids are dying in foster homes too. There are more foster homes adding to the children's trauma, than there are that actually support their healing in a stable loving environment. Statistics say that one of the most common similarities in the cases of severe abuse/murder of a child is the parent and child cohabiting with a spouse who is not the child's biological parent. I've personally known fathers who raised all their children to adulthood by themselves while the mother was absent the entire time. These situations are unique and too complex for a blanket statement to be accurate
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What you say is true, but explain why paternal grandparent totally accepted as the trusted security so long as together but the mother would rather the female child goes into the system over a supportive paternal or maternal grandmother speaks volumes. And the system will put that child with strangers over trusted family is just wrong. The child goes to strangers over foster-approved relatives - only because of a power struggle - and the system requires MONITORED visits with child’s disabled grandmother… why? CPS does not even interview family or former caregivers. It’s all a stupid power move and NOBODY cares about the child!
Delina really tells herself nobody cared about me!?!? What about Kathy? She really just took advantage of that woman didn't she.
No. Everyone makes mistakes.
No. It's self sabotage and it's a trauma response. I also aged out of foster care and it took a whole lot of therapy and reflection for me to learn why I still do it as an adult. Not stealing or anything criminal, but I don't allow people to get too close to me for too long. When you've let your guard down enough as a kid and learned to accept care and love and still get passed around from one placement to the next you learn not to get too comfortable. Or attached. It's usually subconscious, and it's how you protect yourself. You give them a reason to send you away. Or leave. I'm not even as close to my kids as I would like to be. I started therapy after I became a mom because I felt that I needed to work through some baggage. I didn't want my kids to have to heal as adults because of me. I wanted healthy relationships with them. And I think that I've done okay, but I think that they would be fine without me. 3 are adults, mid to late 20s, and my youngest is 19.
Our foster child joined our family at 3 and 1/2 years. She is 25 now and lived with me ever since. She has a good Job, friends, a car but still steals money from me if possible
It's easy from the outside of the situation to see a 17 year old girl who betrayed the person who was there to love her when nobody else was. While that may be the truth, it's only part of the truth. This girl spent over a decade of her childhood without any secure foundation. Could you imagine what she must have experienced with her natural mother? A teenage girl took her own mother to court to prove her unfit. That is highly unusual, I've never even heard of it happening before. Foster kids are well aware that the family they live with is not their own. Kids ache for their original family, and almost always have an idealized perception of the parents they were taken from. She said in court, that she didn't understand why she did what she did. Probably because the reason is not only very complex, but also a desperate attempt from her subconscious to protect herself from what feels like an inevitable heartbreak that she couldn't cope with
@@kyla6538 it has to do with trust issues.
I don’t understand how anyone can do this to their child and expect them to ever function as normal humans. I’m sorry I know I’m judging because I don’t have that child but I can’t imagine ever being able to make that decision. I understand parents wanting their kids to not be a stat but how can what help they provide in a facility not happen while being at home. I dunno this all just breaks me.
justice
I was a 14 yearold mother but i didnt get fosterd
5:49 That was a dumb response. She could have paid her bills or save up for something useful.
I think Josh s step dad is abusive, it’s why he wanted his real dad. Why could he not go to his real dad?
Just dumping your child to cps when they have a bio parent they want to live with is bs.
1:02:52 DAYUM he gained some weight, holy cow he’s unrecognizable
A lot of psychiatric meds cause weight gain
That kid shouldnt be calling u mom..ur not his mother
Can’t comment. You won’t post.
All these low class people. I don't feel sorry for any of them.