Foster child

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Foster child ( foster daughter , foster son , formerly also foster daughter , foster son ) refers to a child who is temporarily or permanently taken in and cared for by another adult ( foster mother / foster father ) and lives with the foster family instead of with their parents of origin . In most cases, the foster child leaves the foster family when they reach the age of majority (18 years). When leaving the foster family, the now independent young adult is referred to as a care leaver , as he is released from the state welfare system.

Such care ratio (Kindspflegschaft) is one of Germany for inpatient child and youth services in Austria for youth welfare . Growing up in a foster family is an alternative to bringing up in a children's home or supervised residential groups for children and adolescents. Children taken into custody are usually first placed in the children's home or in a supervised children's residential group until it is clear whether the child will return to the home Parents come. If this is not possible, a foster family is usually sought.

In addition to child benefit for their work, the foster parents receive a monthly care allowance from the youth welfare office, which is staggered according to the age of the foster child. In 2018, this was an average of 915 euros per child. Further grants are paid as required.

There are big differences worldwide in the structures for the accommodation and care of foster children. Outside Europe and America, informal forms of child care play an important role in society. In Germany there must be an acute emergency on the part of the children (risk to the child's well-being ). Most of the foster children in Germany had experiences of loss or danger (death of their parents, neglect, mistreatment, abuse) before being placed outside the home, which could not be countered with outpatient assistance.

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Terminology

In the search for a term that encompasses the great global diversity of child foster care, there is no consensus within ethnology (ethnology). Some refer to or try to differentiate themselves from the concept of adoption , such as Lallemand and Leinaweaver, who use the term child circulation when they want to denote the adoption of a child by someone other than its birth parents. When looking for new terms, the underlying concept plays an important role. Alber prefers the term social parenthood to that of child foster care in order to point out that parenting can be divided into biological, social and legal areas and can therefore be partially or fully transferred to the foster parents.

Of all the Word formations, the embossed Goody called "Kindspflegschaft" has (child fostering) enforced. In their compilation Child Fostering in West Africa , Alber and co-authors describe child care as a social practice that allows children or obliges them to move to another household that does not belong to their parents and to stay there for a longer period of time. The broad version of the term makes it possible to do justice to the diversity of child care forms. It should be noted that in addition to the ethnological and etic terms, the emic terms of the respective societies continue to exist. Many societies have their own terminology to describe local forms of child care or to designate those involved.

Forms of child custody

Internationally, the forms of child care are just as diverse as the ways in which they look at things in practice. Children who are passed on to other households in this sense or who move themselves to other households grow up with their uncles or aunts, grandparents, older siblings or even with unrelated people such as friends of their parents. Leaving children to others is often viewed as a positive act - in contrast to the widespread Euro-American view that the well-being of children is best guaranteed when they grow up with their biological parents or mother.

A child foster care can come about, for example, through the claim to a child of another person or through the entrustment of a child to another person. With regard to parental tasks, child foster care can also mean passing on a parental (partial) task to the foster parents or the sharing of tasks between the biological and foster mother. Furthermore, children who grow up with their biological father but are cared for by the wives of their mother or grandmother can also be referred to as foster children. Such arrangements play an increasing role, especially in times of globalization. If the parents migrate, the children often stay with relatives at first, who look after the children until either the parents come back or the children are fetched.

Germany

A foster child can directly from the guardians are placed in a foster home (typical at day care or willingness care in case of illness of the parent / guardian) or there is a switch by the Youth Welfare Office as part of the educational assistance instead of ( full-time care , complementary care , long-term care, On-call care in the event of acute removal). In the case of referrals through the youth welfare office, the creation of an assistance plan is required by law. All those involved should work on this, both the legal guardians (usually the parents ) and the (future) foster parents or educators who are appointed to provide assistance, including social pedagogues , teachers , doctors , psychologists , official guardians and others , depending on their involvement . Laws (see SGB ​​VIII ) and local implementation regulations require regular (in the event of changes, immediate, otherwise usually at least once a year) review of the framework conditions laid down in the assistance plan. A central quality feature of the placement in a foster family is the participation of the children.

In the case of accommodation by the youth welfare office, according to recent case law (2004), it has a guarantor position , which obliges the foster child to regularly check the circumstances. As a rule, the youth welfare measure and financial support ends when they come of age. A continuation of youth welfare beyond this is only supported by the youth welfare office in very few cases. Only the offers in a few exceptional cases (for example, delays in development) § 41 SGB VIII a help for young adults to.

Guardianship for foster children

A ruling by the Munich District Court together are partnered gay couples entitled since August 5, 2016 as foster parents , the guardianship and exercise together for children and adolescents; Up to this point in time, there was a loophole in the law and only married couples allowed joint guardianship.

statistics

In 2005, 8,725 children in full-time care were placed with unrelated persons in Germany.

Health and pension insurance

Foster children in part-time care are usually insured through their birth parents. Children in long-term care can be insured with the foster parents' statutory health insurance free of charge ( family insurance , Section 10, Paragraph 4, SGB ​​V ). If a foster parent dies, the child is entitled to an orphan's pension ( Section 48 (3) SGB ​​VI ).

