Delara Tehranchi '23

Archer School For Girls

Supporting A Child By Retaining A Parent: A Thriving Foster System

The objective is to examine the correlation between foster parents' perception of the system and their retention rate in private agencies and the County system. A survey of 15 questions was emailed to foster parents through Guardians of Love (private) agency and County Agency. Responses were collected for 2 months with no incentives or rewards. Total of 133 responses were collected and stored on google form and later analyzed for interpretation using google spreadsheet. Based on the analysis, private agencies have a higher retention rate than County agencies. Overall, 75% drop-out rate after first year of fostering with a direct correlation with lack of support. In order to prevent future trauma of foster children, cultivating a positive perception of the foster system through sufficient support for foster parents is essential for increasing parent’s retention rate.