THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM AND THE CASE OF MARY ELLEN

Recently I attended a workshop designed to train participants in the legal responsibilities and protocols of reporting child abuse and neglect. This workshop was offered through Humboldt State University, Office of Extended Education, taught on November 6, 2010, and facilitated by Cara Barnes and Pam Owens. Ms. Owens and Ms. Barns are employees of the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, Social Services Branch, Child Welfare Services Division.

This course also included a discussion about the foster care system that put the system into a new light for me. According to an article written by Doug Quirnbach, distributed in this course by the facilitators, I learned that the case of Mary Ellen is based, in part, on myth. As many readers may know, the case of Mary Ellen involves a child who was allegedly abused by her mother and was the catalyst for the founding of the first child protection service agency, the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Quirnbach, n.d.). Many readers may not know however, that Mary Ellen was, in fact, abused by her foster mother, Mary Connolly (Quirnbach, n.d.). I found Quirnbach’s use of the case of Mary Ellen to be a poignant example of how child abuse has been, and continues to be, a problem in the foster care system.

In addition to this article, a poignant documentary was shown of interviews of adults who had spent the majority of their childhood years in the foster care system. The prior foster care youth spoke of the negative impact that living with a foster family for the duration of their childhood had made on their lives. I also learned from this training that 25% of former foster youth are homeless and nearly half are unemployed.

As a result of what I have learned from this training about the foster care system, I have become more critical of it and am now motivated to advocate for keeping families intact whenever possible and to advocate for making positive change within the foster care system.

REFERENCES

Barnes, P. & Owens, C. (2009, November). Child Abuse and Neglect: Mandated
Reporter Training. Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services,
Social Services Branch, Child Welfare Services Division.

Quinbach, D. (n.d.). How child protective services began. Available at
http://www.archive.org/web/20020615204038/http://www.cpswatch.com/reports/
maryellen.htm