In the United States, if a catastrophic event happens, and a kid’s parents are missing, and cannot be found alive nor dead, then what happens to him or her.
I was exploring a plot idea, but need realistic insight.
Taken in by friends or family, or orphanage, or adopted?
I don’t know either but those are my guesses.
Child Protective Services. If a very close relative cannot be found, then they are placed in foster care. Even relatives would have to go through the foster care to adoption process if they want to become legal guardians of the children. Even more so would friends of the family. It’s a long-drawn-out legal process with a lot of hoops. it is not a casual affair.
They don’t have orphanages, per se, in the US.
Case would be handled by Child Protective Services, who would do the research to find the kids a willing relative or foster family.
Dang, ninja’d
A number of my family have such things specified in their wills. If they were to die (or disappear, I guess), then some other family member is named as guardian to their minor children. I’m guessing that is a legal basis to minimize the dealings with a child protective services, or similar organizations.
Some friends of ours, shortly after they had their daughter, asked if my wife and I (we’re also their daughter’s godparents) if we would be willing to serve in that role, in the event that both of them died before their daughter became an adult. Their reasoning for choosing us was that they felt that we were more likely to raise their daughter in the manner that they would like, than either of their families would.
Said situation has never come up, and she turned 18 a few months ago, so it’s now unlikely to ever be an issue, but we knew that we were named in the paperwork that their lawyer had, just in case.
I’m not sure if it would have come into play if the parents were missing, but not proven to be deceased.
I thought that’s (partly) what godparents were for - to take over the parental role in such cases?
Godparents are in charge of the child’s spiritual upbringing, but are not necessarily expected to take the child in if the parents go missing. That might be the understanding between a particular set of parents and godparents, but it’s not the general expectation.
So yeah, if no family steps up the kids probably go into foster care and if they aren’t adopted, they just get cut loose at eighteen to fend for themselves. Depending on the circumstances in their area multiple siblings might not even be fostered together and could lose touch with each other as well.
Do you not have residential children’s homes for children in care? Blimey. That’s a pretty scary gap in provision.
My brother and I agreed to be guardians if necessary of each other’s kids. Then when our two older kids were 20 and 18 and the youngest was 14, the two older ones were named guardian for the youngest.
Depending on the state you’re in, the agency might be called Child and Family Services, or Child Protective Services, or something similar. But they don’t just magically show up. Someone has to call them. If the kid’s parents just went out one day and never came back, the child might simply be on their own for a very long time before someone noticed. If the child is at school and nobody comes to pick up the child, the school would start making phone calls to everyone in their emergency contact list. But if the child is old enough to attend a school where they don’t require a guardian to pick up and drop off (maybe 7th grade or higher), the child could just walk home and find an empty house. Then it’s up to the child if they start calling friends and relatives saying “Help I’m home alone!” or if they just make a PB&J for dinner and go to bed. Depending on the child, this could go on for weeks or months. Eventually, unpaid bills would lead to utilities being shut off and groceries would run out.
In Oregon, there is an entire class of people who are required by law to report to the state any suspicions of child abuse or neglect. They are called mandatory reporters. This includes teachers, doctors, social workers, and foster parents. But if the child doesn’t say anything, it could be a long time before one of the teachers began to suspect neglect. Eventually the agency would show up at the child’s house, or at school, and then they’d place the child in either a foster home or a group home that very night. They would make every effort to contact the parents. When that failed, they’d start calling relatives to find out if the child had a relative who could take them. In Oregon, they’d temporarily place the child at the relative’s house while the relative becomes certified as a foster parent and then make the placement official. After a long process of the parents being missing and presumed dead for several years, the relative might petition to have the parental rights terminated and then the relative could adopt them legally. But that might not be worth the effort because it takes so much time that the child might turn 18 before it’s finished.
OTOH, if there’s a car crash with parents and child in the car, both parents die at the scene, either the EMTs or the hospital would call CFS who would send a social worker within an hour or two and the child could be in a foster home just a couple hours after that.