Foster children in permanent care are treated the same as biological children in the Riester pension , which means that foster parents can apply for the Riester subsidy for these children. A foster mother who is not entitled to Riester subsidies due to her own work or the like is eligible for subsidies from the foster child during the first three years of the foster child's life (i.e. during the education period of the statutory pension insurance).

In the statutory pension insurance, the foster mother is entitled to the remainder of the child-rearing time, i.e. the full child-rearing period in the case of child care from birth, and the full child-rearing period in the case of later child care minus the child's child-raising period.

liability

In the case of temporary foster care, foster parents are more liable to the foster child than to their own children or long-term foster children. It is a contractually assumed duty of supervision ( § 832 BGB). This risk can be covered, for example, by taking out a correspondingly extended private liability insurance (for example the so-called childminder risk ) or an additional internal liability insurance regarding liability risks between foster parents and foster children (for on-call and long-term care).

research

In Germany there is extensive research on the situation of foster children, for example at the University of Siegen as part of the “Research Group for Foster Children” or at the Foundation University of Hildesheim in the research cluster “Full-time care in support for upbringing”.

See also

literature

  • Daniela Reimer: literature on foster children. University of Siegen, 2007 ( online , extensive list).
  • Erdmute Alber : Changing Social Parenthood - Childhood, Kinship and Belonging in West Africa. Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 2014.
  • Erdmute Alber, Jeannett Martin, Catrien Notermans: Child Fostering in West Africa - New Perspectives on Theory and Practices. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2013.
  • Daniela Reimer: Foster child's voice - working aid for accompanying and advising foster families. PAN e. V. (Ed.), Düsseldorf 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-034023-9 .
  • Klaus Wolf (Ed.): Socio-educational foster child research. Klinkhardt Verlag, Bad Heilbrunn 2015, ISBN 978-3-7815-2047-9 .
  • Monika Nienstedt, Arnim Westermann: Foster children and their development opportunities after early traumatic experiences. 2nd Edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-608-96007-5 (first: 2007).
  • Social pedagogical institute in the SOS Children's Village V. (Ed.): Happy in a strange place? Family-like care under discussion. Votum, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-935984-32-4 .
  • Jürgen Blandow: Foster children and their families - history, situation and perspectives of foster children. Juventa, Weinheim 2004, ISBN 3-7799-1773-4 .

Web links

Wiktionary: foster family  - foster care : foster mother ,  foster father - a foster child : foster daughter ,  foster son - adopted daughter ,  foster son - nursing sister - meaning explanations, word origin, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duden editorial team : Foster son. Foster daughter. Foster son. Foster daughter. Retrieved September 22, 2018
  2. ^ Karlsruhe: Financial benefits with full-time care. Retrieved November 11, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Compare conference program: 8th International Foster Care Research Conference - Siegen 17-18th of September 2015. Foster Care Research Group, University of Siegen, 2015, accessed on September 22, 2018 (English).
  4. ↑ Bowie, Fiona: Cross-cultural Approaches to Adoption. Routledge, London / New York 2004, pp. ??.
  5. ^ Susanne Lallemand: La circulation des enfants en société traditionnelle - Prêt, don, échange. Editions L'Harmattan, Paris 1993., pp. ??.
  6. ↑ Jessaca B. Leinaweaver: The circulation of children - Kinship, Adoption, and Morality in Andean Peru. Duke University Press, Durham 2008, pp. ??.
  7. ↑ Erdmute Alber: Social Parenthood in Transition - Childhood, Kinship and Belonging in West Africa. Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 2014, p. ??.
  8. ↑ Alber et al. a .: Child Fostering in West Africa New Perspectives on Theory and Practices. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2013, p. 5f.
  9. ↑ Alber et al. a .: Child Fostering in West Africa New Perspectives on Theory and Practices. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2013, p. 6.
  10. ^ Esther N. Goody: Parenthood and social reproduction - Fostering and occupational roles in West Africa. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 1982, pp. ??.
  11. ↑ Martin, Jeannett 2013. Experiencing Father's Kin and Mother's Kin: Kinship Norms and Practices from the Perspective of Foster Children in Northern Benin. In E. Alber et al. Child Fostering in West Africa. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer: 111-134.
  12. ^ Verhoef, Heidi 2005. A Child has many Mothers: Views of Child Fostering in north-western Cameroon. In Childhood , 12 (3): 369-390.
  13. ↑ Page, Hillary 1989. childrearing versus childbearing: Coresidence of Mother and Child in sub-Saharan Africa. In R. Lesthaeghe. Reproduction and social Organization in Sub-Sahran Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press. 401-441.
  14. ↑ Daniela Reimer, Klaus Wolf: Participation of children as a quality criterion for care child aid. Without publisher and location, 2016 ( PDF: 324 kB, 14 pages on pflegekinder.ch ( memento from March 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive )).
  15. ↑ Message (dpa): Rights of homosexuals: Court awards guardianship to foster mothers. In: Der Spiegel . August 5, 2016, accessed April 30, 2020.
  16. ↑ Message: Foster children. In: taz.de . November 2, 2006, accessed April 30, 2020.
  17. ^ Klaus Wolf: Research group foster children. Official website, accessed April 30, 2020.
  18. ↑ Official website: Research Network Educational Aids. Hildesheim Foundation University, accessed on April 30, 2020.
This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.