Entering into a foster care system can be very difficult for a family to continue to be a family under the circumstances. The parent may be required to meet criteria such as: attending parent classes, Alcoholic Anonymous classes, monthly drug test, and or monthly-supervised visitation depending on the circumstances that may have resulted the placement of the children into the foster care system (National Foster Parent Association, 2007). The children are placed to live with a stranger, separated from the only parents they have known. Sometimes this is not enough for the sake of the unit as a family, and visitation once a month can only create a sense of abandonment for the children and the parents. For the children, negative feelings of abandonment from the parents can create depression, behavior issues, low grades in school, stealing, abusing others, negative friendships, and drug/alcohol use. For the parents, negative feelings of abandonment from the foster care system can create depression, giving up, drug use, alcohol use, losing jobs/homes, losing state funded benefits, going to jail/prison, and failing drug tests (Foster Mothering in America, 2002). .
The foster care system is imperfect because it must deal with a myriad of complex social problems. In 2009, 276,000 children and youth exited foster care at an average age of 9 years after an average stay of 22 months. Once exiting out of foster care families do not have the support to continue to use their learned skills to create a sense of empowerment (Atwood, 2011). Considering the government has not created programs that will continue providing families with support and the empowerment to achieve positive outcomes for a much better future. Programs such as: support groups, parenting classes, youth classes, athletic programs to promote living healthy, tutoring classes, date night for parents, marriage sessions, family cookouts, all can promote independence and achieving the best outcomes for the family as a unit.