The Scorpion in Foster Care

“Youth exiting the foster care system face one of the highest rates of homelessness, with more than half of street youth flowing from the foster care system.”

This isn’t news, I’ve talked about this before. I’ve pointed out that the United States foster care system is the source of around 40% of the youth we see on the streets, according to the studies I’ve looked at. Of course, what’s different in this quote is the percentage. Instead of 40%, this quote claims that more than half of street youth originate in the foster care system. Why the difference? Maybe it's because I’m talking about a different country.

This quote is from a Canadian paper discussing homeless issues in Vancouver, British Columbia. I haven’t read the documentation to see if the percentage is accurate, so I can’t confirm that an even greater number of foster care youth end up homeless in Canada. It really doesn’t matter, though. If the figure is at all accurate, then the conclusion has to be that there are serious problems with foster care in both nations.

I could list the visible problems with foster care in either nation, but I’m more of a “disease” kind of guy. Okay, that sounds creepy, but what I’m trying to say is that we far too often focus on symptoms, and then we are left scratching our heads wondering why nothing changes. The insufficient reimbursement, the poor screening (a recent study in California found that only 47% of caregivers were properly assessed), the lack of adequate training, support, and oversight – these are all symptoms, and I fear that even if we were to wave a magic wand and fix all of these symptoms (though I don’t advise holding your breath on that one), we’d simply discover new symptoms and still have foster care failing for a large percentage of young people.

So, what’s the disease? I don’t know, but I have a theory. It came to me when I was thinking about that old fable of the scorpion and the turtle. In case you haven’t heard it, the story goes that a scorpion asked a turtle if he could ride on the turtle's back to get across a pond. The turtle said; “No. You’re a scorpion. You’ll sting me and I’ll die.” The scorpion replied; “If I do that, I’ll drown, so you don’t have to worry that I’ll sting you.” That made sense to the turtle, so he let the scorpion onto his back and proceeded to cross the pond.

About halfway across, the scorpion stung the turtle. Shocked, and with his dying breath, the turtle asked; “Why would you do such a thing? Now we’re both going to die!” The scorpion’s last words as he sank into the water were; “I couldn’t help it … I’m a scorpion.”

I’m not calling the foster care system a scorpion. I’m just pointing out that things can only be their nature. The nature of the foster care system – the entire concept upon which the system is based – is temporary care for young people. By its nature, foster care is instability and inconsistency – the two things that are absolutely guaranteed to work against a young person’s healthy development.

Explore any facet of child welfare systems and you will quickly learn that the over-riding mandate is safety. I am not advocating against safety, I am only saying that if safety results in a lack of stability and consistency, we really aren’t making a young person safe – we are simply delaying the risks.