In my state, any interested party may petition for custody of a child. It is possible to seek emergency custody without notice to the natural parents in certain situations. If emergency custody is granted, the order must be served on the parents or whoever has possession of the child, and there will be another hearing where they’ll have an opportunity to be heard. If the parents cannot be found, it is possible to serve them by publication in a newspaper.
CPS is the failsafe entity. If no one suitable comes forward or can be found, the child will go into foster care as described above. If that happens, and a relative is later found, it is possible to get the child’s case transferred from the juvenile system to the regular family court and streamline the process to some extent. Possible outcomes include guardianship, some form of custody, or adoption.
Do you mean what Americans think of as “orphanages”? That system has largely been replaced by the foster system, where children are placed with individual families.
The two historic residential homes in this area do offer short-term residential services - usually their clients are runaway adolescents in the process of being reunited with their families.
As already stated, we put our kids’ disposition in our trust should something happen to the both of us. However, I have pondered what would happen if something happened, and the kids could not locate the documentation describing what was to happen to them. What if the house burned-down with us in it and they were at school, and the trust documentation burned as well. What if they were too young to even know about the trust. What then? I don’t think there is a national database of wills and trusts that can be scanned.
While going thru the process of detailing what should happen to your kids if something were to happen to the parents is wise, what would happen if said documentation were not found?
Basically, the American “system” is a freakish patchwork of whatever can get funded locally. There’s no overarcing system to ensure child welfare and no universal standards for vetting caretakers and foster parents, degree of oversight required or standard of care for kids in foster care. It’s kind of terrifying and as a grandparent I’m ready if necessary to grab my grandkids up and raise them rather than have them spend even a minute in the foster care system, which in Oregon pretty much sucks.
I suppose so, but over here residential children’s care is for kids whose parents or carers are neglectful, inadequate or abusive, or are otherwise at risk, or who are awaiting suitable foster placement, or whose foster placement has broken down. Orphans are probably rather rare.
There’s a reasonably robust fostering system, and it’s obviously the preferred option, but there are a lot of children who are “looked after” and social workers don’t let kids stay in environments where they are clearly and obviously at risk. As lots of runaway adolescents would be; they often abscond for good reasons.
So, what happens in the US if - say - a teacher is pretty sure that a kid is being abused at home? Is there a joined up process for referral to social workers and do they have the power to take the kid into a group home, or emergency foster care, or whatever? Presumably it varies massively by state?
As noted upthread, teachers, along with physicians and several other groups, are required to report suspected abuse of a child. The charge is investigated by the state. If the situation is an emergency, police can remove the child and turn him over to the children’s protection agency.
In my state, the state agency will first try to place the child with a relative - grandparent, aunt/uncle, even extended relatives. If that isn’t feasible, the state has a network of families that have agreed to and been cleared to act as emergency, short-term foster homes until a more permanent arrangement is worked out.
My wife taught at a school that had a full-time social worker on staff who had two duties: counsel students who needed someone to talk to, and coordinate with various public and private agencies to help mesh school services with the agency’s.
In the US it’s either reported to the police or directly to Child Protective Services. The abuse allegation typically results in one or more home visits by CPS. If the charges are found to be true, the kid/s is removed. If it’s the middle of the night, the kid/s end up with foster parents who accept emergency placements, or possibly a group home. I’m not positive I’m correct, but I get the feeling that group home placements are a lot more common for older children and teenagers.
After as few days as possible, the child is moved to either a relative who is qualified to be a foster parent, or a more permanent non-emergency foster care placement. Group homes are not seen as a good long-term solution (for children, that is. for adults with IDD or substance abuse issues it’s not seen as negatively), though there are definitely kids in them for a long while.
What happens to kids of missing parents?
Soylent Green
That sort of documentation as far as who the parents want to take the kids is really just a suggestion. A court will determine who should have custody in the best interest of the child at the time when it becomes necessary to do so. It might be the person named in a will, or it might be someone else.
And yes, we do have “orphanages”, for loose definitions of the term. I regularly work with one of them, which is affiliated with and supported by a particular church denomination. Most of the children there are surrendered by their parents for a variety of reasons. Some of them get adopted, others age out of the program but are eligible to receive help with college and housing for a limited time after becoming adults.