America's Throwaway Children: The Foster Care Dilemma

Children Today, Jan-Feb, 1991 by Jake Terpstra

This unusual book portrays the family foster care experience from the point of view of foster parents. The author relates her and her husband's experiences, as well as those of other persons involved in the process with them, such as the agency social worker, the nurse and the guardian ad litem.

The drama of foster care is rarely told from this perspective. Decisions that can have a profound impact on families, children and foster parents -- decisions that indeed may border on life and death significance -- are sometimes made casually by agencies and courts. Garland's graphic, candid presentation of thoughts, reactions and feelings about the foster care system could only have been made by one who has been there. The author also discusses sound child welfare principles and concepts to demonstrate how certain agency or court actions were appropriate or could have been implemented to better advantage.

The author's foster parenting experiences appear to be more positive than those of many contemporary foster parents. She describes a generally well managed agency with caring staff and other supportive individuals, such as guardians ad litem. She also realistically reports stresses, frustrations and the heartbreak of real tragedies. The dilemmas of helping to reunify families while also protecting children from a return to families that are unable to care for them are sensitively conveyed. The complexity of a child's move from foster care to an adoptive family is also clearly delineated. Garland highlights the general inadequacy of agencies in helping children bridge the two worlds of foster care and adoption, and agencies' frequent failures to recognize and utilize the reality and potential of the relationship between the two.

Its low cost and easy readability make America's Throwaway Children a practical resource tool that lends itself well to recruitment of foster parents and to orientation of both foster parents and agency social work staff. This heartening and informative book is also recommended for lay readers who are concerned about the circumstances and quality of life of children in our society.

Jake Terpstra is the Specialist in Foster Care, Residential Care and Licensing, Children's Bureau, ACYF.