User:Kjoithomas/sandbox

The benefits of placing children with family member or someone significant to the family also known as kinship placement is remarkable. Their overall health and improved behavior are an outcome to kinship placements- along with less movement between different foster homes. Also, foster children in kinship placements are more likely to see their parents and family member during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although many county officials are now more likely seeking out kinship placements for foster youths they now deal with the hurdle of the placements not working out because of the lack of funds for the family members takin in a child. But with the foster parents being more hesitant to take in foster children while the COVID-19 virus is still on the rise- kinship placements are more crucial now than ever.

Foster kids just like children out of care depended on school for their socialization. Many foster kids were also recipients to mentorship programs - a close relationship for many children that has now seen less volunteers because of the pandemic. Also, a lot of foster kids see some fort of therapist or psychologist. Those visits went form in person to online or were cancelled altogether until further notice. This change in resources could have dire effects on children. For them to once have a safe place to discuss the hardships in their lives- and possibly in their foster home- to now having to speak on them in their home with potential listening ears can have unforeseen circumstances. The same can be said for the visitations children once had with heir social workers in person. You’re not as likely to catch abuse or neglect virtually as you would in person and social workers are not able to have intimate and necessary conversations with kids in a neutral environment. Also, a foster child is less likely to divulge that kind of sensitive information virtually for fear of being over heard and facing consequences. All of these resources going from being a recurrent and necessary part of foster kids’ lives to now being virtual or gone altogether could have lasting mental health setbacks and lead to behavioral problems.

Visitations

Besides just visits children would have with parents there are also visits with their siblings also placed in care. In a lot of cases siblings groups are simply too large to be placed in one foster home together. In cases such as that, those children have to be placed separately and depend on visits to see each other and still be a part of each other’s lives. While courts make a point to make visits happen with children and their parents- courts do not always make that same consideration for sibling groups. SO many foster kids who were either placed in permanent custody with their county and had their foster home setting up visits with their siblings or were only seeing their siblings while visiting with their parents have now lost another important anchor in their lives. Some states have tried to make a point in making sure visits still happen with parents and siblings but while being screened for COVID-19 while also social distancing. Even with these precautions, many foster parents are still very hesitant.