Cycle of Foster Care by Grace Deisler
Grace is studying the field of social work.
Imagine being in middle school or even high school once again. The trials of that time are hard on any teen. Now imagine an unexpected pregnancy that brings to an end all thoughts except those of the immediate needs of this unwed, teen mother. Now imagine being in foster care. Even teens who become pregnant in the best of family circumstances often find their futures altered dramatically and their chance for a “normal” adolescence destroyed. There are numerous challenges for any girls but those challenges are exponentially higher for a girl who is a ward of the state. Young, pregnant girls in foster care have no resources and are shuffled around without support, without stability, without hope. Our response to these girls is simply prolonging the cycle of broken families and ignoring the vulnerable.

It is not uncommon for a foster girl who becomes pregnant to be taken from the home by a social worker with CPS and placed in an emergency shelter where she waits out her pregnancy. When she returns to the shelter with her baby, the social worker returns after a nine month absence and takes the baby, stating that the shelter is not a fit habitation for raising a baby. Or a foster girl who becomes pregnant is faced with the choice of leaving the foster parents’ home or giving up the baby. Many foster parents are afraid of the extra responsibility of a baby and thus they demand such a choice from their foster girls. So, some of the girls unwillingly give up their babies, some surrender to yet another placement by social workers, and some simply run away, living on the streets because they have no where else to turn.

We, as a society must do better than this. We are failing not only the pregnant girls but their babies and the chance to make a real impact on the cycle of foster care. There are hundreds of girls in the foster care system in California who get pregnant each year, many right here in the crowded cities in the Inland Empire. And really, no one knows the true statistics because none are taken. Many of these girls stay invisible and they are not linked to services to end the cycle of broken families. Few ever see the inside of a clinic or pregnancy resource center. Must these girls be doomed to repeat the mistakes of their mothers and add more children to the foster care system? Why do we demand that these girls give up their babies and take away self-determination without letting them prove that they can succeed and be good mothers against the odds? And why do we demand all of this without connecting them to resources that even some of the poorest families take for granted?

If these girls were to miraculously succeed in keeping their babies, they would have no parent training classes, little prenatal care, and no connections to day care for their babies so as to ensure that they will graduate high school. It seems as though we are setting these girls up for failure no matter what choice they are forced to make. In current legislation, the babies of foster children are not considered dependents of the state unless a social worker decides the mother is an unfit parent and takes the child from her. This leaves no chance for a decrease in the number of foster children and, in fact, breeds more broken families and shattered lives.

One bill, aimed at confronting these challenges in SB 1178 sponsored by state senator, Sheila Kuehl. It will be voted on soon. This bill would instruct caseworkers to care for these fragile families and support the foster families that take them in. It directs the state to allow these girls to keep their child if that is in the best interest of both. If we ever want to end the seemingly endless cycle of foster children, we must empower these pregnant foster girls to take responsibility and become good mothers. We cannot expect them to do so if they remain invisible, moving erratically from one home to another, one emergency shelter to another with no access to resources or education. As a society, we must want them to succeed and give them the tools to do so. We are failing the most vulnerable members of society and by doing so, failing the future families and failing ourselves. If pregnant foster girls are continually ignored and forgotten, the cycle of broken families will never end and foster care will continue to grow. We need to advocate now to give these girls a chance to do better than their mothers and succeed where their mothers failed. We need to demand that this bill be passed and work on programs to further support these foster families and children. If we refuse to give them a chance, then there is no hope that the cycle can be broken.