Would the Government ever put a teenager in a foster home with no extra bedroom?

I'm english so I can only share my experience of the uk system.

Foster carerrs come in 3 flavours.

1. Those who are related to the young person and might be used either in an emergency or long term. This would probably be an aunt, uncle grandparent etc, but they could also be the parent of one of the child's friends.

In an emergency (ie when a young person needs somewhere to be at midnight after being kicked out of home) then social services will put up with things that they normally wouldn't like sharing rooms or sleeping on couches. They would be more lenient about someone sharing a room with a relative in the long term, but they wouldn't accept there being no bed for them in the long term.

The foster carer could lie and they might get away with it that night but probably not for long. Social services would probably visit the child again within a couple of days and so would have a chance to catch them out.

2. Foster carers found and approved by social services.

These people will be checked quite thoroughly as there is no rush to approve them. They would not be allowed to take on a young person if they didn't have a room for them. They might be allowed to have a foster child share a room if it all looked above board. It would be unlikely that they'd let a boy share a room with a girl, especially if there was any sort of age difference or they were both teenage. They might allow it if both children were very young but i suspect they'd still say no.

There would be little chance of a family getting away with a lie as their home would be visited before the child was placed there.....but if they claimed one bedroom was for the child but then told them to sleep somewhere else they might get away with the deception for a while.

3. private foster carers.

Some agencies recruit foster carers then charge social services for the placement Social services has such difficulty finding placements that they do have to resort to using these private agencies, expecially if a child has significant behavioural problems.

The agency will check out the carers quite thoroughly and social services will check out the agency and possibly also visit the prospective foster family, but there would be room for corruption in this system and it would be possible for a dodgy agency and a foster family to actively mislead social services and claim a placement was better than it was.

A basement might or might not count as a spare room. It would all depend on how nicely it was set up. It would probably need some natural light for social services to accept it.

As a basic rule, any room that you'd complain about if you were allocated it by a hotel would probably not be accepted by social services if the foster carer was being vetted, but a family member or family friend who offered to take in a child in an emergency would have a little more good will from social services in the uk in the short term.

In all three situations though, it is very likely that social services will carry on seeing the child and so would have plenty of chances to spot any deceptions.

Craig

No. Foster children must have their own space. There's no possibility of lying because they have to go through extensive checks and vetting procedures. Their house would be inspected and it is a social worker's duty to continue working with that child throughout their time in care, so if they were made to share a room after the carers assured social services they had separate space, it would soon come to light.

Every child has to have their own room, unless it's same-sex siblings being fostered.

I was occasionally given to foster parents whose rooms were all occupied, and I would have to sleep on the couch. But this was a temporary measure while I was in the process of being transferred to another home.

The authorities would not allow someone to foster unless they had the appropriate space -- that is to say, a spare room, with a bed, wardrobe, etc. A basement would be fine if the space had been fully converted to living quarters (just like a loft conversion).

Of course, this is all from my own experience in the British foster care system. It might be different elsewhere.

ETA: There are rules in place to stop children from sharing a room with any child other than a same-sex sibling, and even then only up to a certain age. It just wouldn't happen in a standard, non-emergency fostering arrangement.

In emergency situations, they can place someone on a temporary basis if they have a (known) family with an open door policy (basically meaning they turn no one away). The kid won't be there but maybe a night or two, but so long as they have their own bed or couch, it's doable.

And yes, CPS is supposed to thoroughly inspect the house before placing children there.

When I was in foster care, I lived in the family's basement. Then again all the case workers I met sucked royally at their jobs...

Then again all the case workers I met sucked royally at their jobs...

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Oh, man. They all do. You wouldn't believe some of the places they stuck me. I even once spent 28 hours sitting alone in a social worker's office while they 'dealt' with my case (for the 100th time). Didn't think to put me in an emergency placement that day.

What system are you looking at - US, UK?

JustTheWriteType said:

Thanks for the replies!

Sorry about all the questions, but what I'm really saying is, would there be ANY way it is possible for a teenager to stay permanently in a foster home without an extra room?

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Not in the US.

Unless, I suppose, there was an adult sibling or elderly parent who temporarily vacated his or her room during the home-study process, so that the fosterers could convince the caseworkers that that room was the foster child's room--and then, after the placement was confirmed, the room's real owner returned and displaced the foster child.

That might work for a bit, anyway. "Oh, you thought this was your room? Sorry, it's my mother-in-law's--she's coming back tomorrow and you'll have to move to the cot in the basement."

JustTheWriteType said:

How bout if they put the MC (whose male) in the same room with the foster parents' daughter? But separate beds? Would the government allow that?
Thanks!

