Article #3 Notes

Adam B

Mrs. Zurkowski

Yellows

24 September, 2010

Gathering Information- Notes

"Foster Care." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File           News Services, 6 July 2009. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://www.2facts.com/article/i0300620>.

·         It is a huge decision for children to make when their parents abuse and neglect them. Should they go into foster care or continue with their dreadful lives?

·         When the foster parents take care of the foster children, they are given money to help support that child without having to use their own money on them.

·         Many officers think that foster homes are not permanent enough since they are going back and forth from home to home in little amounts of time.

·         “Residential-treatment centers are the most expensive type of foster care, due to the high cost of the various kinds of therapy offered there, along with room and board, medical and dental care, and recreational programs” (2).

·         Now foster care agencies have to think of a solution to each foster child’s own situation because of the passing of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act in 1980.

·         Adoption is a possibility for every foster child, but the main thing to do is to actually help these children return back to their original families.

·         “While abuse can occur in foster care as well as in biological families, critics of family-preservation programs say that it is more common that children who have been returned to their natural parents are further abused or killed by them” (3).

·         Many people have said that putting your kids in foster care is way more expensive than just providing social services for your family to help with their problems.

·         Many foster care agencies say that is important for the foster child’s biological parents and their current foster parents to confront with each other and talk about their issues.

·         With an increase in foster children, there is also a huge increase in government spendings to help fix the problem, which people say is a big help for foster children.

·         Also, many children have a lot of problems that are difficult to handle, so adoptions are low for this very reason since people will not want to deal with these problems in foster children.

·         Many foster children are on the bad side of life with addictive and drug abusing parents. This will make their lives painful and dreadful from the start.

globalfamilyalliance.org



Artcle #2 Notes

Adam B

Mrs. Zurkowski

Yellows

23 September, 2010

Foster Children

Gathering Information- Notes

“Foster Care.” World of Health. Gale, 2007. Gale Student Resources in Context. Web. 15 Sept. 2010.

·         “Foster care is an arrangement by which children live temporarily with people other than their own families who, for various reasons, are unable to care for them” (1).

·         Places where foster children can stay includes non-relative homes, shelters, and any places where people will let them stay there.

·         The main factor that make children decide to go into foster care is parental trouble or abuse and neglect from others

·         Even though foster children are alone, many of them have found some way to care for themselves and be dependent until they are adopted.

·         Once children lose their parents or relatives, they are usually dumped into a random family until adulthood.

·         It is also very common for families to arrange a family for a specific foster child so they at least go to a place where they know the family.

·         On the increase since the 1980s though are more foster children being put in a tentative home with a family because of drug abuse from addicted parents.

·         “Since the beginning of the twentieth century, changing circumstances and an increase in the need for foster children have made it necessary for foster care programs to become better organized and regulated” (2).

·         Many foster children placed in a foster home either have a physical or mental illness or they have a problem with social interaction.

·         As a result of all these foster children having a specific illness, many foster parents find it very hard to take care of these kids so they end up going to another foster home.

·         To become an eligible foster parent, a parent has to be screened and have skills for loving his/her foster child and be willing to accept a foster child into their own lives.

http://georgiasentinel.com/

Artcle #1 Notes

Adam B

Mrs. Zurkowski

Yellows

22 September, 2010

Foster Children

Gathering Information- Notes

Vestal, Christine. “States Trying to Extend Foster- Care Benefits.” stateline.org. Aug. 24, 2010:   n.p. SIRS Researcher. Web. 17 Sep. 2010.

Notes

·         Foster children are usually on their own when they turn 18 because government spendings to foster parents end when their foster child turns 18

·         Two states have ignored the current bill to actually help get foster children’s lives back on track when they turn 18. The two states are Vermont and Illinois

·         Many states have tried to help these older foster children, but without the government’s help, the decisions are limited.

·         Many people have said that the least the foster families could do is to continue to help and support their foster children until they have reunited with their families.

·         After 18, many foster children end up on the curb, just waiting for someone to go out of their way to help them continues their lives into adulthood

·         “While the total number of children in foster care has decreased over the past decade, the number of teens who ‘age out’ of the program without finding permanent homes has increased 41 percent since 1998” (Vestal pg.2).

·         States are finding new ways to support these kids, even without the money, by providing some kind of help to the children who leave foster care

·         Also in many states, the foster children who are in their teens and have not yet been adopted can be in a program where they learn skills needed for life including how to handle your bank accounts.

·         “In addition, states are trying to find mentors—or ‘lifelong family connections’—for youths who have not found permanent families” (Vestal pg.2).

·         These families give foster children a place to get help from, to spend time with, and sometimes, to get financial needs fixed out.

·         Many people have spoken out and said that providing these foster children with services so they can grow into adulthood is better than having them end up in jail or federal courts.

http://pactagency.wordpress.com/

My Three Research Questions

The topic I am doing for my research paper is Foster children

1. What are the main physical and mental problems that are found in teenage foster children?

2. How will child services help foster children get thier lives back on track?

3. How can a family become eligible to become a foster family and adopt foster children?

Social Issue Paragraph

Adam B

Mrs. Zurkowski

Yellows

9/14/10

Home, and Other Big, Fat Lies by Jill Wolfson

Foster Children

Search Terms: Health Issues for Foster Children, Foster Homes, Child Welfare Agencies, Health Services, Physical and Mental Problems in Foster Children, Money Used on Foster Children, Separation of Family

Foster Children

            One major topic discussed in Home, and Other Big, Fat Lies is Foster Children. This topic had to do with the main character of the book, who was a foster child. According to the Urban Institute, “800,000 children in the United States spend time in foster care as a result of abuse and neglect.”(http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=311211) “Many foster children have a lot of mental and physical issues along with a lot of health problems” (http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=311211) “Child welfare agencies are responsible for meeting the health and mental health needs of all children they take into custody.” (http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=311211) Many services are available for foster children, including the Medicaid program, but many states have not extended the program to support all of the needs of every foster child. Without these needs met, many foster children end up going to another foster home to try and begin a new life. Foster Children are an important part to this country and they need to be respected like a normal citizen of The United States.

