Reasons for Foster Care

Children are placed in foster care for many reasons. Parents may have a chronic or acute physical or mental illness that prevents them from providing adequate care. In other cases, parents struggling with drug or alcohol addictions simply can’t provide a safe and nurturing home. When there’s abuse and/or neglect, the Department of Human Services becomes involved. Teenagers sometimes have emotional and behavioral problems of their own. Persons in Need of Supervision, or PINS, and Juvenile Delinquents, or JDs, may be placed by the court into foster care as a result of behavior. Persons in Need of Supervision can be chronically truant from school, home, or out of the control of their parents. Juvenile Delinquents have been convicted of a crime through the juvenile justice system. These young people may be ordered into foster care in hopes of rehabilitation. Other professional support services are available as well.