ABSTRACT
History of Foster Care: Policy, Practice, and Reformation: Some sort of out-of-home placement for homeless children has existed for thousands of years. Today, these out-of-home placements are broadly called foster care. The need for foster care placements includes child abuse and neglect, most often by parents, wars that cause the death of parents, economic calamities such as depressions, and genocide. In the United States at any given time, there may be roughly 400,000 young people in the foster care system. All young people who enter foster care need adult protection. Laws to protect children started to emerge in the United States in the mid-1850s when it became clear that there were few protections for abused and neglected children. There is a recognition that while foster care might be necessary, many young people who exit foster care leaves it damaged and traumatized. The central issues remain: what can be done to improve foster care and the lives of young people who live in foster care.
