How foster care placements can harm a child's brain

Video by James Wooldridge, Eric Adler and Neil Nakahodo

Links to all the stories in the Throwaway Kids series:

Part One of Six: ‘We are sending more foster kids to prison than college’

Part Two of Six: As U.S. spends billions on foster care, families are pulled apart and forgotten

Part Three of Six: Frequent moves don’t just harm foster kids’ emotions — they hurt their brains

Part Four of Six: Graduation rate of 35 percent? Many foster children ‘robbed of a good education’

Part Five of Six: Aging out: Thousands of foster youth graduate to the streets every year

Part Six of Six: ‘The state that neglected me as a kid is the
same state that wants to kill me’

"Throwaway Kids" is a special Kansas City Star investigation published in December 2019:
A longtime advocate in Kansas City once told a reporter that foster care was “just a breeding ground for prison.”
That comment stuck with us and eventually led to this project. The yearlong investigation began with prisons and branched out into a more comprehensive look at long-term outcomes for children who age out of the nation’s broken, overwhelmed foster care system. 
More from The Kansas City Star:

[tankgirl]

As an adult who aged out of the Foster system I can tell you personally that 9 out of 10 homes are bad full of trauma and abuse of every form not just from the parents but from the other children that belong to those parents I.e the non foster children. I'm so glad that this video has been made but sadly it's not enough coverage, no one ever wants to talk about it even though EVERYONE knows that it's a serious problem and that all these children are growing up traumatized and unable to ask for help because adults won't listen to them. After about the 5th family I stopped telling child services about what was happening to me and each of these families because child services didn't do anything. There were many times a teacher or another adult outside of the home called the cops and reported the abuse and still nothing got done!!

[BeeBumBuzz]

At 8 years old, I got taken for no reason, the letter came to my parents years later saying the social services had no authority to take me away. I suffered because child services took me for the money...its sad to say...I didn't get adopted till 16 and then at 17 I got kicked out by my foster mom...I'm 19 and still hurting

[mzsammyg.]

My parents died at a young age. My dad died from a heart attack and mom from cancer, I was 9. My whole life changed. I stayed with my Oma (Grandma) but not because of her I had to move back to Australia. Long story cut I was an angry child and family couldn’t deal with my emotions. I don’t blame my relatives I was a devil child. I then went from refuge to refuge and finally I found a home…. 5 yrs later I was set free at 18 yrs old. Life was crazy after that I had many crazy times but I also found a love for music. If not for poetry I think I wouldn’t be here today.

My biggest advise is that ITS NEVER TO LATE TO FIND YOURSELF. It’s never to late to feel you finally found your ground. I’m 38 now and its taking me a long time of dealing with anger, lost, insecurity, fear and all that comes with feeling abandoned. It’s never to late. Show kindness and show the world your energy ❤️ you’re not alone.

Big Hugs xxx

[wii]

I've spent my teenage years in the foster system (thankfully out now) and I've come out worse than I already was. I'm always depressed and anxious and on high-alert and it's horrible. I once asked my social worker for therapy and the school and my foster family told her I was faking being mentally ill to avoid doing school work. I waited for almost a year to get therapy only to then find out after I'd left the system, that I wasn't actually on the waiting list for therapy at all because I was supposedly faking. I never trusted social services from the start and I only trusted them less after that.

[mariastevens]

My mom dropped me in the system at 6 and I spent the 90s in psychiatric placements. All I can say is I'm glad they never put me in foster care. I saw kids go to those families and come back after only a few months so much more screwed up in the head than they were when they left. And the places I was in were really bad.

[RoxieRHeart]

There was a person i knew who was chronically homeless, we had been friends for many years and one day while we were walking our dogs I asked " when was the last time you had a real stable home, not a tent or a rv but like a actual home where you felt safe and grounded that you lived in?" She had to think about it and then she said idk I don't think I ever had that before. I had know she was in foster care and had a troubled relationship with her family, she alway seemed to make really bad decisions even decisions that I thought would be simple or obvious, this video really helps me understand her thought process a bit better. She is a good person, even though she was homeless she was always willing to help me when I needed her to and she wasn't a thief or a untrustworthy person she just was someone who made terrible life choices because she wasn't taught any better, sadly we lost touch after I moved but I think about her every now and again

[Awandering]

I was in 23 foster " homes". The people in these "homes" were rotten. 1 decent one and that didn't work out either. When they couldn't find a "home" to put me in they locked me up in juvenile hall. Thank God "diagnosing" and drugs weren't a very big thing at that time. Except Ritalin which might explain alot. Poor girl having to deal with all the bs of government, foster "homes", AND the utter nonsense of false diagnosis and life ruining drugs. Not to mention missing the good and real life she needs and deserves. Like every other kid should have. The foster system is evil. They are scum. All I ever wanted to do was go home.

