Be a Foster Parent

The assignment content discusses the importance of foster parenting and its impact on children's lives. It highlights the skills and responsibilities required to be a successful foster parent, including patience, emotional control, and understanding of child behavior management. The content also emphasizes the legal responsibilities of foster parents, such as providing for the child's basic needs and promoting their physical and mental well-being. Additionally, it provides statistical data on foster children and the benefits to taxpayers, including tax-free income and financial concessions. Ultimately, the assignment encourages people to consider becoming foster parents, highlighting the emotional benefits and sense of fulfillment that comes with caring for a child in need.

Persuasive Speech on Be a Foster Parent

Introduction
There are thousands of children in America’s foster care system who needs out-of-home care
because of abuse, exploitation and the neglect that they face from their own families. Such
children are out there in all ages and with various needs. Foster parents are those who provide a
support system in the form of a stable family for the children who cannot manage to live with
their birth parents until their family disputes are sorted. In most of the cases, foster parents work
with social agencies to reconnect the child with their birth parents. Before becoming a Foster
Parent, it is important to realize that it will change the life of a child being fostered. Foster
parenting can be a very time-consuming and difficult process as well, and it may require all the
energy. Some foster children have built in mental problems, and some are facing physical
problems as well. Being a foster parent means doing something for the blessings of God because
being a foster parent is a team work with God to take care of poor ones.
I. Skills and responsibilities for being a foster parent
a) Personal skills
Before getting into foster care, most of the families spent 1 year at least to give
careful thought to this idea. Foster parents need to have mastered their patience
levels and should be able to control their emotions enough to have the ability to
say goodbye. They should also prepare their children and other family members
with the decision of adding another member to the household even if for the short
temporary duration. Since the foster children have been facing past abuse and
neglect, so corporal punishment is not allowed to be used for them hence it is
important to understanding management skills to control the child behavior. As a
foster parent, the focus should be on building an attachment with the child. It gets

tougher at times to maintain calm with them as they can push the limits by being
abusive due to the stress they have been facing in the past. The foster parents will
be asked to attend meetings with individual groups hence it is important to be
prepared to participate in such gatherings. The adoptive parents also have to
represent themselves to the family of the child they are going to be mentoring,
and they play a significant role in the family reunification process (Welcome,
2017).
b) Legal Responsibilities- The foster parents should be able to provide the child
with adequate food, homage and clothes, all the treatments necessary to promote
and maintain healthy life, providing them with enough education, training and
employment opportunities as per the age and their interests, allowing them to
keep contact with their birth family and other close persons, provide them safety
from any harassment or exploitation (AdoptUSKids.,2017).
II. Accounting for foster children and the benefits to taxpayers
a) Statistical Data on Foster Children

Over the period since the 1990s, the number of children under foster care has risen
from 400,000 to 5,60,000 of the total population of children by 1999 then it decreased
to less than 400,000 by 2012, and the number then increased to 450,000 in 2014 (out
of the total population of children in America). In 2014, half of the foster children
lived in the homes of non-relatives, 30% used to live under ‘kinship care,' 15% lived
in group homes, and the rest lived with pre-adoptive families (The Spruce - Make
Your Best Home, 2017).

Between 2000 and 2014, there have been changes (fall) in the proportions of both
very long and very short stays in the foster care. The percentage of stays which are
shorter than six months have dropped by 26% and the proportion of stays with five
years and longer have decreased by 50% (The Spruce - Make Your Best Home, 2017).
b) Cost benefits to taxpayers- The foster parents receiving foster care payments
from either agency or from the state are not liable to pay tax on such income since
that income is to serve the child and not the part of the productive income that the
foster parent earn through their work. The financial concessions can be claimed
for all types of adoptions except the case where adoption of the spouse’s child

take place. There are certain specific rules in case of undertaking the care
initiative for the child with special needs.
III. Advantages
a) Benefits to parents- Foster parents are often inspired to attend educational
courses on foster parenting. These free courses help in efficient parenting.
Fostering implies an ability to extend care and love for other than own kids who
may not have been well taken care of, the emotional benefit of that realization is
immeasurable. Working together to help a child can strengthen the bond of the
family unit and with the child as well. This could result in lifelong relationships
with particular people. The family gets to earn a dependable second income at
home. They moreover receive a tax-free income that provides for the foster child's
requirements and reimbursements for the efforts of parenting a child (RI
Department of Children, Youth & Families, 2017).
b) Benefits to the child- The goal of fostering a child is mostly reuniting them with
their families. Hence it is very important to keep them with a caring and nurturing
family. Foster parents are there to provide safety to the children and emotional
care as well that is utmost needed to them due to the loss of trust and connections
that they have suffered from their family. When the children are able to face
safety and security in the stable home, they can focus on their academic tasks
more efficiently and excel in their studies. Foster parenting can also lead to
permanent placement: around 20% of the children who moved through the system

are eventually adopted by their foster families. Foster parenting is the quickest
mode of completing the process of adoption than any other methods while
providing the child with the ability to maintain connection with his foster parents
(CDSS, 2017)
Conclusion
Foster parenting involves a lot of hard work. It takes a lot of emotional strength.
And it also cleanses the soul connecting with a child who needs an adult to care
and love them.

REFERENCES
AdoptUSKids. (2017). Adoptuskids.org. Retrieved 8 April 2017, http://www.adoptuskids.org
CDSS. (2017). Childsworld.ca.gov. Retrieved 8 April 2017,http://www.childsworld.ca.gov
RI Department of Children, Youth & Families. (2017). Dcyf.ri.gov. Retrieved 8 April
2017,http://www.dcyf.ri.gov
The Spruce - Make Your Best Home. (2017). The Spruce. Retrieved 12 April 2017, from
https://www.thespruce.com
Welcome. (2017). Fostering Futures. Retrieved 8 April 2017, http://www.ffkids.org