Examining foster care: A viable solution for placement of handicapped children?

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Abstract
Foster care for handicapped children has become a frequently used and even more frequently criticized procedure. Traditional methods of foster placement have resulted in a number of negative outcomes, especially for the placed children. Based on a review of some recent innovative foster care programs, this paper has isolated a number of options for the restructuring of the entire foster care delivery system. These options include: rigorous client evaluation, use of selection and training criteria for foster parents, matching of client needs to caregiver abilities in making placement decisions, and ongoing professional support and supervision after placement. Systematic consideration of these issues may help make foster care a more viable solution to the growing problem of home placement for handicapped children. Foster home care represents an often-used solution to the problem of placing youngsters who would otherwise be placed in total institutions. By living in a foster home, the child has an opportunity to grow up in the community, with all its social concomitants. The child can learn from parentlike adult models, in a small familylike unit that allows more one-to-one contact. In addition, Garrett (1970) demonstrated that foster care costs markedly less than inpatient hospitalization (in her study, the placement of 24 children in foster homes represented a savings to the state of $200,000 per year). She also concluded that since the child is not set apart as deviant, he had a better chance of becoming a socially well-functioning adult than a child raised ha an institution. Even though the concept of foster care seems theoretically reasonable, it has proven difficult to successfully operationalize and implement for all home

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