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Changing placement can have a great negative impact on a foster child. Changing placement when things get difficult with a foster child or challenging behaviors surface should not be the first option.
This can affect every area of a foster child’s life and can have a lasting effect on the child. The progress that the child as made before the change of placement may be totally set back. It will be like he or she never made any progress.
With almost every change of placements, a foster child will fall six months farther behind in school. Most foster children are already behind or struggling in school when they are placed in foster care, so multiple placements can make it very difficult or even impossible for these children to be successful in school.
Attachment issues are a major problem with placement changes. The changes can make it seem that everyone will leave them sooner or later, so the children do not form attachments to the people in their lives. Attachment issues can be life long struggles for the foster child and can have tragic effects in a child’s life.
When children are placed in a new foster placement, they may then act out more or become aggressive. In the children’s minds, they know they will be rejected by being sent away. They help the process along with the behaviors; they just want to get the rejection over with. The feelings of being unlovable, unwanted, that they are bad and rejection can be overwhelming to children. Children that have endured these feelings or losses may appear to have shut down and act like they do not care about anything. There are some many other ways that changes of placement can also effect foster children, I have just named a few major ones.
The reasons above are why foster children should not be moved around to multiple foster placements. Yes, there will be cases were it is best for everyone for a change in placement, but that should come after a lot of hard work and counseling. This should be a last resort.
So true!!
Our six year old was moved way too much in four years. I am surprised that she does as well as she does.
It is hard on them and sometimes we adults just don’t realize the pain they must go through.
I’m coming from the other side. Our foster daughter, 2 years old, was just moved. The reason was that she was supposed to be better off with her bio sister who has been in an assessment home. She was leveled at the highest therapeutic level possible. While she was with us, the sister attempted to break the 2 year old’s fingers several time. Now she’s medicated and “okay.” Our foster daughter was well bonded and happy. I understand that she needs to be in contact with her family. What I don’t understand is how taking her from a positive placement to a new placement is a good thing. I think what hurts the most is that she doesn’t have the capacity to understand what just happened. No matter how many times I talked about the move, I don’t think she understood. Her social worker said we’d done well with her and that she was obviously bonded. Why, then, was her reward to be removed from that attachment. Unfortunately, what we are often teaching these kiddos is that attachment to foster parents only brings more pain. I pray that my foster daughter is happy in her new home and that her sister truly is okay.