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Children in foster care: their present situation and plans for their future

A basic assumption in child-rearing in the western world is that children should live with their biological families until they reach maturity. It is only when the family cannot function as a safe environment for the child that out-of-home placements such as foster care are sought. Removing children from their biological families and placing them with families considered more suitable to care for them is a decision of great individual and societal consequence (Maluccio and Fein, 1983). Such a placement may help relieve the child’s and family’s distress, and pave a new and hopeful road for their future, but it may also result in anguish and irreversible harm to the children and to their families (Kadushin and Martin, 1988). In England, since the Children Act of 1948 fostering has been the preferred method of care for young children who have to be placed out of home, and the number of children placed in foster care has continued to grow (Rowe et al., 1984). Similarly, in the United States, family foster care is one of the largest components of child welfare and seems to be growing (Terpstra, 1987). In Israel foster care has also become a preferred alternative for many children who cannot or should not be adopted, and for whom residential care is not suitable (Jaffe, 1982). In 1989 there were about 1700 children placed in about 1200 foster families across Israel. Most of these placements are voluntary and do not involve the courts. While in the United States, foster care providers may be private