Image From: angelscrossingtx.com

Novel Pen Pal Assignment

703 Churchville Road


Bel Air, Maryland 21014

September 3, 2010

Dear Whitney,

My name is Adam B, and I liked reading about how you stood up to the loggers and saved the whole forest from being destroyed in the book Home, and Other Big, Fat Lies by Jill Wolfson. I am a student at the John Carroll School. I live in Churchville, Maryland, which is across the country from where you stayed in California. I had a great summer. One thing I did was that I went to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware and spent a week with my family and cousins. I also went to many baseball stadiums to support my favorite teams. In August, I went to the Air and Space Museum located right outside of Washington, D.C. Also on many days, I went to the pool to try and cool off from this summer’s blazing heat. So my summer was very fun and I enjoyed it.

In the book, I thought you were fearless and daring in just about every event in the book. It was like you knew how to handle every situation, no matter how important it was. You were able to stand up for yourself, especially at the end when you forcefully told the loggers to not tear down the forest. You were also very brave, even when you were moved to your twelfth foster home. You always maintained a positive attitude in every event and that is why you handled every situation with ease.

I thought Jill Wolfson’s writing style was pretty easy to comprehend because there were a lot of easy words. Also, none of words were difficult to understand for me. The author makes you out to be a little beast who can never do anything good in the world. But deep down, I know you actually care about others and have emotions. But overall, I thought the author’s writing style was very plain and bland , with very simple words.

I really want to know how you developed such a love for nature because all of a sudden in the book you always wanted to go in the forest. I didn’t know if you just wanted to relax there or you thought that it could be your new home. Also, what struck your mind when you said you were going to sit on the mother tree until the loggers left the forest? The loggers could have knocked the tree down and you could have gotten seriously injured.

Reading about your adventure really made me think about the issue of foster children. In your journey, it was like the foster children were just dumped into an area without respect. All foster children should be treated as a citizen of this country and should be respected. This book makes me think about how foster children can survive and how important they are to this world.

I know that you are pretty young so I know one day that you will receive this letter. For the future keep up your bravery and continue to keep a positive attitude. When you get upset, calm yourself first and then speak. Also, keep standing up for what is right. If you continue this, you will permanently be in a home in no time. I hope when you receive this, you will be in a place you call home.

Best Wishes,                                   

Adam B

  http://www.google.com/

                                                                                                                             

Summer Reading Assignment

Adam B



Home, and Other Big, Fat Lies

By Jill Wolfson



Social Issues: Foster children, foster homes; ecology



The Book



1. The main character in this book is Whitney, also known as Termite. Termite is very daring and fearless, so she is always willing to try anything new. She is also very energetic and hyper, as she is always looking for something to do.

2. At the beginning, Whitney is taken to a foster home by her social worker to Forest Glen, California and this is Whitney’s twelfth foster home, so she learns how to adjust to her foster family’s way of life. In the middle, Whitney begins to learn about the wildlife around her with different trees and animals and she makes friends with other foster kids in her school. At the end, Whitney stands up for the Big Momma, the biggest tree in the forest, and prevents it from getting knocked down by the logging company.

3. I think the author is trying to say that you need to respect the life of every living thing, even if it is a tree or a disgusting animal. We have to work together to protect and preserve the lives of all of God’s creation, no matter what.

The Issues

1. One way Whitney is affected is that she learns that just because she is a foster child does not mean she needs to be treated differently from everyone else. Another way Whitney is affected is that she learns to talk less than she usually does because the area she lives in is very quiet. The last way Whitney is affected is that she now stands up for what is right instead of letting the issue slip away. She tries extremely hard for the right thing to happen.

2. One event in the book is when the logging company finally comes back to Forest Glen and it gives the people of the town more money when before, they relied on foster children for the town’s money. This made the foster children important because they thought they were going to leave the town because the families did not need the money now and that they would go to other foster homes. Also, the logging company was going to knock down the forests with all of the nature, which made ecology important too. The author makes this big issue personal by letting the main character say how she feels about this and to think of different solutions no one else would think about. Another event is when Whitney, along with all of the foster children, gathered around Big Momma to prevent the logging company from knocking it down because all of the other trees come from Big Momma. This event said that foster children did not want to leave their foster homes and to keep the forest, with its unique trees, animals, and insects. The author made this issue immediate and personal by letting each foster kid speak out and stand up for what is right in the forest and in his or her foster family.

http://images.google.com/

My Unique Profile

My name is Adam B and I came from St. Joan of Arc in Aberdeen where I was there for 9 years from kindergarten through eighth grade. I play baseball in the spring and I play basketball in the winter. I also like to play tennis in my free time and play touch football with my friends. I also like going to the beach which I went to this past summer with my family. I have one brother and one sister who currently goes to John Carroll. I also have a golden retriever named Taffy. I also enjoy watching baseball games and going to baseball stadiums to watch my favorite teams too. My goals for this school year is to keep up my good grades that I had throughout middle school and to make some new friends since I am around more new people. My favorite baseball team is the Orioles and my favorite football team is the Ravens. Another thing I enjoy is going on the computer and playing online games. In school, I would like to join the newspaper club to help create the school newspaper. This is my profile and this is what I do.

inventorspot.com