[kerieannad]

Yes. This is true. I’m a foster kid that got adopted. I was moved multiple times. I’m adopted, but I still have problems and it effects me. I changed so much. I think that I’m different... and I always think about why I was moved so many times... and I always think it’s my fault..

[DIVD]

I’m now out of foster care but many of my households were horrible to live in, many I experienced both types of abuse, neglect and worst one for me personally was losing my little brother due to the carelessness of my foster parents at the time. However the final household I’m in now and have lived in for 12 years and am now adopted by them I truely feel like I’ve won the lottery because the chances of having amazing parents is extremely low and not every other foster child will have the same experience, it’s the sad reality of foster care 🙁

[Johnnyo]

Complex PTSD that’s what foster care will do to you I lived in 15 different foster homes moved back home several times during that process just to go back to a foster home fight or flight you live in constant fear of survival your emotions are changed either extremely angry or extremely sad not much in the middle like most people your emotions don’t swing very far between the two but when you grow up in foster care your thermostat is broken it doesn’t stay at 72° its wings from below zero to over 100° without much in the middle story of my life

[sheilamacpherson]

in a constant state of fight or flight.

[awonderingoneil]

I was in care for 17 years. I'm now 23 diagonsed with Attachment disorder, Depression, schizophrenia and Alcohol misuse disorder.

My placement was my first and only home, then something changed when I turned 16 and it's been a downward spiral ever since.

[tash]

About time parents face the effects of was in kids home and foster home....really made me feel very unloved as a young person.
As an adult I made many bad choices and suffer mental health.
STOP BREEDING IF YOU CANT BE A LOVING RESPONISIBLE PROTECTIVE

[azulbernal]

I have really come to believe that group homes, in an orphanage style, are much better that the foster care system in the US and Canada. Children that grow up in group homes have more stability. They can grow attached to peers, carers, teachers… their new beds, new smells, tastes, etc… They are not moved time after time, and if they get to go back to their family and then placed back into de system, at least they get to go back to the same place, the same people they are already attached to.

[rehehehehehe__]

I like how ur foster parents tell u to trust them when ur gonna move there's honestly no point of trusting them

[sashasaintjohnson]

What a strong young lady! So sorry that happens.

[gigischuster]

From age 1 to 6 the abuse by parents and then put in Foster Care abused by potential Foster Care parents who want money and use this system to do so with no care for the children they take in. This is how my Complex Post Traumatic Disorder started. It only got worse and even after being adopted. My brother and I were dumb downed, shamed, and treated like embarrassment black sheep that added on to the emotional and psychological abuse and they still act like they aren't part of the reason I have CPTSD. Then I was bulled physically, psychologically and emotionally in school, teachers turned a blind eye after all that I lost faith and trust in all people and became numb to this world and the people in my life for not protecting and being there for me. 39 years late sounds, smells and people who resemble or part of the cause for my Complex Post Traumatic Disorder I have panic attacks, night terrors and CPTSD attacks and its been an up hill battle to get through each week as a Survivor of CPTSD. I'd never wish anyone child to go through what I did. People think something is wrong with you for having PTSD/CPTSD when they refuse to understand humans were the cause all these 39 years. I have fear of triggers going outside of my house cause of it, its destroyed my ability to work and feel safe going anywhere outside of home where lots of people are its not fair to me and other kids who suffer this at early childhood and teen years that could have all been prevented.

Adults are the key in preventing PTSD/CPTSD of a child as they grow up. If you can't ve a fit and good parent get yourself sterilized and don't have kids, no child should suffer because of unfit parents. Not all disabled adults are horrible abusive parents and deserve right to have kids, as it has been proven what is considered 'normal well looking outside of home parents' can be the ones as abusers towards their children.

[nataliekhalilrealtor]

God bless this girl. She’s beautiful and God loves you

[marcellacoblentz]

God bless you, beautiful young lady. You deserved so much more. Prayers for your future.

[brianjanes]

I am 35 and still struggling I been thru 12 foster homes and 2 opranges homes .