Citation

Marzick AM. Fam. Court Rev. 2007; 45(3): 506-523.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1744-1617.2007.00166.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Children today are often abused while in foster care, undermining the theoretical goal of the modern foster care system: to create a temporary, safe, homelike setting to protect and nurture children who are unable to live with their biological parents due to various reasons such as abuse, neglect, or abandonment. Often this abuse is worse than the type for which they were removed from their parents’ care in the first place. First examining the reasons why this complex problem exists, this Note recommends an internationally based, innovative concept as a partial solution: the foster care ombudsman. This Note explains the concept of an ombudsman and demonstrates how it can be particularly helpful to foster children, highlighting existing child welfare ombudsman offices in California, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, as well as international approaches. It also illustrates how a foster care ombudsman can complement class action litigation of foster care abuse claims.