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I know of foster kids, in foster homes, sharing bedroom space. I dealt with a foster kid (while on training) who shared a bedroom with another foster kid.

So yeah it is possible. This is in a foster home, though. Do you refer to a foster child being adopted by a couple? Or do they consider the child to still be a 'foster' child?

As for the second question - NO! In fact, there are laws where not even *natural* siblings of opposite sex can share a bedroom after a certain age.

Rabe...

JustTheWriteType said:

So my MC is put into a foster home, I need confirmation that when a family is applying to become foster parents, during the application process would the government deny them access if they did not have an extra room to put the child?

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New Jersey's child protection system has very specific requirements, including approval of a foster home for a specific number of children, depending on available space. Basement accommodations are not acceptable. During the approval process, state workers actually come out to the home to do an inspection.

HTH,

RAMHALite

I believe in the US they'll double you up. As in have two foster kids splitting a room or something, but I don't think it'll ever be more then that.

JustTheWriteType said:

US system.

Now what if this teenager was a fugitive another country's government was after, and the US government has great importance of this teenager, so putting him in this home was the safest place?

Haha, I have to make sure this kid stays there, with no basic foster care requirements.

But thanks for all the replies !

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In this case he wouldn't be in foster care at all. It's the wrong gov't agency. The State Department (I think) would handle this, NOT CPS. They'd have him under guard in protective custody.

JustTheWriteType said:

Thanks for the replies!

Sorry about all the questions, but what I'm really saying is, would there be ANY way it is possible for a teenager to stay permanently in a foster home without an extra room?

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No. Not unless it's a kinship placement - a family member, a blood relative, taking on the role of foster parent, and even in that case, a couch in the living room isn't usually good enough to qualify as a placement.

Cyia said:

In this case he wouldn't be in foster care at all. It's the wrong gov't agency. The State Department (I think) would handle this, NOT CPS. They'd have him under guard in protective custody.

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Right. It strikes me that, if the government wants to keep your kid safe and this is the safest place, then you're not really restricted to rules of foster care.

JustTheWriteType said:

US system.

Now what if this teenager was a fugitive another country's government was after, and the US government has great importance of this teenager, so putting him in this home was the safest place?

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Does the US have extradition treaties with this other country?

If so, then most likely the child wouldn't be in in 'foster care' but rather 'detention'.

(and how is a child a fugitive anyway?)

Rabe...

JustTheWriteType said:

US system.

Now what if this teenager was a fugitive another country's government was after, and the US government has great importance of this teenager, so putting him in this home was the safest place?!

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Then he wouldn't be going through the foster care system at all, so their requirements would be irrelevant.

BUT--I find it hard to imagine a situation in which "the safest place" for a fugitive would be in a random family's home, though. Or a situation in which some government agent would, even if "the safest place" for a fugitive was in some random family's home, choose a family whose home wouldn't meet basic child-protection agency standards.

Because when you work for the government, you generally have to go by the book. Unless some hands-on agent decides on the spur of the moment to place this teenage fugitive with a trusted friend who's an experienced foster parent but doesn't currently have a spare room, I don't see it as at all likely.

Does the crime he committed (the one that made him a fugitive) in the country of his citizenship also make him a criminal in the U.S.? That is, is the crime like murder or just political like staging a protest? If he’s not a criminal according to U.S. law, then it sounds like he’s a refugee and would be seeking asylum. This, however, is a grey area.

I recently read about some people who are in visa limbo now because they helped U.S. troops (Sorry, can’t remember where. Afghanistan? Somewhere in Africa?), which made them criminals in their own country. They were taken to the U.S., but are having problems getting visas because they can’t get police clearance from their own country. That’s “not supposed to happen,” though.

If he’s so important, he could be granted asylum and probably not detained in a camp or some places. Then again, an internment camp might be the safest place. You know, a plush, white collar internment camp. (Do those exist?) If you really need to know the details, you might talk to an immigration lawyer who specializes in refugee issues. Why, however, would he need to be hidden once safely inside the U.S.? The other government has infiltrated? Is this a counterintelligence issue?

Just some thoughts.

Also, is this modern times, Soviet era, WWII or when? Laws change, of course. It might also help if you mentioned what country he’s from.

Here’s more info: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/asylum/asylum.htm
This might help, too: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/

Rabe,
>>and how is a child a fugitive anyway?
See, I was thinking more "minor" aged 14-18. But, sadly, there are child soldiers and child slaves in some countries. Again, though, they'd be not so much fugatives as refugees.

If the basement was converted into a bedroom, then yes, it could work, but the social worker would have to come out and inspect the space.

That being said... It sounds like a State Dep. Issue, not foster care.