How do child welfare agencies handle religious issues with the children under their care? Can foster families force foster children to attend religious services? What about children in group homes? Seperation of church and state would prevent the state from indoctrinating them. Minors have freedom of religion subject to their parents/legal guardians approval but how does that work when the state takes custody of the children? Does the state have to continue to raise the children in the same religion as (if any) their parents?
My mom’s never had any religious instructions given to her at all in her work for the New York State foster system. Her foster kids usually get to choose whether they’d like to attend church with her or stay home; if she says “we’re all going to church this week and that’s that,” well then, that’s that. She is their legal guardian when they are in her care, and so she gets to decide what they do about church.
Former foster mom here from Louisiana. During the foster parent certification process, we agreed to respect and uphold the religious teachings and preferences of any foster child who joined our family. That included bringing them to their denomination of church if they requested it.
Most of the children who joined our family did not come from a religious background, nor did their parents have any preferences. We brought the children to our church. If they had elected not to go, one of us would’ve stayed at home with them. No biggie.
So… Adoptamom how would you handle a child from an Orthodox Jewish backgroudn, where there might be kosher and sabbath requirements? A Muslim child? A Neo-Pagan child?
Like I said Broomstick - no problem.
My job, as their foster mother, would be to learn as much as I could, as quickly as I could, calling on resources within their religious community to help me and the child transition smoothly whether or not those beliefs are my own .
Biological parents in the state of Louisiana have the right to request their child be placed with a foster family of similar beliefs. If my efforts were not up to their standards I’d expect them to exercise that right.
In our experience, this was a non-issue because of our willingness to respect and observe the religious beliefs of any child placed with us.